How do I get her to sleep in her own room and bed?
And any tips on how to stop nighttime nursing?
I have 2 kids I co-slept and night nursed. This is what I did:
with my 2nd child (DD) she was in our bed until age 1. At age 1, I put her on a twin mattress on the floor besides her brother's twin bed. I shoved her mattress under during the day. He was 5 at the time.
I would nurse her to sleep there. I wanted her to learn to sleep in her own bed, in her own room.
When I decided to night wean my son, I did it cold turkey. He was 3 years, 3 months at the time. I was waiting for him to self-night wean, but I couldn't wait any more. I don't remember horrible mastitis. I held him as he cried and cried and rocked him to sleep. That lasted for about 2? nights. I cuddled him to bed to sleep after that. I stayed till he conked out.
With my daughter I don't remember how I did it. I think I attempted to nightwean her when she was a toddler, but I couldn't handle my fatigue (and the easy cave in of nursing to sleep) so I gave in and kept going for another year (despite how much I wanted to nightwean). Not saying that was the best thing, I was just too tired to deal with it. She was not an all-night nurser, so that wasn't so bad.
I would nurse her to sleep. Then leave her around 10? and she'd walk to our bedroom around 5am and I'd gently walk her back (never arguing or getting upset with her) and just cuddle back to sleep.
The firm rule is "not in mom/dad's bed" and snuggling allowed in their bed, so I felt that was a good compromise.
If you completely night wean now, it will be so hard:
1) I'm not a fan of tapping them on the head and walking away. I'd continue to rock, cuddle, comfort until they conk out from crying. There are less stress hormones going through their body (cortisol) that way. High cortisol affects brain development. You could probably look it up. Human touch goes a long way towards helping people feel better. Eventually you work towards snuggling together, reading books (making it a positive experience) and then leaving. Maybe you can let her know you'll be leaving after 3 books or whatever. I never did that, I just stayed.
2) Mastitis. That will be your biggest challenge. Because I think it is possible to live through it if you are determined enough. I can't remember it's been 10 years. So you might have some sort of compromise where you nurse her at 5am to relieve yourself. And then she learns OK, morning nursing is OK. When the sun comes up or something.
Hope that helps.