Stopping bF & feeding to sleep - 11.5 months

[EssexMamisoa]

Hello. I’d like to stop bF for various reasons. Dc currently 11.5 months and fed to sleep. Wakes 2-3 times at night (fed to sleep). Does anyone have any success stories / tips on stopping bF when falling asleep is so closely linked to the bf’ing? She can’t self settle is the problem but I feel like we are stuck on a loop of bF & feeding to sleep (this isn’t why I want to stop bF - but that’s another story) so nervous about how I’ll get her to sleep

Do you have a partner who can try and get her to sleep? If I went to my DS he would expect milk but if my DH went DS would be rocked to sleep.

@jc89 yes I do. We tried rocking to sleep. It sometimes works. Sometimes takes hours! (And I mean hours) so not really practical

thank you

Following as we are in the same position

Taking DS for a walk in the carrier was another one that sometimes worked - but that was more for bedtime rather than middle of the night wake-ups. Also had to be quite careful not to wake him when getting out of the carrier!

It’s difficult isn’t it!

It's so hard, I know i need to be firm and put the boobs away after feeding her in the light but that crying is awful, does yours take a dummy? I feel if she was able to take a dummy things would be easier

We started with my DH re-settling DC if they woke in the evening before we had both went to bed. They would rock them back to sleep. I won’t lie, there were a lot of tears initially and I would often go in to take over as I didn’t want this to become a stressful situation for all involved. But my DH persevered over the course of weeks and could eventually settle her in seconds no crying. Once that was established we then started feeding at the start of DC bed time routine and finish with a rock to sleep as we knew it was possible for them to fall asleep this way. First night was a few tears and now, DH can put them to sleep quicker than I ever did feeding to sleep. My DC is a bit younger so does require milk still but I am trying to phase out feeding to sleep for naps as well in the same way (feed while awake then rock) to get to the point where feeding is for feeding only and can then be replaced with a cup of milk as DC will not take a bottle. I know this maybe isn’t a quick enough fix for you? But we definitely took a more long winded gentle approach. I think if we had let her cry more (and in reality she was coming to no harm being cuddled in DH arms and didn’t require feeding or anything else at the time) it probably would of been much quicker.

Sorry I’ve just re read and saw about rocking to sleep not being practical, if you’re not keen to try a more CIO method I’m not too sure if there’s many other options? Could use a carrier to lighten the load but I find it wakes them to take them out! I can only say when it’s consistently used it becomes much quicker and easier to do 😊 I can now do it myself in the night and DC is back to sleep in a few seconds sometimes! Transitioning back to the crib is the next battle but that’s for a different thread 😂