11 month old

[WorthMoreThanThat]

Ds2 is still waking up every few hours in the night, sometimes more!! Feels like torture now after so long! Completely refuses to go back to sleep without a boob!! Any suggestions as to how to make my not so little man sleep better! I need sleep!!!

I'm watching intently I'm also in your boat!! We co sleep a lot just to get rest for me to make the day at work!! I can't/won't cc or CIO!
Mine could self settle and only woke once at night till I went back to work then it all went tits up!

DD was younger (about 6 mo) when we enacted this plan: I put limits on how frequently I would bf overnight. I think it was something like no more often than every 2.5-3 hrs. At all other times she awoke DH got sent in to cuddle and rock her back to sleep. It worked. Eventually.

At 11 months old, most doctors would agree that unless there is an issue there is no need for milk at nighttime. Bedtime, morning and maybe midafternoon only.

I would stop feeding at night, cold turkey. Do you have a DH you can employ for week to do the settling? If you start on a night where there's no work in the morning to break the back of it that will help.

Just simply use any other means to settle. DS will be absolutely fine. He's probably eating 3 meals a day and doesn't need the extra calories, it is just a habit that needs breaking

I would personally use controlled crying to break the sleep association but understand that not everyone wants that option. Either way, if you can try and settle without getting out of the cot, that it really good in terms of establishing healthy sleep assocations.

On each waking, also leave for 5 minutes or so before going to him to see if he goes back over. Sometimes, you're pre-empting so that they don't fully wake up and hope to get them back off to sleep quickly but it's not necessarily for the best.

Good luck!

Agree with dropping the night feeds.

Like you i cant do cc / cio but for my dd the night feeds were not necessary. We dropped the nightfeeds cold turkey - did it over a bank holiday weekend and sent The Father in to settle.
Took 2 nights, 13 mins of crying, seems ridiculous given i was on the verge of suicide with tiredness.

Good luck.