quote:
Originally posted by mandi2005:
Hi I have the same problem, my daughter is 16 months old, and it stems from my breastfeeding routine. I was told by the midwife to feed from one side, change her nappy and feed her from the other side until she falls asleep. I am still breastfeeding so she can smell the milk on me which doesn't help. Also I am on my own at night so don't have the support that couples do.
I have tried bedtime routines but she just won't go to sleep, and ends up staying up that late that it's very difficult to wake her up some mornings. At the moment she usually stays up until about 10pm.
I have replied to this message because I couldn't figure out how to start my own message.
I really need help.
Hi there mandi2005! I completely understand your situation! I too have a 16-month old and am still breastfeeding~ My boy basically hasn’t yet slept through a night since he was born!! He has always been breastfed to sleep and I think that’s the problem..in fact I have been told on different occasions that I should stop feeding my son to sleep which I had been very reluctant to do..I think because I like bf and I like watching him fall asleep..and if I’m completely honest..it’s just sooo much easier to put him on and he’ll fall asleep pretty quickly..
It’s been such a battle for us to put him to sleep and we have tried different things and nothing has really worked..every night after dinner we just let him play until he is tired and start asking for a feed, I will then put him on and he’ll be asleep pretty much within 20 mins! But then it’s pretty much gurenteed that he’ll wake up at some point during the night..I used to feed him straight away to get him back to sleep but then I realised that I had to stop it because it was just taking too much out of me as I just wasn’t getting any sleep at all! At one point, he was waking up by the hour through the night!!!!! As a result of me seriously lack of sleep and then having to go to work full time, I was always getting ill and getting signs of mastitis, my GP told me that the night feeding was just habit and it really had to stop because there was no reason for him to be getting up so often through the night..she told me that if he did wake during the night, my partner would have to pick him up, give him some water, let him cry and then get back to sleep or just whatever, he will eventually give up because he would then learn that there was no point for him to get up as he wasn’t going to get anything! I couldn’t do it as like you said, he could smell me and it would just make him want it even more! So we tried that, it kind of worked..well he got better, much better, but still he would still wake up or stirs at least once…
Tonight, I did a bit of reflection and decided to try this and OMG it worked!!! So here is what I did – after he played for a while and started to show signs for tireless, I asked him whether he wanted a feed and surely he did, so I put him on and as soon as he latched off, I took him straight to the bathroom and brushed him teeth, then I changed his nappy. After that I sat him on his cot bed which is joint up to ours and told him a little story using his toys (I tried books many times before but after like 10 secs he would just lose interest and want to go off or just chew on the books!!!), he really enjoyed it and when he started to lose interest, I laid his toys down – and said oh look it’s night time, Snoopy (one of his toys ^o^) is sleeping, I went and turn the light off and went back to the bed, lied down and kept stroking Snoopy and said night night and pretended I was sleeping too..he was still up and trying to get off the bed but then I just kept putting him down and said it’s night time now, look Snoopy is sleeping, night night..eventually, I’d say about 10 mins, he was yawning and lying next to me and Snoopy ^o^, he kept turning and rolling on the bed etc.. but after a few mins, he was asleep!! I have decided that from now on, I’d just follow this routine, dinner – a bit of play time – give him a feed when he shows signs of tireless – brush his teeth – change nappy – bedtime story – sleep ^o^ that way I’d still be feeding him but not feed him to sleep =)
I’ll just have to wait and see whether this will work, but if I persist im sure it will! Good luck to you and hope you will work out a routine that works for you soon~ xx
