Day naps and feeding to sleep

[thewindisfullofghosts]

DD is 8 weeks old and has always fed to sleep. This doesn't seem to be a problem at night as she routinely sleeps for 4.5/5hr chunks, 7 hours the other night (I realise she's still young and that could change!).

However, she has colic and so daytime sleep has become a bit fraught from early afternoon onwards, as she often can't drop off on the breast as she isn't feeding for long enough. This leads to a very frustrated and overtired baby and hours off rocking and shushing.
What methods have worked for you in terms of breaking this habit? I wouldn't mind if it wasn't distressing her but it is, so I'd love to help her self-settle.

What methods have worked for you in terms of breaking this habit?

Dummy!

Dummies are absolutely AMAZING for independant sleep. Add in a swaddle if you've not tried one yet. They are great for calming and soothing baby.

That said, you really don't need to worry too much about feeding to sleep at this age. Are you breastfeeding? It's pretty impossible not to feed to sleep mostly in this newborn stage, so don't stress it.

The early evening fussiness will be the need to cluster feed. All normal in an 8 week old. Just park yourself on the sofa with a cuppa and the tv remote and just kerp keep baby at the breast. Feeding and dozing on and off throughout the evening is pretty usual. So I wouldn't bother with the rocking and shushing. Just let baby feed and comfort suck at the breast through it all.

What if you're baby wont take a dummy? Jumping on as my baby is a fed to sleep baby too and its getting so wearing sometimes...

RhinoGirl your baby is older so at a very different stage to the OP and her newborn. It might be better to start a new thread for more age appropriate suggestions, because it could muddle the OP.

Thanks for the reply!

She will take a dummy sometimes, but she either stays wide awake or closes her eyes but doesn't actually sleep unfortunately.

She isn't cluster feeding in the evenings as she's clearly uncomfortable, pulling off the breast and yowling. Sometimes she persists and falls asleep, other times she refuses to continue and cries until we manage to rock her to sleep. The doctor diagnosed colic and recommend Colief, which has helped a bit.

Like I said in my OP, I wouldn't mind her bfing to sleep if it wasn't distressing her so much when she can't. She's actually been suckling for the last hour and a half (unusual these days) and has just drifted off!

Thanks Fate I think I will. Hope you find a method soon OP, colic is the worst!

Are you winding adequately? Pulling off the breast and yowling could be wind. After a feed, lift baby to your shoulder so baby's body is quite vertical and rub back for 5 or 10 minutes. There are other winding positions, if you Google. Also look at your feeding position from the point of view of wind - baby's head above the stomach when feeding is good for wind, with a nice straight back and neck.

If not and baby isn't wanting a feed, it'll most likely be sleep that's needed. You often need to work hard for independant sleep (off the breast), so just putting dumny dummy in and hoping baby will go to sleep may not be enough. Two things to try:

Swaddle + Dummy

You don't need anything fancy to swaddle. A flat cot sheet or giant muslin cost a few pounds. The swaddle calm baby down by reducing stimulation and recreating womb conditions.

I'd swaddle, dummy in and some gentle rocking (with dummy in) until asleep. Then put baby down gently, leaving baby with your hand on the chest as put down. Wait for a few moments until deep sleep.

Dummy + Bouncer

Another option is to relentlessly bounce baby in a bouncer (minus the play arch). Position the bouncer on the floor in front of the sofa, dummy in and park yourself on the sofa.

Bounce with your foot with a rhythmic movement. Then be relentless about it. You watch tv, foot bounce non-stop and keep in reinserting dummy as needed.

The dummy and bouncer is my favoured approach.

The doctor diagnosed colic...

Just as a final point, because im not sure if you realise, but this is just the doctor fobbing you off. Colic isn't a medical condition, it just means undiagnosed crying.

The crying itself could be about anything and nothing. It could be baby just being a normal baby. It could be hunger, over tiredness, wanting a cuddle, being too hot, too cold... It could be pain, illness or a medical condition... It could be a million other things. Colic just means crying that you don't know the reason for yet.

RhinoGirl - I'd be happy to help.