Breastfeeding a 16mo - evening and night wake ups 😴

[Dup]

(It’s surprising that MN doesn’t have a breastfeeding forum?!)

I just wondered, if you have a 16mo(ish) and are still breastfeeding, what does that look like for you? Especially in the evenings?

• My DS wants a feed immediately after he gets home from childcare.
• He usually feeds to sleep at bedtime, that way I can roll away and leave him on the mattress.
• He is then stirring every 40 mins or so during the evening, and only the breast will calm him. However, as soon as he latches on, he will nod off to sleep again. So I go up, wait for him to fall asleep and unlatch, the I come downstairs again.
• Once I’m in bed, he might latch on a couple of times overnight.
• Starting from around 5am, he will stir and want feeding. He is voracious, wanting both sides. He will feed then doze, feed then doze, until around 7am.

I’m shattered! Especially in the evenings. I’d love to get a nice block of say three hours to myself downstairs, but the only way that happens is if I feed him to sleep on the sofa and then hold him until we all go up to bed.

Just wondering what it looks like for others around this age?

😊

This sounds incredibly annoying - why do you persist with it?

I'd love to tell you different, but this story sounds very familiar. The baby I nanny for is 16 months old and like your little one, feeds as soon as her mother gets home at night. She feeds to sleep at 9, mum goes to bed at the same time. Baby continues to latch on at various points during the night.
Mum is shattered but committed to continue breastfeeding for the time being.

I'm sending you hugs and strength, as they grow older and eat more food they do naturally drop feeds overnight, so hang in there!
I personally continued until my son was 4.5 but by that time he was just feeding at night and in the morning before school..and he was sleeping in his own bed so at least I was sleeping!

Thanks @ayvasili, it’s good to know I’m not alone!

I have a 17 month old. He breastfeeds morning, afternoon and evening. I feed to sleep for bedtime and, at weekends, for naps. Around 12 months, I started sending dad in for any wake ups before 5am with some water as I could feel he was just sucking for comfort. A couple of hard nights and he stopped waking much.

We had molars come through between 13 and 16 months which was a challenge and we were back to BF 1 or 2 times per night, for short periods here and there.

He does ocasionally, say 2 nights out of 7, wake once now but dad settles him quickly.

At about 15 months DS was just having a feed before bed and then weaned him off that shortly after as had to go to a work conference. Any night wakings he would be offered water.

How much food does he eat?

When night weaning DH would put him to bed and I kept away. Only took about 3 nights before I could be involved as DS then wasn’t bothered. But he wasn’t feeding during the night so less to wean off.

Does he BF during that day if you are around?

Hi @BalloonsBubbles654! Funnily enough I have just been googling molars as he’s bitten me three times tonight 🫠 I wonder if that’s what’s going on with him.

Does your little boy sleep in a separate room? How do you find that in regards to breastfeeding overnight? In terms of having to get up and out of bed to feed him?

We are still cosleeping currently but I am wondering about getting him a floor bed that I could go into to, to feed him. Or, as you say, send his dad in instead! I don’t think DS would be very happy with that though… 🙈

Hi @sittingonabeach, thanks for your message. He eats well. He’s always been on the larger side on the percentiles. He has three meals a day in nursery then we usually offer him a ‘supper’ before bed too, which he gobbles up. On non-childcare days he does breastfeed, for naps usually, and he likes a good feed after breakfast too.

Have you tried putting him on your husbands side of the bed? I found mine would wake to the smell of milk so having dad barrier inbetween really helped

He sleeps in his own room, in a crib, since 6 months. There is a double bed there so when he is sick I can cosleep but I have a bad hip so cosleeping all the time just wasn't an option, I'm in a lot of pain and have to switch sides a lot. It was annoying moving him to his own room and having to go in to feed every time, back when he was feeding 2-4 times a night. But it did improve his night time sleep.

What you describe with waking hourly would break me. He won't be happy with dad going in but he'll get the idea quickly. You are sending a loving parent (cry it out was never for us) to comfort him! It may not be his favourite parent so he'll soon decide it's not worth waking so much.

We do also give calpol when we think he's teething. Biting me was always the first sign. Molars are paaaaaaainful and take ages to come through.

Just to let you know there is an infant feeding board where you can get more advice

We can definitely try this tonight!

I am on the infant feeding board 😁