WIll I regret stopping bf during upcoming sleep regressions?

[thesurgeonsmate]

DD is 13 months. I always do all nights. I do them by padding through, bf baby, hurling her back into cot and padding back. Takes c 10 mins. She normally wakes once per night. I haven't really bothered as yet to ask myself whether she's actually hungry or not, as the system is working perfectly well for me. Now that I'm established back at work, I only bf bedtime and morning otherwise. Dd doesn't seem to demand it in any real sense, more agree to it. I don't see it as a particularly significant bonding time, I don't think, I seem to be trying to turn a few pages of a book while she gets on with it, she's never been one for catching your eye and she's stopped fiddling with my necklace. I suppose I'm wondering when we'll stop. My official plan was we'd be bf during the day at weekends too, but we aren't really. But if I lose this sleep charm will I regret it at 18 months?

I'd say yes, IME when I hit a sleep regression with my older DS's (both stopped BF around 1) I regretted no longer having my easy solution. I longed to be able to just nurse them back to sleep. Also other little things too like when they got sick and hurt themselves or I wanted to be able to calm them during the tantrum phases.
I have found BF is an amazing parenting tool and also there are many reasons to continue to bf into the toddler age. Dr Newman has a great article called breastfeed a toddler, why on earth? its very good.

I'd agree with persephone (this is starting to become embarrasing ) i have always used bf as a took to help ds sleep. Esp during sleep regressions and developmental spurts. During some of these he would need solids during the night (yes i did feed him solids lots during the day too before someone tells me a 15m old "shouldn't" need bf at night or whatever. Sorry. Sick of it.) so if i could placate him with bf in bed i was, frankly, chuffed.

He came out of the 15m spurt sleeping through pretty regularly. We've had one night waking and a handfull of bf's in the two months since. And tbh the bf's might be him getting a taste for my colostrum which has come in (i'm pg)

Can you cosleep surgeonsmate? Saved my life.

I don't co-sleep, I'm not sure it would suit us. I think you've confirmed what I was thinking about the future of bf. If you had said "Good grief, no, that's some serious sleep issues ahead, what makes you think a puny old boob is going to be of any assistance? We all have to man up and put in the hard yards at some point," that would be different. But just bf'ing on through has suited my style so far, and it sounds as though it might well serve me well as we go on.

:D am flattere MFM and glad we could help thesurgeonsmate you might want to head over to the I'm a secret extended breastfeeder thread for some really good links on natural term breastfeeding and the positives of feeding an older baby/child. :)

Thesurgeonsmate i know how you feel! there's so much talk of weaning, sleep training etc that it's hard to believe lo's will learn any thing unless we "teach" them. I'm glad we've been able reassure you that it's ok to carry on as you are.

Do you know likeminded people in rl...it can be a breath of fresh air.

Hi, I know this thread is over a week old but I just came on looking for something along the lines of 'if I don't do anything proactive about my 13mo's nightime bf, will things ever get better without intervention?'. My 13mo DD is rather less obliging than yours, surgeon, but over the last couple of weeks she had combination of teeth and the most miserable cold and several days of fever, and for 48hrs refused anything but bf. I was so glad just to comfort her as she has never been so inconsolable since she was just a few weeks old.

Everyone I know in rl is a bit horrified at my stance - and I would never have predicted I'd have ended up thinking as I do, but I so appreciated mfm what you wrote. Now off to read some more of the back catalogue of threads.

I'm glad no one is telling me they are horrified. I think DH is perhaps not alert to any benchmarks in his peer group, and also knows that I'm doing all the nights - this is what I've mentioned if we discuss it, which is fair, because it is a major factor for me. On the other hand mfm I couldn't say I've located likeminded persons.

well if either of you are in leeds i'm starting a natural parenting group and you'd be more than welcome to come along. There we can moan away about night feeds/bf etc without anyone ever saying "then why don't you stop? "

Whenwill sometimes only boob will do...good on you for sticking to your guns.