Calling all co-sleeping breast-feeders!

[Ab31]

I'm co-sleeping with my 13 mnth old DS and bfing him to sleep if he wakes. On the whole I'm loving it and don't want to change our sleeping arrangements as it works for the whole family at the moment but cant help wondering where it goes from here.
I just wanted to gage from other mums' experience.... When do co-sleeping/bfeeding babies tend to grow out of the need to feed to sleep? And when are they generally ready to transfer to a cot/beds and how you know?
Thanks!

Wow, I could have written this post! No advice I'm afraid but I'm exactly like you, except DS is 11mo. It's lovely to find people who are still happy with cosleeping and feeding to sleep :)

I was wondering the exact same thing though! Partly because we're thinking of TTC again before too long and it would be easier if DS was in his own room when the baby arrives, but I don't want to force the issue when we're all happy at the moment.

Doesn't look like anyone's going to tell us JeewizzJen!

I shall watch this thread with interest (DD is 2)

Marking my place, as I lie snuggled up in bed next to 11mo DS.

DS went into his own bed when he was just over 2. I still feed him to sleep and he's 3.8, but some nights he is starting to say no now when I offer milk. It only takes a few minutes to feed him to sleep and is a small part of the bedtime ritual which also involves stories etc :)

I night weaned DD at 2.2ish; I stopped feeding her to sleep about 2.4ish? We started cuddling to sleep in the same position (fed to sleep on sofa and later transferred to bed).

Then we moved to cuddling in bed with a story and she miraculously went to sleep no problems.

I now have a DS 12 months and they both sleep in bed with me.

I love co-sleeping!

At the moment we've made the transition from in her cot in our room ( sometimes our bed too if i fell asleep feeding her back to sleep) to dd's own room in her own cot.

This 'transition' has pleased some of my 'creating rod for your own back' brigade friends (don't you love people's judgemental views?) However I have failed to explain that I've also transferred the spare rooms' double bed in to her room too So we're doing exactly what we did before just I'm booted out of our bed now in to her room instead of DP being booted out in to the spare room IYSWIM!

We're happy as a family with this arrangement but I do wonder at what stage she will settle herself at night and/or go without milk at night. She's only 9.5 months so I think we've still got a way to go yet, but definitely watching this thread with interest.

Ds was fed to sleep (co slept sporadicAlly) until about 20 months. I was pg and had fed him almost tobsleep then told him I needed the loo and by the time I got back he was asleep. Started doing that more often Amd he started going to sleep without being fed! Dd was 2, co slept all the tome and fed most of the night. By 2 she just did it herself, no fuss.

DS has slept through reliably from about 2.4, by the way. It does happen eventually! I didn't do anything - just moved him to his own bed, but actually he wasn't waking much even when he was in with my by then anyway.

Also watching with interest. I co-sleep with dd 8 months. Thinking about moving her into her own room soonish as I am getting beaten up by her in the night, kicks to my bladder etc
Has anyone any tips about avoiding the nightly assaults?

DD slept through from when she was night weaned.

Felicity, DS is a struggler - I have no useful suggestions - sorry!

I think it's DD's way of telling me she wants a feed

DS was nightweaned and went into his own cot at 11 months when he started climbing out of my bed and wobbling off/falling out.

It wasn't easy and took a few nights of back and forth with lots of shushing and patting, but he's now sleeping 10-12 hours a night with a feed before bed and then one first thing when i scoop him up and he comes back to my bed for 20 mins.

I found it helped DS to give him an old pj top of mine to sleep with and I have a monitor that has a walkie talkie type function, so i can chat/sing to him.

I co slept with all my three kids, but DD2 was still breastfeeding at least twice a night up until she was 3yrs. This was usually after I had clambered into her sleigh bed and was therefore wide awake. I was getting so tired that I had to try and wean her off which I have now managed. Unfortunately this has not stopped the night waking as she still hollers across the landing to me and still wants me in bed. When I creep out at 5am and she wakes at 7am she thinks that she has slept all night. As you can see she is not a Gina baby and I am terrible at saying no to her.

Terrible at sayng no to her = meeting her needs. Thisis a good thing - no need to apologise.

Another one in the same position but with no actual advice! DD2 is almost a year, and although she starts the night in her cot she always wakes sometime between about 11 and 1am. At which point she comes into our bed and feeds a few times before the morning. I don't think she's ready to sleep through in her cot yet, but I'm starting to think about ways to encourage her... I'm really craving a good night's sleep. Oh, and DD1 also ends up in our bed at least a couple of times a week- it's starting to feel a little crowded!

Moved first into her own cot bed at about 12 months, initially nursed her off to sleep as part of story and song bedtime routine, stopped feeding by about 14 months. Co-slept with dc2 until 7 months ( he was a proper wriggler) put him in a double bed and just joined him when he woke first for the remainder of the night. Fed to about 15 months. He slept through on his own more regularly after we moved house and put him in a cot bed in his own room, he was about 3. He just liked company so would climb in with whoever would have him Dc3 didN't stop feeding for a long time, she was about 22 months. I can't remember when we moved her to her own bed but I'd start her off there and bring her into our bed when she woke and nurse her off initially.

Of the three i'd say the fastest transition was dc3. I decided I'd had enough of feeding and her dad took over bedtime. He'd do stories as she and i had done but then snuggle with her to get her off to sleep. It took 3 rough nights then she accepted it and after a short while stopped waking in the night for a feed

brandnew did you need to use a bed guard with your wriggly ds when he moved into the double bed?

Ds now 4. He stopped bfeeding at about 3 1/2 but we still co sleep. He is a dreadful sleeper and I mean awful and it's the only way we get any rest. Plus loved bfeeding and still like to cosleep

I use a bed guard on one side for wriggly DS, and he often hits it/throws himself against it.

I did use a bed rail, partly for him but mostly so that I could make the most use of the bed without falling out myself when I was in there with him. I kept a monitor on so I'd know when he woke. By the time he was sleeping longer he was walking anyway and we just taught him how to climb out of bed safely.

Just like Seventheverything here, until DD's 3rd birthday last month, when I cut bf'ing down to bed time and wake-up. Not quite in our new groove yet, due to various colds and lurgi, but several times she has not woken at all in the night (after only ever once in 3 years previous), though is in an early waking phase.

I don't know when she'd have given up the night feeding on her own, I couldn't wait any longer, I learnt that I'm just not as child-led as I set out to be, I had come to hate some of the feeds and so very very tired from being woken 2-3 times a night. I'm happy to continue a bed time feed for a while yet, and co-sleeping, though I can see I'll want that to end probably before DD does, she is rather wriggly and I'm a light sleeper.

With both babies I largely co-slept, however as they go to bed earlier than me I put them into cot next to bed once they get mobile and then they get in with me later.

DD2 is 12 months now - she either feeds to sleep and I put her in cot, or she feed and then I put her in cot and off she goes to sleep on her own. I only discovered this after getting very exasperated one evening when she would not settle. I put her in cot and went out of room to take a breather. She went WAAAAAH for about 15 seconds, lay down and went to sleep! So now I know I can put her down awake and she will put herself to sleep. She will get into bed with me in the night.

With DD1 I really don't recall - it was a gradual thing I guess.