Bfing at night and bed sharing.... Becoming a nightmare!!!

[BocaDeTrucha]

Ds is almost 11 months and has just recently weaned off bf during the day. He goes to bed in his cot then when he wakes around 2-3am, I bring him into our bed, nurse him and he goes back to sleep on our bed. However, he then always wakes again around 5-5.30am and desperately looks for my boob so I near him again, usually lying down, but this time he then stays awake for ages and ages whilst he crawls, climbs, wiggles, kicks and tries every sleeping position possible in the bed/on me before he eventually falls back asleep.... This morning he didn't even get to the falling back asleep stage. Our getting up time is about 7.30 at the mo but will have to be earlier come September when he starts nursery.

We want to wean him altogether but he seems so utterly addicted to nursing in the early hours I don't know how we're going to manage. Will having him in his cot all night make it easier or not? Not sure where to start!

This sounds almost exactly like me and my daughter at the moment! She has just turned one and wakes without fail at 0430 every morning (crying). There's a bed in her room so I lay down with her in the vain hope she'll have a quick nibble and drift off.....
The reality is about an hour feeding on and off with lots of tossing and turning and fidgeting.
I just don't know how to break it!

Yep, bayrans, sounds like we're in the same boat. My suggestion so far is that I pack my bag and go on holiday alone for a week and get dh to break the cycle..... But for some reason he's not up for it!!!!

Well you jest but it might actually work! My husband was great in breaking the feeding to sleep cycle, I just left home for 3 nights and returned only when she was asleep - and it was done! I'm not going out at 0400 though. We've just moved so will try again in a couple of weeks of him getting up to give her water/milk.

I have no words of wisdom but can empathise. Though my DS is only 2 months I'm also finding bed sharing hard work. He'll usually start the night with 2 or 3 hours of settled sleep but then become gradually more and more unsettled and wriggly throughout the night. He'll cry as if he's hungry but as soon as I pick him up to feed him he'll fall asleep in my arms. If I put him down he'll whimper and thrash around again. I think he'd like me to just sit up and cuddle him all night. Lovely for him I'm sure but would mean no sleep for me! Feeding lying down sometimes works but often doesn't.

My DD was soo the same. She'd wake up to 8 x night for bf, I was exhausted. I agree with bayrans - my husband in the end had to break the night feeds - it was done with great success after only a few nights - here's what we did if you're interested - mydaughterwontsleep.com/2014/02/06/is-breast-best-when-it-comes-to-sleep-apparently-not/
Good luck

I had similar with my DS at the same age, rampaging round the bed for hours in the middle of the night although he was clearly tired. For me the solution was to stop bringing him into bed with me. I would feed him and then put him straight back in his cot. He was rubbish at self settling and originally I just did it out of desperation, but to my amazement he usually dropped back to sleep after a couple of minutes of protest.

I think that being in bed with me was just too exciting for him and he needed the boredom of his cot!

Hi Boca, I was in a similar boat to you with my daughter, (although we were co-sleeping the whole time).
I wrote this blog post about what I did and how it got her sleeping through the night, without leaving her alone to cry it out.
I wish more people knew there is another way besides controlled crying!

listeningtotears.com/2014/03/01/sleeping-through-the-night/

Have you tried putting her back in the cot after the night feed?
I fed my ds in the night then straight back into the cot up till he was just over 10mo then we had a week or so when the "night feed" was at 5am, then he started sleeping till 6:30am (from 7:30pm).

Cosleeping works great for lots of people but i know my ds would not sleep through in our bed.

Thanks so much for all the wise advice. Procrastinating, your choice of the word rampaging just described ds perfectly. Although strangely enough last night I feed him twice in bed and both times he dropped off straight to sleep.... No rampaging at all!!! All we did say put him to bed a bit later.

We are reluctant to change anything major at the mo as we are about to go on holiday so changing his routine anyway. But who knows, maybe this is just the right time.

Thanks for the links to both articles. I agree we do tend to try to do anything to stop our babies crying when maybe it's just what they need
.. His only problem is that if I hold him he just desperately tries to nuzzle down to my bombacho pulls my t-shirt down like he'd been starved for weeks!!!

Last night was so lovely though, with the 3 of us sleeping without the stress!!!!

No idea what bombacho is...... Meant to write boobs!!!! Although I quite like the new word "bombachos"!!!!