What's all the fuss with 'self-settling'? I feed my 11mo DD to sleep

[mammainlove]

My 11m.o. DD has always been breastfed or rocked to sleep. It is a bit stressful sometimes when she fall to sleep feeding and i have no energy to rock her, but generally it's not a big problem. I have tried just leaving her in bed and lying with her, but as she co sleeps she just gets up and starts playing and hyping herself up again! I plan to breast feed for another 6-12months, but after that i cant imagine how else to get her to sleep! It also would be so nice now to have her fall asleep without relying on being fed, so that her daddy can get her to sleep sometimes. Is self settling something i need to start thinking about now to make it easier in the future? Can anyone recommend a good book on this?

*Oops, i meant it's stressful when she 'doesnt fall to sleep feeding'..

Try the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley

Sounds v similar to me and DS when he was that age. Nothing wrong with feeding to sleep IMO until you or DD are no longer happy with it.

I also recommend "The No Cry Sleep Solution".

This is what worked for us:

• moving DS into a cot. Initially in our bedroom and then in his room.
• clear bedtime routine with a bath, massage and story
• creating a calm environment through speaking quietly and calmly, soothing songs, cuddly toy just for bedtime
• as he got sleepy, taking him off the breast and cuddling to sleep. He initially cried a lot and I used to latch him back on sometimes and try again after another few minutes
• telling him that the milk was all gone (but never latching him on again after saying that)

I think you can do this in stages but only when you are ready.

Good luck!

I BF both my DS's to sleep until they were 12-13mths. Gave up BF at that point. When I was cutting down BF, I had a beaker of cow's milk too, and would give them drinks from that (gradually increasing beaker and decreasing BF over a week or two). But after that I could only get them to sleep by cuddling them until they were asleep and then lowering them into cot (backbreaking).

The way it worked for me, was to hand over to DH for a few weeks. Initially he rocked them to sleep, then started putting them in the cot before they were completely asleep, then moved on to putting them in when they were still quite awake. Once he'd been doing that for a few weeks, I was able to slot back in and do the same thing.

Don't know if you've got a DP who's available at the right time to take that on, but heartily recommend it!