Leaving nursed to sleep 11 month old for the night

[user1491988320]

Sorry for the long post but looking for some advice. My son in 11 months old and is nursed to sleep. Although I know this can cause sleep association problems, I am happy with this for now and do not want to go down any crying routes (we tried and it was hideous). I plan to tackle it with a gentle approach during the summer holidays.

However, my husband has booked one night away in late July which I am really looking forward to. The issue is that my boy still wakes around 3 times a night and uses breastfeeding to get back to sleep. He can become very upset if there is no boob on offer. He will reluctantly accept ebm from a sippy in the day when I am at work.

In an ideal situation I am hoping to encourage him to accept another way of getting to sleep from his Grandma, as I know babies can sometimes find their own way with another caregiver, and my Mum and I plan to give it a trial run this weekend. I will be well out of the way and my Mum will do his bedtime, offering expressed milk. She will not let him cry for long and plan to use other methods for her to get him to sleep (rocking, pram, dummy etc). I will be in the house in case it all goes wrong.

Does anyone have any experience of doing this and have any advice, tips, success stories?

Thanks in advance.

[FATEdestiny]

I would suggest that for the same if one night, your mum just accepts that she wont sleep much that night and aside from that don't stress about it.

Baby may well also not sleep much that night, but a one-off night isn't much of a big deal and it will be easy for baby to get over in the following nights.

So may be your mum might be up and playing with toddler to keep him happy at 2am. Or maybe she'll sleep with him in her bed. Or maybe they go for a 4am drive. Or maybe she will be sat watching tv at 1am cuddling baby on her lap. All those emergency "Oh my god, baby won't sleep" thing a that most families have resorted to in dire circumstances.

I guess my whole point is I wouldn't make any routine changes for the sake of one night. Just continue as you are, with gentle changes towards the longer term aim of independant sleeping when baby is ready. No need to push too quickly for the sake of this night. Unless it is something you want to do anyway, even without this night out booked.

[FATEdestiny]

same if = sake of

[Heratnumber7]

What FATE said.

Oh, and on the trial night, I'd be out of the house, so you're not tempted to intervene.

[Emilybrighton1984]

Thank you so much for your responses. Your advice is so appreciated.

[Vonklump]

My DC usually nursed to sleep, but if I wasn't there they would go to sleep after a short protest.

I agree to being out of the house. Can you go to a coffee shop/for a walk.

If may be different on the day anyway. I think my DC realised I wasn't there, so rather than the option to nurse being there but denied, it wasn't there.