Help me figure out how to break this habit! (long)

mamajanna28

I nurse my LO to sleep each night and put him down in his crib around 10p.  He has no issues going/staying asleep and doesn't wake up until around 4:30a. When he was a few weeks old he had already settled into this pattern and I found it easier to put him in bed with me to nurse and then take him back to his room as he tended to fall back to sleep faster that way.  After a few days we were falling asleep with him still nursing and he would stay in my bed until it was time for us to get up (around 8a).  I never get sound sleep when he is in my bed and I wake up so sore from contorting my body around him to make sure that my DH doesn't roll onto him in the night (he is a very heavy sleeper).  LO stays attached to my boob for the entire time he is in our bed and comfort nurses.  There have been a few times that I have shifted my body in my sleep and he can't reach the nipple so he just sucks on the side of my boob (I have a few impressive hickies from that).  I wake up with sore, raw nipples.  I am done with this situation and want him back in his crib for the entire night before I start back to work in a few weeks. 

I have been working on this for several days now and it is not going well.  When he wakes up I sit in the rocker and nurse him until he is asleep but as soon as he goes into the crib, he starts making sucking motions and then wakes himself up when he realizes that there isn't a boob there.  Nothing has worked to satisfy him, I have tried nursing him to sleep and then slipping a pacifier in his mouth but that hasn't worked either.  If I lay down and let him nurse he will fall asleep, but wakes up as soon as I try to move him back to the crib.  I have tried everything to get him back down into his crib (walking, rocking, nursing, swaddling, ect.) but he always wakes himself back up.  This isn't an issue at all when he first goes down for the night, only at 4a (his only wake up in the night).  The last few nights I have tried to get him into the crib from 4a on and we have both wound up being awake until 8a when we have to get up anyway.  I am getting so worn out and I don't know what else to do. 

changingnames

Ds1 made an all night snack bar out of me and I used the no cry sleep solution to get us over the hump (Elizabeth pantley) I can't really remember what we did but maybe it can help you. I can tell you that the problem was resolved quickly and satisfactorily. We chose to keep him in our bed (but not on my boob) till around 9 months and he seamlessly moved to his crib. It will work out. Nth