12 month old wakes every 1-2 hours. Loosing my mind.

[ilovemyCheebie]

I have still been breastfeeding dd up until now however it is only once during the day now. She eats plenty in the day and gets her rest. She does lots of exercise (crawling around lots) She is really happy and very healthy, I know when she is teething but atm she is not waking up in pain.

dd is waking every 1-2 hours after 6:30 bedtime, when she wakes she wants to brestfeed. She went to sleep at 6:30 it's now 7:30 and she's up. I'm concerned, none of my friends babies are having this problem to sleep. I also am loosing my mind a bit because I do my work from home in the evening, working on orders that people have already paid for, I'm getting quite behind now, it's not exactly the most time consuming work. The evenings and night are just quite consumed by the waking up. It must be effecting her... My friends are saying to cut off breastfeeding but at night she'll get very upset without being fed and she'll be up for 2 hours an I do give in. It's just strange as she eats constantly during the day

[Stevefromstevenage]

DS was a teeny bit older than this when I night weaned. I palmed him off on DH and told him to let me know when he had cracked it and gave him all sorts of patronisingencouragement in the mornings after a good night sleep. I had done 16 months of night waking so I felt pretty guilt free.

[missyB1]

Well she's not hungry if she's eating well in the day. She just hasn't learnt to self settle, so every time she comes into a lighter phase of sleep (read up on sleep cycles) she's waking and needing bf to fall asleep again.

Sorry I suspect you are going to have to do some kind of sleep training to crack this.

[MozzchopsThirty]

It's behavioural and I agree you'll need to do some sort of sleep training to break the cycle

It would be useful if your partner could do this as you will obviously smell different
It only takes about 3 nights to crack it

[ilovemyCheebie]

I'm on my own here so it will have to be me doing it, I have really been avoiding sleep training but I will look into it now and give it a go.

[DizzyBlondeMum2]

I had a book callled the no cry sleep solution. Gentler approaches that took a bit longer than Furberising but worked eventually. Worth a read to see if it feels like you.

Ps is she getting too much daytime sleep?

[funkybum]

We are in exactly the same position. Same age too. Although I am still breastfeeding about 8 times a day. He suffers really bad seperation anxiety to and wont be left with anyone bar my husband for even 5 mins. I'm planning on weaning him off me during the day and then going away for two nights so my husband can do sleep training. I just cant not give in. We have just moved house though so might wait a few weeks. Do you co-sleep?

[CoteDAzur]

Give her a dummy and see if that helps.

[EvansAndThePrince]

Have a look at gentle sleep book, no cry sleep solution etc, it's tough at this age but crying it out won't really work. Also, it gets better. Mine never slept brilliantly and had a phase of 3 months where she woke like that around her 1st birthday but at 17 months started sleeping through of her own accord.

[AliceInHinterland]

Have a look at this.
Personally I pushed the time I was willing to feed back later and later until about 2am then took a break. It meant I got a few hours sleep at least! A month or so later I dropped that feed and only fed after five AM. It's really tough, but you will crack it.

[Stevefromstevenage]

Sorry OP, I missed that, I agree some gentle sleep technique is probably your best option.

[ilovemyCheebie]

Thank you AliceinHinterland

funkybum I really feel for you, you are doing so well. DD also wouldn't be with anyone else and still gets very upset about it sometimes. She would calm down if she was being distracted though, so she ended up taking trips somewhere exciting with grandparents where she could look at something she likes, e.g. duck pond, petting zoo etc. There must be something your little guy loves? That way he can spend time with other friends and family while focusing on something stimulating rather then the fact that he isn't cuddling you.

Thanks to the comments, I had a look into the sleep training and like "the no tears method" I usually co sleep with dd but I've just put her down in her cot and stroked her hair telling her I love you, she was a little fusyy but not too bad at all, no real crying. She is asleep now. We'll see how this goes!!

[AliceInHinterland]

It may be hard doing it on your own but you will have the advantage of consistency! You really are teaching them a skill, just stretching them as far as you feel they are capable of, supporting them, accepting two steps forward and one back. Good luck and celebrate successes however small!

[Nan0second]

Jay Gordon can be really helpful here too.
You can do this! You don't need to feel this bad anymore :)

[Nan0second]

By bad I mean crazy exhausted.
You've not done anything bad obviously!

[BiscuitMillionaire]

Also look at the baby whisperer techniques, especially 'pick up put down' - check out the website and forum. She isn't hungry, she's just used to sucking herself back to sleep. As my sister said to me, if someone gave you a 20 pound note every time you work up, you'd keep waking up, right?

[CobsAhoy]

Hey OP,

How did you get on last night? I'm in a similar situation with DD (13months), we have co-slept and breast fed from very early on and although we've had some periods of good-ish sleep it hasn't been very consistent.

Like your LO, she is now waking every 1-2 hrs from when she goes down at 7, she goes back to sleep really quickly but only because there is a boob on hand to settle her! I haven't minded in the past as the comfort nursing back to sleep has usually coincided with teething/illness/growth spurt etc, but this time it feels more like a habit than a need IYSWIM.

I was planning on doing this in the new year...... sarahockwell-smith.com/2014/08/10/how-to-gently-night-wean-a-breastfed-baby-or-toddler/

Holding off on doing it untill after Christmas as we're going on holiday and I'm too scared to make any breastfeeding changes before the flight incase I need to bust out the big (milky) guns!