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Will my boob-to-sleep addict ever kick the habit without intervention?

5 replies

hindsight · 09/02/2007 14:48

My 13mo dd is still a boob addict and waking up REPEATEDLY during the night. Some nights it's not so bad but last night it felt like hourly awakenings. We co-sleep so it's so much easier to just stick the boob in her mouth and drift back to sleep. But, will she ever kick the habit without intervention? Anyone with older babies / kids that just suddenly started sleeping well without help? Am I dreaming?

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BikeBug · 09/02/2007 15:09

my DH is a bit younger (11 months) but feeding to sleep just stopped working for us. No idea why. I would feed as usual and he just wouldn't drop off. So I had to change our routine - now bath, feed, story (story, story, story... until he yawns), cuddle and sleep. No active intervention by me to stop the feeding to sleep thing so, yes, it can just happen, though I wouldn't say he goes to sleep without help. If you want to change it you could try the No Cry Sleep Solution, but I think the 'pull off' technique it describes has limited success with babies truely dedicated to feeding to sleep?

hindsight · 09/02/2007 15:38

Yeah, I've tried the "pull-off". Sometimes it works ok and she rolls over and goes to sleep. Other times she roots around and then starts crying (and howling if I don't give in). The last few nights I've been trying to get her to sleep without the boob but she gets absolutely hysterical and won't even let me hold her (to try rocking her to sleep which can work if she's not too overtired). On a very rare occassion, she can fall back to sleep just with cuddling / a backrub but there doesn't seem to be any pattern as to when that works. Last night, after being woken up for the 6-7th (?) time, she had a bit of bmilk and then I did the "pull-off" and she started crying again and, out of exasperation, I shouted (not really shouted, exlaimed might be better) "Please!" and she fell asleep. Perhaps begging will work...

I'm just wondering if I grin and bear it, will she eventually figure out how to sleep on her own or will I have to intervene in the process and remove the boob if I want to get a full night's sleep before she's 2?

I've also tried keeping to a consistent bedtime routine but some nights, she's great and we do the bath, book, etc and she's right off to sleep. Others, we do the whole routine and she's still wide awake. Usually, those nights, she still has to poo. Once she poos, she then will sleep ok. But, her sleepy-clock and her poo-clock are not in sync (she's often ready for bed but hasn't done a poo so can't sleep) so it's really hard to have a consistent bedtime routine when half the time she sleeps immediately after it and the half she's back up and wandering around the house.

Too much information? Sorry.

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FluffyMummy123 · 09/02/2007 15:39

Message withdrawn

sweetkitty · 09/02/2007 15:45

No in my case.

DD2 was the ultimate boob fiend I was doing NCSS pull off with her but it just didn't work for us. After a year of not a full night sleep I decided enough was enough and one night when she woke for the first time DP ssheed and comforted her until she went back to sleep so there was no boob on offer, he did this for 2 nights and after that she has been sleeping through. I am still BFing about twice a day as well. She's now in her own cot in her own room and part of me so misses cosleeping with her but she was getting so big and moving about so much none of us was getting much sleep.

However, in saying that DD1 slept through from 6 weeks 11-7am then 8-8am at about 12 weeks and she used to fall asleep on the boob I can't remember when she stopped feeding to sleep but she just did well before she was a year too.

hindsight · 09/02/2007 16:16

icod - I really hope it's not that straightforward. I don't want to give up cosleeping as I really like it but at this point, if it's the only solution, maybe...

sweetkitty - I could try gettin dh to step in but he's really crap at getting her to calm down / sleep so I'm not confident that it will work. Worth a try though...

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