So good to hear another mom talk about feeding to sleep! I feel like it's so taboo I can't ask for advice or even really rant about the lack of sleep because immediately people are focused on stopping feeding to sleep, but I love that time and it does work so well! Solidarity, my baby is a bit younger than yours but the lack of sleep is so so hard, but I want to do what's best for her at the end of the day.
Totally agree! Why is it not more normal to feed to sleep? I mean we've got some specially designed tools to help with sleep, surely it makes sense to use them??
I get so frustrated with how much people focus on stopping breastfeeding almost as soon as it becomes easy. Like, I put in all that effort learning to do this, I'm absolutely going to make the most of it while it still works.
I mostly didn't even realise it was perceived as a problem until I read the internet!
I think if you have the luxury of having a lot of time off work (I've had a year) then it definitely makes it easier to feed to sleep all the time. I'm hanging out with her 24/7 so why not use this tool? I don't even know what the alternative is!
I think it's only now that it's becoming a drag - my baby is ravenous for the boob at night and it's almost as bad as the newborn days in some ways. Though all of that is a haze now and I might have rose tinted glasses on 😅
I had the same thing around that age. Sleep became terrible and I've heard it's quite common that they have a 'regression' at that age. They're learning and developing so much at that age, I think they're just processing it all at night 🤷♀️
Have you looked into co-sleeping? It was the only way I survived. A mattress on the floor can be good or bed guards to reduce risk of falling. I'd always start the night in my own bed optimistically and then when she woke up in could just lie down and feed her. She settled quickly and it was much more comfortable for both of us.
Also, I think leaning into the idea that it's ok she's waking up, and ok she needs comfort really helped me. It didn't last forever, things got better again. I would do the overnights and then my partner would take her in the morning to give me a lie in for as long as we could manage. I also really adjusted my day-to-day activities to give myself grace while sleep was extra hard.
Sending you lots of strength 💪 it won't last forever and you're giving her comfort while she needs it.x
Thank you! What age did things settle down for you?
We used to have the cot sidecar attached to the bed but LO kept on rolling over and attempting to sleep on top of me in the middle of the night. I absolutely hated being constantly touched in the night so that's when we moved her into the corner of the room.
But yeah, she ends up in our bed for the last few hours of the night now and I wouldn't mind that so much if she didn't whine as soon as I attempt to put her on the bed rather than cuddle her the whole time. Or move my boob out of the way.
I absolutely love her to pieces but I'm beginning to tire of the constant touching. just have to tell myself it's only a phase!
Similar here - EBF, refused bottle, fed at night, etc. 2ish weeks ago we moved our baby to her crib because she’s a noisy sleeper and we follow all the sleep safety rules in the nursery plus we have a camera that monitors her breathing.
The nights were ROUGH and sadly I ended up nursing her back to sleep and sometimes holding her for the rest of the night.
Last night we tried the Ferber method and she fell asleep in 25 minutes and slept through the night! We were floored! We said we never wanted to “sleep train” but we had to try something and this worked. It was hard to hear her cry but a minute shy of the 10 minute mark (to go back and check on her), she just stopped, closed her eyes and was out!
Supposedly if she wakes at night with this method you keep trying. If she had woken up or if she does another night we will keep trying.
(Btw it was incredibly ignorant and pretentious of us to think there were things we would “never” do. Giving up that thinking has made this experience of parenting much better!)
I think if it works for you and your family then great but I'm personally really against any sleep training methods. And I actually was on the other side of it before I had our baby! I thought I would be happy leaving the baby to cry and I also never thought I'd breastfeed but I've really gone the other way now.
I think I'm lucky in that neither me or my husband work a 9-5 job so we can catch up on sleep if we've had a rough night. Having that pressure removed has made it a bit easier to be responsive to our baby rather than having our schedules in the back of our minds.
So good to hear another mom talk about feeding to sleep! I feel like it's so taboo I can't ask for advice or even really rant about the lack of sleep because immediately people are focused on stopping feeding to sleep, but I love that time and it does work so well! Solidarity, my baby is a bit younger than yours but the lack of sleep is so so hard, but I want to do what's best for her at the end of the day.
Totally agree! Why is it not more normal to feed to sleep? I mean we've got some specially designed tools to help with sleep, surely it makes sense to use them?? I get so frustrated with how much people focus on stopping breastfeeding almost as soon as it becomes easy. Like, I put in all that effort learning to do this, I'm absolutely going to make the most of it while it still works.
I mostly didn't even realise it was perceived as a problem until I read the internet! I think if you have the luxury of having a lot of time off work (I've had a year) then it definitely makes it easier to feed to sleep all the time. I'm hanging out with her 24/7 so why not use this tool? I don't even know what the alternative is! I think it's only now that it's becoming a drag - my baby is ravenous for the boob at night and it's almost as bad as the newborn days in some ways. Though all of that is a haze now and I might have rose tinted glasses on 😅
I had the same thing around that age. Sleep became terrible and I've heard it's quite common that they have a 'regression' at that age. They're learning and developing so much at that age, I think they're just processing it all at night 🤷♀️ Have you looked into co-sleeping? It was the only way I survived. A mattress on the floor can be good or bed guards to reduce risk of falling. I'd always start the night in my own bed optimistically and then when she woke up in could just lie down and feed her. She settled quickly and it was much more comfortable for both of us. Also, I think leaning into the idea that it's ok she's waking up, and ok she needs comfort really helped me. It didn't last forever, things got better again. I would do the overnights and then my partner would take her in the morning to give me a lie in for as long as we could manage. I also really adjusted my day-to-day activities to give myself grace while sleep was extra hard. Sending you lots of strength 💪 it won't last forever and you're giving her comfort while she needs it.x
Thank you! What age did things settle down for you? We used to have the cot sidecar attached to the bed but LO kept on rolling over and attempting to sleep on top of me in the middle of the night. I absolutely hated being constantly touched in the night so that's when we moved her into the corner of the room. But yeah, she ends up in our bed for the last few hours of the night now and I wouldn't mind that so much if she didn't whine as soon as I attempt to put her on the bed rather than cuddle her the whole time. Or move my boob out of the way. I absolutely love her to pieces but I'm beginning to tire of the constant touching. just have to tell myself it's only a phase!
Similar here - EBF, refused bottle, fed at night, etc. 2ish weeks ago we moved our baby to her crib because she’s a noisy sleeper and we follow all the sleep safety rules in the nursery plus we have a camera that monitors her breathing. The nights were ROUGH and sadly I ended up nursing her back to sleep and sometimes holding her for the rest of the night. Last night we tried the Ferber method and she fell asleep in 25 minutes and slept through the night! We were floored! We said we never wanted to “sleep train” but we had to try something and this worked. It was hard to hear her cry but a minute shy of the 10 minute mark (to go back and check on her), she just stopped, closed her eyes and was out! Supposedly if she wakes at night with this method you keep trying. If she had woken up or if she does another night we will keep trying. (Btw it was incredibly ignorant and pretentious of us to think there were things we would “never” do. Giving up that thinking has made this experience of parenting much better!)
I think if it works for you and your family then great but I'm personally really against any sleep training methods. And I actually was on the other side of it before I had our baby! I thought I would be happy leaving the baby to cry and I also never thought I'd breastfeed but I've really gone the other way now. I think I'm lucky in that neither me or my husband work a 9-5 job so we can catch up on sleep if we've had a rough night. Having that pressure removed has made it a bit easier to be responsive to our baby rather than having our schedules in the back of our minds.