Question about sleep & BF

freeatlast2014 · January 2012

Hi ladies! I'm wondering if you can share your thoughts/opinions.

JT just turned 1 and I'm 6 weeks pg. I BF 3 times per day, just fully weaned 1 session this past week.

He takes 1 nap per day for 1 hour and sleeps from about 6:30pm until 4 or 5 am. At that time, he cries, I usually change his diaper and nurse him. In total, it takes about 30 minutes tops. Then he sleeps until 6:30 - 7:30am.

My question is - should this be the next session I cut out or would you not mess with that sleep? Or at this age should he be sleeping straight through??

My body right now has no problem with this set up but I don't know how long that will last. I also nurse before his nap and right before bed. I need that nap from him so I'm afraid to drop that session...not sure what to do. Thoughts??

Also, at this age, does one 1-hour nap sound right? I try everyday for 2 naps or longer naps and nothing seems to work. TIA!

klp28 · January 2012

I'm really just a lurker here, but my DD is just a little younger than your son. If he sleeps well after you feed him in the morning, I wouldn't try to drop that feeding first. Did I understand you correctly in than he only nurses in the morning, before a nap, and before bed? My DD also nurses at those times, but she gets up around 7. Is your husband home at all to help? Although I have no experience with this yet, my husband has a flexible schedule, so we plan to have home home for a few days in a row to drop the nap nursing first. Honestly, I'd love to hear from someone whose weaned a toddler before also because this is a little harder than I had anticipated. Sorry for the lack of formatting as I'm on my phone

ETA: good luck!

jf198400 · January 2012

By one year my DD was sleeping about 11-12 hrs at night. It's normal for them to drop from 2 naps down to 1 nap/day around that age, but most kids nap more like 2hrs (and some are still napping twice per day). I would try to gradually move your LO's bedtime a bit later (6:30 seems terribly early, no wonder he wakes up at 4am). Then maybe he will sleep later in the morning and you won't need to nurse him to get him to sleep in. I found that my daughter was waking in the morning to nurse more out of habit rather than hunger. Try just changing the diaper, maybe offer a sippy cup of milk, and rock him back to sleep.

Qmommy · January 2012

hmmm... as far as the nigh sleep goes. I would not move his bedtime later (DD1 also goes to bed at 6:30 and wakes up early). I tried pushing DD1's bedtime later but she still woke up at 5AM every day (she doesn't go back to sleep after that though). So I'd rather her get that extra hour of sleep in the evening than not have it at all.

I am still nursing DD1 so I can't really give much advice about weaning (tandem nursing here). I did manage to wean her off of the sleep association with BFing by changing her bedtime routine. I nurse her in the family room, then we go in her room for books, songs, and sleep. I got rid of the nap time nursing by cutting back the number of minutes she nurses. If she started falling asleep at the breast I stopped BFing. If she woke up and started fussing, I let her have it again until her sucking slowed or stopped. Then tried unlatching again. Sometimes it took a good 6 or 7 tries but it worked. Once I could simply rock her to sleep without BFing I started weaning the rocking.

I would try cutting the time he nurses at 4/5AM down by a couple of minutes until he no longer wakes up for it. So if he normally takes 10 minutes, only let him nurse for 8 minutes. Then drop it down to 6 minutes, etc.

freeatlast2014 · January 2012

Thank you all!!

sometimesalwayschaotic · January 2012

I would try other things when he wakes in the morning before nursing. Can you husband go in and try to rock him back down? If this doesn't work I would try nursing for a shorter amount of time and then putting him right back to bed. Don't turn on any lights or change diapers so he knows it's still night time. My DD still takes two naps usually and the first is 1.5 hours in length and the second is 1. That seems like a very short nap for that age. Have you tried messing with his awake time a bit. My Dd goes to sleep at 7:30 wakes at 7:30 am. First nap at 9:30.(2 hours after awake time) and then then she usually wakes up from her nap around 11. I will put her down for her second nap 3 hours after she wakes from her first nap. I follow the 2-3-4 schedule and it seems to work for us. (up for 2 hours then 3 then 4) We didn't have to work too hard to night wean, one night she just started sleeping straight through but we had also started trying other things to calm her but nursing. I will no longer night nurse her because I do not want to be nursing two at night!