Ilana is breastfed and she always has boob before bed. It relaxes her and unwinds her and we both enjoy it. She often falls asleep on the boob and when the side was off her cot in a sidecar arrangement she would often roll off after a feed and go to sleep, or even play for ages rolling about and then drop off to sleep. She can go to sleep by herself but she doesn't always.
Since she started crawling she started heading straight off the bed and despite having fallen off onto pillows a few times she's not learned fear and so we put the side back on her cot (I cried and cried).
Now she very very rarely drops off on her own. It's like an instinctive reaction for her when she wakes to pull herself to standing even while she's half asleep, and then of course she fully wakes. Having the side on the cot seems to have affected her dropping off ability in a big way.
As a working mum (full time teacher) I have always just fed her back to sleep when she wakes as it's easiest and gives us both most sleep most of the time.
Anyway, I have to do some evenings at work (parents evenings, meeting etc) and so husband has to try to put her to bed sometimes. I also have my friend's wedding 1 1/5 hours away in a few weeks. La has never taken a bottle very well and will drink EBM from a beaker but not huge amounts, nothing like what she would from the boob before bed. It also doesn't relax her like the boob does. As a result, husband has a horrible time trying to get her to go to sleep. He hates having to do it and I get stressed worrying about it and it's all horrible.
This evening as it's now the holidays I decided to try to get her to go to sleep not on the boob. She had lots of milk, rolled over, snuggled into me and dropped off! Amazing. But after a few minutes when I moved she stirred, rolled onto her back and went to sleep again. Great. Except when I lifted her into bed she woke up again.
She wasn't upset so I just left her in her cot. She'd keep standing up, kissing me (I tried to avoid smiling etc at her or overstimulating her) and then sitting down, and doing it again. After about half an hour she was obviously tired... she started to whinge a bit so I lay her down each time with a kiss. She was fine for while, then started to cry a little but stopped when she stood up. Then she'd lay down and yawn, then cry, again and again. I thought she'd go off... but then she bumped her head. I held her and calmed her down and lay her back down, but she got more and more worked up and in the end was crying hysterically. Ilana never cries much and it tore me apart to hear it, I just felt awful.
In the end I got her out and gave her boob, and then felt awful for having put her through all that crying for nothing.
I'm not trying to force her into doing something because I want to go out on the lash or anything (I've not had an evening out since she was born and haven't felt like I've missed much) but I really do want to not feel so stressed when I have to work late and this wedding is stressing me out big time.
I don't know what to do... I have always thought I'd just carry on and she'd grow out of it but I just don't know, and I don't know what to do.
Since she started crawling she started heading straight off the bed and despite having fallen off onto pillows a few times she's not learned fear and so we put the side back on her cot (I cried and cried).
Now she very very rarely drops off on her own. It's like an instinctive reaction for her when she wakes to pull herself to standing even while she's half asleep, and then of course she fully wakes. Having the side on the cot seems to have affected her dropping off ability in a big way.
As a working mum (full time teacher) I have always just fed her back to sleep when she wakes as it's easiest and gives us both most sleep most of the time.
Anyway, I have to do some evenings at work (parents evenings, meeting etc) and so husband has to try to put her to bed sometimes. I also have my friend's wedding 1 1/5 hours away in a few weeks. La has never taken a bottle very well and will drink EBM from a beaker but not huge amounts, nothing like what she would from the boob before bed. It also doesn't relax her like the boob does. As a result, husband has a horrible time trying to get her to go to sleep. He hates having to do it and I get stressed worrying about it and it's all horrible.
This evening as it's now the holidays I decided to try to get her to go to sleep not on the boob. She had lots of milk, rolled over, snuggled into me and dropped off! Amazing. But after a few minutes when I moved she stirred, rolled onto her back and went to sleep again. Great. Except when I lifted her into bed she woke up again.
She wasn't upset so I just left her in her cot. She'd keep standing up, kissing me (I tried to avoid smiling etc at her or overstimulating her) and then sitting down, and doing it again. After about half an hour she was obviously tired... she started to whinge a bit so I lay her down each time with a kiss. She was fine for while, then started to cry a little but stopped when she stood up. Then she'd lay down and yawn, then cry, again and again. I thought she'd go off... but then she bumped her head. I held her and calmed her down and lay her back down, but she got more and more worked up and in the end was crying hysterically. Ilana never cries much and it tore me apart to hear it, I just felt awful.
In the end I got her out and gave her boob, and then felt awful for having put her through all that crying for nothing.
I'm not trying to force her into doing something because I want to go out on the lash or anything (I've not had an evening out since she was born and haven't felt like I've missed much) but I really do want to not feel so stressed when I have to work late and this wedding is stressing me out big time.
I don't know what to do... I have always thought I'd just carry on and she'd grow out of it but I just don't know, and I don't know what to do.
We are in a similar position as i am trying to move away from always feeding to sleep, not because i feel there is anything wrong with it, but mainly because me (and my boobs!) aren't going to be here 2 days a week as of next month and i don't want it to be a sudden horrible shock for Toby (and OH) trying to do bedtime without them (the boobs that is! 
)
but other times he takes us completely by surprise by suddenly dozing off easily, peacefully and without any complaint at all! 
)
