2 month and BF

[JL642]

Hello. I have a 2 month baby who currently sleeps through the night in her next to me crib (waking for 3 feeds). I’m worried as I BF her to sleep - this includes when I first put her down at 8ish, and her night wakenings. I read different things in google (some articles saying it’s natural and normal and good for baby, other articles saying she won’t grow out of it)

Does anyone have any practical examples please? Should I try and stop this? Or will she grow out of it? She’s still so small and I’m on Mat leave so I have time to BF her to sleep at the mo….but it may not be possible when I return to work / stop BF.

Follow Lyndsey Hookway on Instagram - she’s a big advocate of following our motherly instincts e.g. feeding to sleep. She also says ‘its not a problem until it’s a problem for you’ and it did become a big problem for us around 3 months where our DD couldn’t connect sleep cycles and woke every 45 mins to an hour. We had to work really hard to get her to fall asleep on her own which she does now.

every baby is different though and ours was always a bad sleeper. Many babies will continue to be fine being nursed to sleep and put down asleep - it’s good that you’re informed that there may come a time where you need to switch up sleep associations.

This is completely normal for babies. Breastfeeding settles them wonderfully. I'm not sure why anyone would find an issue here.

I love feeding my son to sleep. Will continue to do it

Feeding to sleep is great because then they go to sleep. I cursed the day DD stopped doing it for naps and I had to jiggle her like Riverdance to get her to sleep. Thank goodness she fed to sleep at bedtime at night!

Currently wrestling a windy newborn who will not feed to sleep until successfully burped but getting him to burp is an hour-long process. At 3am. I would delight in him feeding to sleep easily!

Thanks everyone. Yes I really enjoy it too :) we go upstairs at bed time and settle in a quiet and cosy room and then she’s fed to sleep. It’s relaxing and easy (albeit time consuming) It’s more long term that worries me! But I am a FTM so maybe I’m simply thinking too far ahead.

Baby sleep always changes and you can always change this if it’s a problem. One thing I would recommend if you have a partner is get them to do lots of skin to skin with the baby, wear them in a sling, and try cuddling them to sleep occasionally – the better their bond the more likely they’ll be able to do bedtime at the point the breastfeeding goes from “snuggly and cosy” to “wrestling an octopus with teeth”.

Hahaha wrestling an octopus with teeth has terrified me 😂

Currently feeding my just 1 year old to sleep 😊

She falls asleep without feeding in the day (pushchair). If she wakes at night I pick her up and cuddle her and she often goes straight back to sleep without feeding. When she sleeps next to me I often lay a hand on her if she starts stirring and that settles her back down.

One day it'll stop working and then I'll do something else. It's not a problem unless it becomes a problem for you - and then you can try something else.

I spent ages worrying about it with my first child - for no real reason. Keep doing what you are doing as long as you are happy!

Not heard of Lyndsey Hookway but we were exactly the same as this with ours!

Feeding to sleep is totally natural and normal. At this stage you should be following baby's feeding cues.

I fed to sleep with both of mine because it worked. It stopped working naturally around 9 months old. Then we did some sleep training.

Thank you everyone. This has made me feel more relaxed so I am glad I posted. Also now following Lyndsey on Instagram

A baby just expects to be fed to sleep and I see no reason not to. Won't grow out of it? Ever? I stopped BFing at 4.5 years and fed to sleep right up until then. I'm glad I could do it for my baby, it's only a tiny period in their life you can do it for. I wanted to take every moment as BM is so wonderful for their health and development.

I have a 2 month baby who currently sleeps through the night in her next to me crib (waking for 3 feeds).

Why do new mums frequently say this? 🤦‍♀️ If they wake for 3 feeds they don’t sleep through the night.

I really wouldn’t worry about BFing to sleep or how that looks when you return to work while your baby is only 2 months old! It’s just a normal part of having a tiny baby at the minute.

“In her crib” is the point. When she was two weeks old she’d sometimes be in her next to me crib for about 10 minutes once every four days. Appreciate that this is completely normal but I wasn’t keen on co sleeping for various reasons so the baby being in her crib for 12 hours a day simply waking for feeds as she is at the moment is a positive thing for me :) appreciate it may all change anyway! 🤣🤣 I will continue the BF and feeding to sleep as we are which was my question

Just wait! Sleepy newborn you can cradle vs baby who wants a foot in your armpit and a finger up your nose

Yes they grow out of it. Could be at 6 months or 16 months.

For now you're fine. Keep at it.

Between 4-6 months is when sleep associations are formed and that's the best time to gently encourage another method of falling asleep (you don't have to sleep train to stop it becoming a habit, but this window is the easiest time to prevent it)

🤣🤣🤣🤣

@ChildsNoseIsATap thank you. I will bear that in mind between 4 and 6 months