HELP weaning 8 month, contact/co sleeper from the breast.

[muma2021]

I have no idea how to wean my baby from the breast. She sleeps on me and nurses all throughout the night. I rock her to sleep whilst she's feeding and touch her head to make her actually fall asleep.

I don't know who I can turn to for help or where to get started?

Maybe start by introducing one bottle of formula a day...then increase gradually. Maybe one in the Am and one before bed to see if she'll take to it. Have you started any food at all? Good luck you're doing great x

@ISayItLikeItIs thank you! She is on food yes and I know this sounds really stupid but I have NO IDEA about bottles and where to get started using them. I've also been told that because of her age it's not a good idea to introduce the bottle because then you just have to wean them off that so I'm just so overwhelmed with information and end up not doing anything at all lol! X

We just did this with our DD. I think you might have an easier time going to bottle even if you then need to get her off them around 1, as they're more breast-like. You can get nipple-like teats.

You could get a bottle feeding starter set which should have everything you need?

I dropped one feed every week or so and replaced with 5-7oz formula. I did get a bit impatient at one point and dropped a couple at once but then got painfully engorged, so be warned!

Do you want baby to continue co sleeping or go into her own cot/room? I don't know how you feel about sleep training but we had to do it to get her out of our bed - we did the pick up put down method although did mix in a bit of controlled crying, never left her to cry longer than a couple of minutes though.

My DD was exactly the same, only wanted to sleep cuddled up against me and snacked on the boob all night. It was what got us the most sleep in the early days but by 6 months I was uncomfortable, exhausted from multiple wakeups and fed up. Now she is on 100% formula, sleeps in her own room and wakes twice (before midnight and at 3/4am) only.

Good luck!

[quote muma2021]@ISayItLikeItIs thank you! She is on food yes and I know this sounds really stupid but I have NO IDEA about bottles and where to get started using them. I've also been told that because of her age it's not a good idea to introduce the bottle because then you just have to wean them off that so I'm just so overwhelmed with information and end up not doing anything at all lol! X[/quote]
There's no way around the bottle I'm afraid because if you want to wean off breast you're gonna have to supplement with something else. I know every baby is different but it was not hard taking the bottle away from mine when it was time. I just changed to sippy cup, then to a cup with a straw. There's a lot of misconceptions especially for us first time moms, I know all the info out there can be overwhelming. But the bottle is the first step to weaning.

regarding sleep training, all ill say is good luck lol. Again all kids are diff but mine just doesn't like sleeping lol and hes 2 now, nothing has changed but he is finally in his own bed now. As suggested above if you're comfortable with sleep training you can give it a go and start transitioning.