BFing and overnights

princesa2423

DD has been visiting with her father per CO once every weekend for 6 hours. She's still nursing, but REFUSES to take her milk from anything except the boob. She'll sip it from her sippy cup a little, but that's it. Then when she gets home she goes to town nursing, as well as eating, apparently she won't eat much while with him either. I'm also told she has a hard time going to nap (at home she usually nurses to sleep for naps and bedtime, though other babysitters I have don't have this problem with her crying herself to sleep.) She's also super clingy for a few days after her visit. XH recently moved to another state and works full time so changing up visitation schedules is somewhat limited. I expected the clingyness after her visits to get better over time, instead its gotten slightly worst. 

Per CO, overnights are supposed to start the end of  February (which is just around the corner), once a month. Being she can't even nap without tears, I'm just worried how she's going to react to an overnight. I just don't want my little princess stressed out. Any and all advice welcome! 

eenerthegreat

I just went through this first of last month. I was so stressed about how DS would do and how he would handle it, but he did way better than I expected. I had already weaned him down to bedtime only and about 2 weeks before he had his first weekend visit I went ahead and weaned him completely. I personally felt better knowing he could sleep without it at home before I sent him off overnight somewhere else.

Maybe you could try to get your DD to drink more from the sippy while she is with you, to help ease the transition. 

sunflwr0911

We started overnights about two months ago.  DS stays with XH every other weekend from thursday to sunday.  We were still BF 5-7 times a day when this started and I was terrified!  Luckily, he took milk fine in a bottle and we are working on the sippy.  Supposedly he does fine with XH, although I don't feel like he's super truthful with me.

I do know that DS is super clingy like your DD for the first few days I'm home...Even after two months, although it is better now than it was at first. And I get clogged ducts every. single. time.  It really sucks and I'm trying to wean very slowly to just morning and evening nursing.

Like pp, I would suggest trying to wean a bit, or at least getting her to sleep without nursing.  Also, work on the sippy cup as much as you can till then.  Good luck!