Tanking up, falling asleep on the boob and breaking the boob-sleep association

[MrsHD]

This is a tiny bit more feeding than sleep so on this board it goes...

DS is 17lbs, 3 months old. He's always been a big feeder (no sh*t Sherlock!) and I've always wanted to get as much as I can in him ahead of sleep times as I wanted to maximise his sleep periods. He naturally wanted to cluster feed all evening until quite recently, when he'll now feed til somewhere around 8pm then go down. Trouble is, he falls asleep on the boob and only surfaces very slightly when we put him in his cot, so effectively he feeds to sleep though it's not intentional on my part. Similarly with naps, I've got into a habit (tsk) of giving him a quick swig before he goes down so that if he complains after I put him down (which I do on the basis of sleepy signs, not the clock) I know I can leave him to grumble for a few mins without worrying that he's hungry. He's often half asleep when I put him down for his nap, but not always by any means, so he does effectively self-settle.

We've recently had a pattern of him waking four (four!) times a night and on at least two occasions having only a very desultory feed which leads me to think he's forming the habit of boobing to sleep even though he's capable of going back to sleep without it, and has done a couple of times when I've judged he's nittering rather than crying/distressed/ravenous at 4am.

I want to break this boob-to-sleep habit completely, 100%. Trouble is, I don't know how to do that without being concerned he hasn't tanked up to his heart's desire in the evening (as if I wake him before putting him in his cot he'll just want to feed again and I'll feel I must feed him or he'll be too hungry to sleep etc), and without having a very cross little boy in the middle of the night. I know he's tiny and I don't have any problem with feeding him in the night and it has to be said he goes back down to sleep beautifully afterward most of the time, but four times a night isn't funny with three other children. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm save to drive and use a sharp knife, seriously! I don't want to find I wreck him going back to sleep nicely in the night if I wake him before putting him down again, but if I don't wake him he'll expect to be boobed back to sleep every time he wakes, and that's no good for him or me.

Help!

Its a tough one. We're in the same boat here. Dd, 17 wks, is a boob monster. I try not to feed her to sleep but.... If she opens one eye momentarily on the way into the cot does this count as been put down awake?? I was chating to a mum yesterday who would take her dd off the boob, tickle her under the chin to wake her up and then put her down. Its hard to do though. I do try to do it for day time naps (not happening) and in the evening but during the night I let her feed to sleep for fear of her waking her brother.

Well, it certainly seems like the easiet option. Although I need dd to be boob free before I go back to work in August.

The problem is not falling asleep on the boob per se, it's becoming dependent on it as a prop to sleep and needing it whenever he wakes in order to get back to sleep. I think all I can do is try to bring him back to the surface as I put him down, perhaps by speaking to him, in the hopes it breaks the boobing to sleep connection.