Desperate - 12mths, no daytime sleep & feeding at night!

[FlirtyThirty]

Help...please! I am physically and emotionally exhausted.

My DD is just 12months. She has virtually no daytime sleeps, is still breast-feeding and resisting weaning, and is currently waking lots in the night and hasn't learnt (been taught?!) how to self settle so ends up with me every night.

I am exhausted. I have recently had a scary health diagnosis which has taken its toll on my emotional resources, and I really need to take control of the sleeping/feeding though I realise not all at once.

I am really aware too that i have no time with my older child as the little one is awake all day and pretty clingy. This is starting to upset me. :-(

I don't even have the head space to know where to start...

She goes to bed (breasted to sleep) at 7pm after I read a story to both children together. If she wakes up, she stands up immediately Xbox cries for me or DH.

If she wakes in the night and ends up in our bed. She feeds just for comfort, then won't eat breakfast ad she's clearly not hungry then.It is all such a mess. I want yo stop breast feeding now...I simply don't know how...and I desperately need some minutes in the day alone of with my older child!

Please please tell me how to start breaking my own bad habits for the benefit of my whole family!

If it were me I would just first off look at reducing the night time breastfeeds.

Don't rush into saying you want to stop completely. (Even if that's your ultimate decision, if would take a while to redce down to nothing).

I would start by saying eg I will only bfeed overnight every three hours. Or else I won't feed between say midnight and 4 am.
Think about which of those would work for you. (Probably neither sound appealing I know!)

My dd was I guess similar. The feed wasn't actually satisfying her so I decided to cut down. I had my own self imposed rules about when I would feed her. Out with that u still cuddled her, paced the floor, patted her in her cot. Didn't leave her screaming but didn't actually feed her.

She was maybe 13 months when I did it.

Few not nice nights. But within a week she was sleeping through.

I've got a friend whose just done similar with a slightly older baby. Again he's now sleeping till something like 6am.

Hope that makes sense. Good luck!

Oh also if you wanted to read a book about it apparently dr jay Gordon has a good night weaning 'programme'

(I realise by post doesn't cover the No naps issue, but I think one step at a time. And you'll think so much more clearly if you get a decent chunk of sleep at night )