Baby sleeps whilst feeding

[Bex134]

DS is 8 weeks, and sleeps roughly 9pm-7am waking three times in the night for a feed which can take 40mins-an hour. It's taken us s while to get to this point and I'm pleased with his progress.

As I'm breast feeding he often falls asleep during a feed. Sometimes he can be stirred and other times not. I'm trying to start to get him to sleep not straight from feeding - I try to stir him after a feed so he then settles when being cuddled. Also when I put him down I do this when he's in a light sleep when his eyes are blinky and hold his arms until he is still and then he'll go into a deeper sleep. Does this count as him not falling asleep on the breast??? Is this the right approach to take for him to gradually learn about self settling.?

I'd never consider controlled crying at this point (not sure about the future) and I'm not expecting him to settle self to sleep alone just wanting for him to slowly and gently learn.

[sycamore54321]

I'm not an expert but I'd say overnight it is absolutely fine. At this age, it is more for naps during the day that you can gently encourage falling asleep without crutches. No point in artificially rousing him at the end of a night time feed just so he is awake when you put him back down. In fact, the night feeding advice is usually absolutely minimal interaction, dark room, no eye contact, etc. He will drop one or more of those overnight feeds in due corse, probably soon, so I wouldn't worry unduly about those creating habits yet.

Try the drowsy-but-awake for naps and when first putting him down in the evening but overnight, don't try to fix what isn't broken.

Purely my opinion and limited experience.

[FATEdestiny]

Sounds great to me OP!