Anyone with a bf baby who fed to sleep- what did they do when they went to nursery?

[Hulla]

DD is 11.5 months, still bf during the day but this is mainly at naptime. She feeds at night and before we get up (co-sleep). I am really worried about her starting nursery this week.

How will she fall asleep at nursery? Does anyone else have experience of this? What did your dc do?

She doesn't drink expressed milk (perhaps I don't heat it enough or too much?) but she will sip at warmed cows milk. She'll be away from me for 3 days so I'm thinking of sending her with cows milk. I don't want her to be hungry and cows milk has to be better than nothing?

If anyone has any advice I'd be grateful. Settling in session no. 1 tomorrow!

I gave up expressing after about a month, it just wasn't worth the effort. She feeds quite a bit at night, although I start to wonder how much of this is comfort instead of genuine nutritional need. I'll be away over night for the first time in a couple of weeks time and I guess the husband will be able to report then. She'll be 13 months then and I'm not too worried.

Both my dcs were bf-ed, co-slept, never fell asleep from awake, either fed to sleep at breast or in a buggy.

Both slept like all other children in the nursery. Something they would never do at home.

But there is an adjustment period of a month or two, during which it is important that the nursery is prepared to be flexible and do what is necessary to get your dd to sleep without too much tears.

For dd, they rocked her to sleep in a buggy. For ds, he was carried and rocked in arms. They eventually fell into the routine. But I will always be grateful to the carers who gently eased their transition.

Thanks so much everyone. I read these all last night & the message seems to be: babies don't always act at nursery the way they act with their mum.

I'm not sure we'll make it into nursery today, we're snowed in. And I only have one teabag left .

I'll let you know how it goes when she does go in.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences

Hi Hulla - my DD is still cuddled to sleep, pretty much and I too am worried about this - I did start a couple of months ago stopping feeding her to sleep for daytime naps - used NCSS to help wean her off bfing to sleep daytime. But, she still cuddles to sleep and not sure how nursery are going to handle this, so I'm very reassured by all the responses you've had. Is not helped by the fact that the nursery was closed yesterday and today, so she's missing out on her settling in days (only hope it's open tomorrow, so she can settle in before I return to work on Mon ). You would be surprised at how quickly she will learn to fall asleep without bf once you are not there to do it - I think the hardest thing when you try to do it yourself is knowing that you have the means to get her to sleep the way she likes best and having the willpower not to do it - well, that was the issue for me anyway. So, in this way, you don't have to worry about it as you will still be able to bf her when you're there, but nursery will deal with her napping when you're not. Well, I'm hoping that's the case with my DD anyway!

Can you tell that DS is talking to my while I'm typing - not too sure if any of that makes sense, but have got to go and play ball!

Thanks FYS, I know exactly what you mean about missing settling in days. I did manage to get to dd's today but we've missed one so I can either leave her for 5 hours tomorrow and go to work as planned or leave her for one hour and start on Monday. I'm inclined to go for option 2 after today's visit.

DD was fine but there was one little boy who just cried the whole time I was there (1.5hrs). I thought his keyworker would pick him up & cuddle him but she didn't seem to notice half the time - even when he had his hands out to her. I felt so sorry for him that I ended up cuddling him at one point (I don't know if this is allowed but I couldn't leave him).

Anyway, there was a 7 month old being rocked in a pushchair to classic fm which seemed to work fine & the other babies seemed ok. DD liked the toys. I am still wondering if I'd have been better finding a CM. After 12 months of trying never to leave her to cry, cuddling & feeding her to sleep it just doesn't feel right leaving her at this nursery - even if it is 2 minutes walk from my desk.

Hulla Sorry it doesn't feel right for you. Maybe there was a reason the little boy was being left to cry - maybe the parents asked them to do this? Seems wrong to me too, but you never know. The baby being rocked to classic fm sounds nice and sounds like DD liked it ok. Hope it goes well tomorrow, whatever you decide.

Thanks snail I was probably going to be anxious no matter what eh? I'm going back tomorrow to drop her off for her hour on her own so I'll ask about it then.
They were doing water play today - all the babies sat on the floor dipping cups in the water. Lovely! Dd steamed in and swung her leg over the side trying to get in!

Haha, sounds like she'll be just fine

Mini update, DD went for an hour and a half today. She was fine when I left her but sobbed when I picked her up. They'd tried to get her to nap in the stroller but no luck. She'd had a little bit of lunch and two bowls of rice pudding . She was exhausted when I picked her up and was asleep withing 2 minutes of us leaving.

It went much better than expected

Glad it went better than you thought. DD often does that too - is fine while i'm gone but then cries when i come back and she realises i haven't been there all along!