Northern California Babies

Mama_v2.0 (and others?) re: BF-ing to sleep

Hi there!

I seem to recall that you BF-ed your kids to sleep for quite awhile.  Did they eventually just grow out of it on their own?  Are they good sleepers now?  I am still BF-ing A to sleep- and I am okay with that... but just wondering what I might expect- and for how long.  :) 

Re: Mama_v2.0 (and others?) re: BF-ing to sleep

  • I did it with Andrew and then bottle to sleep and then sippy to sleep.  Quite honestly it's been a habit we can't break:(
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  • Z was BF-ed to sleep until she was 20 months for night time (and 22 months for nap.) G was just done around 18 months. When they stopped we had little Klean Kanteens filled with water ready for them bedside. Right before they go to sleep they drink a little water from it (and Z uses the potty.)

    They are not good sleepers...but I have discovered that has everything to do with their cousin making noise in the next room and the neighbors in the next apartment over (when we lived in apartments.) When ever the apartment next to us was empty or when their cousin is gone for a week they sleep perfectly.

    We do however lay with G in bed until he falls asleep and that means we are in the room usually until Z falls asleep too.

    Mama to Z - 5.5 years, G - 3.5 years, & M - 1.5 years.
  • I don't think E would have grown out of it on his own, at least not yet, since he still looooves to BF and fall asleep during/after.  But at around 9 months I started rocking him once he was sleepy but not asleep.  It was really tough for several nights but he did get it.  Singing was also a key part of it... singing and stomping around the room when he got really upset.  We also had DH do the rocking/singing, which worked great as there was no BF option w/ him (until he went on a business trip for a week... since then DS hasn't let him). 

    How is she sleeping during the night?  If nighttime is a problem w/ lots of wakings that you need to BF back to sleep for, I would jump on changing the bedtime routine.  If night is going well, I wouldn't worry about it!

  • Butting in. I know this isn't quite the same, but it still might be helpful. I nursed Eve to sleep the entire time I was nursing and then when my supply dried up, she still took a bottle to sleep until about 10-11 months. Eventually, we just decided we would cut that part of her bedtime routine out. She was a little miffed at first, but got over it in a couple of days. She's a champion sleeper now. Looking back, I think the important thing was that we had other things in her bedtime routine that helped her prepare for sleep - bath, reading, singing, etc.

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  • I still BF C to sleep at night and bedshare with him and he nurses several times a night.  He will be 20 months old in a few days.  When I am at work, he takes a bottle before nap but has been know to refuse it midway through and turn over and go to sleep on his own. He occassionally does this with me too -- nursing until he is done and then rolling over and going to sleep. On weekends we nurse to sleep for naps.

    He is not a good sleeper.  He never really has been. As an infant he struggled to nap but was a good nighttime sleeper.  When I went back to work it flipped (good naps, poor night time sleep) and has never switched back.  IF I were a stay at home mom I would probably care more about it but given that I am away from him for 9 hours 5 days a week, I find that for us it is important that I allow him to nurse when he requests it when we are together.

     

  • I am still BFing J to sleepy most of the time.  If we are coming back from gymnastics or dinner or something later then he is sleepy from the car and just wants in his crib.  But nursing for a few minutes before sleep is part of our normal routine.  I really don't think he *needs* it but since he's BFing 1.5 times a day it's a nice time to snuggle after a day in daycare and hectic dinnertime :)  If I'm not around he'll have some water out of a sippy with whoever and conk out just fine.  The water in the sippy was a turning point for sleep over here, once I put a sippy of water in his crib he'll have a sip and put himself back to sleep 99% of the time.  We figured that out about 12 months.  J's a great sleeper now but it was a bumpy road to 1 year old and good sleep!  We had a blip of needing mommy until completely asleep at bedtime and waking in the night at 18 months but it only lasted a few weeks.  I am so glad I was still nursing because it was the ONLY thing that worked. 
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  • Good question.  Ethan is bfing to sleep at night and throughout the night.  Emmy was not this way so I don't know what to do.
  • I nursed O to sleep until around 14 months or so and he's a fantastic sleeper now.  We didn't co-sleep, so that may make the difference.  When we decided to stop at night, DH did the bedtime routine and it was actually painless.  For naps, I did a strict routine for the first nap and nursed him for the second during his transition to one nap and since we dropped the afternoon nap, it worked out.  We stopped nursing all together around 19 months.
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