WHEN does it get better?

[PatronSaintOfDucks]

Ds is 13 months and is still up 3-4 times between 7:30pm and 7:00am for boob pretty much every night. This is a drastic improvement from being up every 1.5 - 2 hours every night for months a couple of months ago. He had done 8-hour sleep stretches a couple of times in the past two months. But overall there is no end of nightly boob-fest in sight.

We tried night-weaning Ds at around 8-9 months. Three times. It sort of worked, but he was still up a lot, plus started waking too early for the day, and then he was teething/snotty and needed comfort and so was comforted with boob and had to be night-weaned again. At the end, night-weaning did not pass cost-benefit analysis. For the same reason we did not try CC. We just know that it will need to be done again and again and again, and just can't face it.

WHEN does it get better? Most people with bad sleepers write about them magically getting better at around 10-12 months. Just give me some words of hope.

Personally, I don't think it gets better on its own unless you're fortunate enough to have that sort of child (and no-one can tell you if this is the case until it happens!).

It's hard to say what to do to improve things without knowing what his day routine is like as well. Does he sleep a lot in the day, for example? Could he be hungry from feeding a lot during the night (a vicious circle)?

It's probably just habit and like a lot of babies who breastfeed in the night for comfort, the only thing you can do to stop it, is some sort of sleep training. I'm not necessarily suggesting controlled crying, although that should work if done properly and it shouldn't need doing again and again. Most people say 3 days sorts things out - if you stick to it.

He shouldn't be feeding at night for nutritional purposes as at 13 months, his food intake during the day should be sufficient for him to not be hungry. The habit is unlikely to go away unless he randomly decides so, but that doesn't sound like something you want to wait and hope for.

I would suggest pickup/putdown, as the Baby Whisperer suggests, but get your partner to do it. The smell of breastmilk if you're doing it will be too much for him (and cruel in my opinon, as you're suddenly withdrawing something he's had free access to his whole life). Be warned, PUPD can take a few days and you could be up all night, but I've seen it done on TV and it works. You'll also need to do it for naps as well if he's using the breast to settle for those. Be consistent - that's the best advice I ever got.

Hope that helps.

My DD was like that. To be honest, I just had to make the break. I decided that she was 13 months and DID NOT NEED THAT MUCH BOOB. I was able to sing a made up song (big girls get milk in the morning) and just cuddle her or give her water. I was dreading it, but in the end, it took three nights and she slept through, like right through, for almost a year.

Disclaimer: it was so wonderful we decided to have another. I'm now 37 weeks pregnant and for the last 6 weeks she has been waking up doing a very lovely, very loud and very, very fake cry at least once a night every bloody night! I've resorted to shouting at her through the door, going in appeared to be just what she wanted! Oh, the joy!

It never ends, good luck.