Night Weaning, the Gentle Way. Day 0

My lovely second child is now 14 months old.  He is a happy, and a joy to be around.  He loves boob.  He likes to breastfeed a LOT.  I have always feed on demand (and demand is definitely the right word!) day and night.
However, I have come to the decision that I am ready to attempt to night wean him.  My reasons are:

1. He currently feeds a minimum of 5 times during the night, sometimes more than 10 times
2. I am really really tired
3. I am starting to resent the night feeds, and I don't want a 'negative' breastfeeding relationship
4. I struggle to maintain my weight.  I get skinny.  I find it hard to eat enough to sustain this many feeds.
5. On the nights he does decide to feed a little less, I end up with very painful plugged ducts

I have decided to go with the Jay Gordon night-weaning method (full outline here).  It is specially designed for older babies (over 1 year), who co-sleep.  Tick and Tick.

Basically you pick a 7 hour period during the night that you want to be feed-free.  I am actually just going to make this 6 hour, to begin with, as I think that will work best for us.  I am going to have 11pm - 5am as our set time with no feeding.

Stage One - The First Three Nights:
"At any time before 11 p.m. (including 10:58) nurse to sleep, cuddle and nurse when he wakes up and nurse him back to sleep, but stop offering nursing to sleep as the solution to waking after 11 p.m.. Instead…..

When your baby awakens at midnight or any other time after 11 p.m., hug him, nurse him for a short time but make sure he does not fall asleep on the breast and put him down awake. Rub and pat and cuddle a little until he falls asleep but don’t put him back on the breast (or give him a bottle if that’s what you’ve been doing). He must fall asleep with your comfort beside him, but not having to nurse to feel comforted enough to drift off.

Now, he will tell you that he is angry and intensely dislikes this new routine. I believe him. He will also try to tell you that he’s scared. I believe he’s angry, but a baby who’s had hundreds of nights in a row of cuddling is not scared of falling asleep with your hand on his back and your voice in his ear. Angry, yes. Scared, no, not really.

During these first three nights, repeat this pattern only after he has slept. He might sleep for fifteen minutes or he might sleep for four hours, but he has to go to sleep and reawaken to get cuddled and fed again."

So, as simple as that!  Yeah right.  I am very very nervous about attempting this.  I really don't like my baby to be upset.  It breaks my heart to hear him cry, so I will do what I can to avoid that.  I know that for these few nights I will get even more tired.  I worry that it won't work.  I worry that I am depriving him of his favourite thing in the world.  That he will be hungry.

However, despite these fears, I am going to push ahead.  I am ready for change.

Wish me luck and I will let you know how we go tomorrow.