Attempting to break the feed to sleep association

[Aimee4311]

My LO is 11 months old, and has always nursed to sleep. She normally falls asleep on the second side, occasionally the first. We bedshare, and she goes down around 8 pm. I go to bed at about 11-11:30. She normally wakes up once, sometimes twice during that time period needing to be nursed back down. With the boob, she's very easy to settle back down.

Recently her sleep quality has decreased and she's a bit restless during the night unless she has a boob in her mouth. I prefer sleeping on my back, so this isn't ideal. I always unlatch her during the night to get more comfortable, but she tends to wake more often when I do. A Normal night recently is her waking in search of or needing the boob 5-6 times per night.

For a while she had cut it down to only twice or three times, but she picked it back up again.

I'm thinking that stopping feeding to sleep initially may help her transition between cycles better in the long run for longer stretches of sleep for both of us.

Tonight I unlatched her from my second side as she was getting sleepy, and she became instantly hysterical. She got up, screaming, started coughing, and nearly made herself sick. I tried 3 times to unlatch her when she was sleepy but awake, each time ended the same. I finally just nursed her to sleep.

Any advice? I'm sure it will get better with time, all things do with babies, but has anyone else gone through this? I'm going to work on the nursing session that gets her to sleep for the night before working on the middle of the night ones (if needed).

Any advice or well-wishes would be much appreciated!

 

[Skittleblue]

My daughter takes a pacifier ever since I went back to work, so I've started slipping that in when she wakes up in the middle of the night. I still give her the boob at least once in to the middle of the night, but if she wakes up more than a couple of times then I start using the pacifier or just a cuddle with her.

 

[NoodleSnack]

If you find a solution, please let me know, my body hurts from bending around him to keep the nipple in, and I would really like to have a longer stretch of sleep. I always thought that we would co-sleep until he's at least two but at this rate, I might have to try different rooms to see if it improve things, if you manage to get her off the boob while co-sleeping, I want to do it too.

 

[daneuse27]

I fed my daughter to sleep for a long time too. It was a slow process of gradual change that got her to where she is now: going down fully awake. A pacifier helped. For a while, I would feed her until she was almost asleep, and then substitute my boob for a pacifier and she wouldn't know the difference, and then doze off in my arms.

From that step, I moved on to stopping to feed her while she was still awake, and then get her to fall asleep in my arms using only the pacifier (I used dark, and white noise as well)

From that step, it was start putting her into the crib fully awake with the pacifier.

Each step took some getting used to, 1-3 nights usually.
Unless you want to do any sleep training, I think gradual steps to self-settling is the way to go Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[keese22]

Have you read the no cry sleep solution? There is a bit in there about no longer feeding to sleep. It's called the 'pantleys pull off method' (I think!) that might be worth a read.
With my lo I stopped feeding him to sleep by initially laying with him. There was some crying but I was comfortable with that as I was laid with him and rubbing his back trying to comfort him. I then moved to sitting further and further away from him and if any point he got too distressed I'd go back a step. It's taken about 6 weeks but he now goes to sleep on his own for naps and bedtime without feeing. 50% of the time I'd say I can put him in his bed and he settles himself and the other 50% I sit in his room. I haven't cracked yhe night feeds 100% but I will get there!

 

[Aimee4311]

Thanks y'all! She doesn't take a pacifier.

I'll look into the pull off method. I know this will take time, and I'm not willing to do cc/CIO. We'll see how tonight goes!