How to stop feeding 13 month old to sleep before new baby is here?

[ThatOchreQuoter]

DD has always feed fed to sleep. I’m pregnant currently and have heard my milk might dry up anyway and she might self wean. But I want to find another way to get her to sleep. I’m worried about substituting feeding for rocking as I don’t know how comfortable I’ll be when I’m heavily pregnant and it might be hard when the new baby is here as husband works late sometimes so I’ll need to do two bedtimes.

new baby isn’t due until spring next year but I’m just trying to make everything as smooth as possible so there’s not too much change at once.

Swap the routine, so if you do story then feed then bed, do feed, story then bed so it's not associated. Naturally now they can start having solids as rheir main source of nutrition. If they wake at night, then give water through a straw

My son was 16 months when I got pregnant with my daughter and I was still feeding to sleep. Every doctor and midwife I spoke to in the first trimester told me my milk would dry up and he'd self-wean. I didn't believe them and was a bit worried but that is what happened!

However, we were also quite proactive. Firstly, DP and I started alternating bedtimes. He gave DS a cup of warm milk and I nursed on my nights. We made an effort to have a cosy wind down routine in his bedroom with books etc. He was still waking in the night at this point so we started alternating who went into him.

Eventually he would nurse but just not fall asleep. He then just stopped, around the time that he started sleeping through the night. It was a challenging transition for us but it probably only took a month and by the time baby was here it was like he had forgotten he'd ever been breastfed.

Remember your DD will be a lot older and more mature once baby is here. Replace nursing with books and cuddles. Congratulations and good luck!

Has she learnt to self settle? For naps or wakes during the night? If not she needs to learn to do this. Don’t introduce another way for you to get her to sleep, she needs to be able to do it on her own and at 13 months she should be capable.

Thank you. I’ll do this.

Thank you, thats really helpful.

She can self settle most of the time for wakes. I see her on the monitor waking and going back to sleep. But she can’t self settle for naps or bedtime.