To those still nursing

Amberrrr · November 2012

Do you still nurse to sleep?

My babe will fall aleep in everyone else's arms, besides mine. He will let me make him drowsy but then he stays up for an eternity until he gets boobs.

He wakes up to nurse about 3x a night. And the morning session is an all you can eat feast. He is legit hungry.

I am curious who else is still nursing to sleep.

Those of you who are still nursing to sleep- are you planning on weaning at 12 months? I'm curious, and wondering if it will actually work out where I can actually wean at 12 months. If he's still really needing it by then though- I suppose I'll just continue until he's ready to be done...

88eve88 · November 2012

Well, I nurse at bedtime, but I don't nurse to sleep anymore. Logan nurses for 10 minutes or so and then I kiss him good night and place him in his crib, awake. He puts himself to sleep now. He rarely nurses in the middle of the night either. If he wakes up, I'll nurse him until he's drowsy maybe, but he goes back into the crib awake. He fusses a bit, but then falls asleep. If he does wake up, it's usually only once.

I don't plan to wean completely for a while, but would like to nurse only first thing in the morning and last thing at night within the next month. However, Logan is not super attached to nursing, so I don't think he'd mind all that much if we stopped. I'm just waiting until a year to give him as much nutritional benefit as possible.

ssimon621 · November 2012

I just posted on Lancy's post about this. Yesterday I started the process of no longer nursing to sleep. I nurse her before her bath and it has worked the last two days. Yesterday I had DH rock her to sleep and tonight I nursed her, gave her a bath, read a short book, rocked for a couple minutes and then I laid her down drowsy, but awake. So far she has gone to sleep with no problem, but we will see how it goes.

I planned to nurse past one year, but lately I'm not sure. I love our nursing relationship, but I am noticing that she is becoming more emotionally attached and is more aware when I am denying her and I fear that weaning will be really difficult and emotional. Because of this I feel like it will be easier to wean if she doesn't relate nursing with sleeping. We may just nurse in the morning and maybe the afternoon when we get home from work and daycare and then wean at those times when it is easier to slowly distract her.

kmhb2010 · November 2012

I still nurse to sleep at night. I am planning to nurse until he's 1 and then stop pumping at work and only nurse in the morning and at night as long as he'll let me, but I'm hoping 18 months.

runrinserepeat · November 2012

I nurse at bedtime, but not always to sleep. It depends on the night. Most nights she STTN, and then she likes to comfort nurse from 5-7am (not my favorite... And not something we can do every morning). I have no plans to wean from nursing at a year, though.

fredpuma · November 2012

I still nurse to sleep. Dh and I are still of the opinion that she's still so little, she's not even a year old yet, can't talk and can only understand the very basics of language, so we're not forcing her to do anything yet. She still sleeps in the bed with us and nurses multiple times a night and a lot during the day. She likes solids but nursing is still by far her main food source. I really don't notice much of a difference in how much she's nursing now vs before solids. I'll go down to pumping once a day at work at a year and still let her nurse whenever she wants when I'm home four days a week. It's not the popular choice, but it's working for our family. It's tiring, but we have had no success with any sleep training and really it only makes things worse for a few days after, so we're planning on waiting until communicating is a little easier.

LoveBeingMama · November 2012

I still nurse at bedtime, but not necessarily until he falls asleep. He used to fall asleep sometimes, but he actually has a medical condition that causes him to bite his tongue in his sleep. It happens often just as he is about to fall asleep. But, if he is nursing when this happens, instead of his tongue, he bites me. I jump, he gets scared, wakes up and cries. So, as you can imagine, I try very hard not to nurse him to sleep now. I guess it is probably good that I was forced to stop nursing to sleep.

Anyways, he still wakes up I the middle of the night, usually once, and I nurse him, but again, not to sleep if i can help it. Then he wakes around 5 and I nurse him, but can usually get him to go back to sleep for awhile. We are trying to stop the night feedings, but I am kind of lazy about it. He turns 1 in 6.5 weeks, and I plan to start weaning then, so I am hoping he will naturally stop the night feedings, since I am sure it is comfort nursing. I didn't nurse DS1 this long (exclusively for six months, then weaned slowly until completely weaned just after 9 months), and I never really expected to nurse this long this time, so I am not sure how I plan to wean. Truthfully, I don't love nursing, so part of me just wants to be done with it, but part of me wants to keep going longer. However, I don't really want to go much past 12 months.

ALane1128 · November 2012

I don't nurse him to sleep anymore. And it's really him that chooses it. He eats dinner at 5:30 5:45 and has a bath around 6:30, by 7 he is ready for bed. Right before I lay him down, we say our goodnight prayers and by the end, he is pushing away from me wanting to lay in his crib. If I try to nurse him without him giving me his sign that he's hungry at night, he ends up spitting it all up. Sometimes before bath he gives me his sign that he wants to nurse but it only lasts maybe 5 minutes.

karleegirl · November 2012

I'm nursing to sleep still. When I'm around she won't go back to sleep unless I nurse her. I have to do bedtime and overnight by myself 5x a week. CIO does NOT work with this baby. I know some on this board think it's the answer to everything. But it's horrible with dd.
Because she wakes uP so much in the
night I'm going to try to move nursing
earlier in her bedtime routine to see if
that helps . My pedi also just told me
we could give her melatonin so I'm
going to try that as well.
I was hoping to bf until 18 months or so but she has a big addiction to the boob. I don't mind but I know as you get towards two it's much harder to break habits so I'm a bit torn.

mkarns · November 2012

I've always nursed to sleep and I'm worried that it's becoming the ONLY way C will sleep. They have a hard time at daycare and just told me he has to be sucking on a bottle. That pretty much told me all I need to know. I will practice sleep training soon, probably at the 10 month mark.

HattieLove · November 2012

Lik PPs, I nurse at bedtime, but not to sleep. She goes down sleepy but awake. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

We're not weaning at 1 year though so I'm not worried about changing our bedtime schedule.

allisons1014 · November 2012

Sometimes she falls asleep while nursing, sometimes not. Either way she goes to bed afterwards. We rarely nurse in the middle of the night. Only occasionally if she is sick or we are traveling out of town and she wakes in the middle of the night.

DD eats a good amount of solids during the day (3 meals and a snack) She is only nursing/taking a bottle 4-5 times a day and she never takes more than 4 oz. anymore.

I will stop pumping at a year but I will probably still nurse her before bedtime and gradually transition her out of that routine. I enjoy that time together and she does as well. I'd rather not stop cold turkey just because she is 1 year old.

poobear2015 · November 2012

I still nurse to sleep and nurse back to sleep every time she wakes. She also can sleep with others but not me. Someone told me she associates me with the boob - so this is why she can't fall asleep without it (kinda like her lovey lol)

I think that if we both just stopped doing it - they would have no choice but to deal with it. In my case - I know Hayley can go without it, because she doesn't eat as much during the day now (she get's quite a fill overnight cuz she wakes up a LOT! We just lay on the couch and every time she wakes up I just insert boob so we can both get back to dreamland).

I do plan on STARTING to wean at 12 months. But I think I won't be completely finished until more like 18. We're just going to take it one step at a time.

ryry1977 · November 2012

I don't nurse to sleep anymore. I feed her before bedtime and just lay her in her crib to fall asleep. Sometimes she whines or cried some, but not much. I nursed DS until 16 months and hope to nurse her just as long if not longer.

suitern · November 2012

I don't nurse to sleep anymore on purpose like I used to. Occasionally, he will fall asleep nursing, but most of the time will pop off and want his pacifier. If he wakes up at night after 3 AM I willl nurse him, but he won't fall asleep then either. He is drowsy, but will fall all the way back to sleep in his crib. We don't nurse before naps any longer either.

I don't plan on fully weaning at a year, but I do plan to drop a few nursing sessions. I would like to just nurse in the morning, evening, and over night. I want to do this so when I return to work I don't have to use the dread pump!

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