Breastfeeding-nursing to sleep issue (also posted on BF)

PurpleDrewbie5

I posted this on breastfeeding but thought I'd post here as well. :-)

Up until DD was about 6 months I nursed her to sleep and then put her down. I broke the habit around then by implementing a strict schedule for a few weeks and slowly getting her used to falling asleep on her own. She would sleep, the majority of the time, from 7:30-8am waking up one time around 3am to nurse.

Fast forward to 11months (now) nighttime, and she is only going to sleep when I nurse her. I can't move her until she's been asleep for at least 15 minutes. The past 3 nights in a row she has spent most of the night in bed with DH and I and attached to my breast. She stopped using a paci around the time she stopped nursing to sleep and won't take one. She won't take a bottle either. She just wants to use me as a human pacifier.

She only has 2 teeth so it might be teething. She has just started walking more so maybe it's a milestone thing. She has also dropped one nap. Do you think one or more of these could be causing it? Do you have any advice?

H and I decided to wake her up at 7 today and try to coax her back to 2 naps to see if that helps. If she doesn't take 2 naps we're going to put her down earlier.

Any other help/advice/knowledge/experience would be appreciated. Thanks ladies. 

jesstellina

I'd recommend the book "No cry sleep solution" by Pantley. I could describe some of her tips, but she does it better. The pull-off and magic words worked great for us as a way to get our LO to learn to break the sucking/sleep association.

PurpleDrewbie5

Thanks Jesstellina. I will have to check it out. She has been better the past couple of nights, thankfully. If she cries after I put her down H has gone in to comfort her and that seems to help. I think she sees me and thinks breast milk, human pacifier....you know? It's just frustrating because I already broke it once. She knows the sign for "all done" and she knows what it means when I say it. She will also sign it when she's done.