DH thinks I should wean - I don't want to

[ineedalifelaundry]

My 11 month DD has been sleeping very badly this week. I am still breast feeding on demand and the last few nights she has been demanding it an awful lot during the night - sometimes suckling for a full hour or more and being difficult to settle back into her own cot afterwards.

I think it might be down to me starting back at work last week after mat leave. A mixture of comfort suckling and making up for less milk during the day (although I'm on holiday now - since last Fri - so she has access to me through day too)

DH thinks I ought to wean her from breast to help her sleep through. I'm not sure that this makes sense and in any case, he knows I intend to bf until she's at least 2, as recommended by WHO.

He also wants to try sleep training but I'm not keen on that either, unless there's a method that doesn't involve leaving baby to cry it out.

Any thoughts?

i honestly think that she is waking up more in the night as you are not there in the day

weaning her now will potentially upset her more

the sleeping thorugh is unlikely to follow, if she is waking up for comfort and feeding, she will jsut be cryign surely?

if you don;t feel ready to wean her and she is still enjoying breastfeeding, then i would continue

When I started back at work a couple of months ago DS got a bit like this in the night - not as extreme as your DD but certainly waking and wanting to BF more. It settled down after a couple of weeks when he got used to things so I would just roll with it for now.

Re the sleep training - it's up to you whether you do ANYTHING at all. Is the sleep a problem for you? Cos if not, then it's not a problem. But if it is, and you aren't getting enough, you could do some gentle sleep training - maybe have a look at No Cry Sleep Solution.

It could be lots of things - you going back to work, maybe getting some more teeth etc.

Weaning her is unlikely to make any difference to her sleeping through.

If you wanted to change anything about her sleeping, try reading the No Cry Sleep Solution - very gentle.

FYIW, my DS had night feeds until he was 18 months old, and we part time coslept as I was working ft and couldn't be doing with any less sleep than I got. At 18 months he slept through of his own accord, and has done so ever since (now 3). I could count on one hand the number of times I have had to get up to him in the night in that time, and they were all for fireworks/vomiting/thunder. He sleeps better than any of the people I know who told me that I had to do controlled crying/remove night feeds/wean like they did with their children.

I have a 3yo and a 16 month old. With my 3yo, I gave up breastfeeding at 13m and it didn't affect his poor sleep - it was still poor.

However, my DD, I have up breastfeeding at 12m and over the following weeks, it helped her sleeping hugely. She was up 10-12x a night wanting to feed a bit and once I stopped feeding, she wakes just once or so just to check that I'm there and then goes back to sleep.

If you want to carry on breastfeeding, then do so. There is a chance that giving up would help her sleeping, but it is only a chance, not a certainty!

If you don't want to wean her, then don't.

It is worth having a look at How Weaning Happens (a LLL book) which covers all sorts of aspects of weaning at various ages.

I second all those who say that weaning is unlikely to result in her sleeping through, and then you are left without the most useful tool for getting her back to sleep.