When you stop breastfeeding at night...

[SaltK]

...is it a total nightmare to get them back to sleep? My 1 year old is finally sleeping quite well, so I'm loathe to change anything, but I am so ready to not be the only one who can put him to bed.

I breastfeed to sleep for naps and at the start of the night. He sleeps through til 4/5 often, but settling him after that without the boob is hard. I'm also sick of being the one who always had to get up with him in the early morning.

I just have this feeling that if I stop, I'll just be left with no way to settle him and things will be worse. Any stories from people in a similar boat?

Could your partner start putting him to bed? You need to break the habit. We had to do this as I went on a residential training course when ds was still breastfeeding, it's hard for a mum to refuse to breastfeed and the baby doesn't understand, if dad puts him to bed then they accept it better.

Thank you, yeah, we'll try this.

Similar boat here Saltk.

I'm also exhausted and fed up of being the only one who can settle DD.

We can take some comfort in the fact we've done an amazing job breastfeeding all this time - although I have a few months to go - DD just turned 10 months....

I've sent DH in to settle DD in the odd occasion it has worked but most she gets more upset and wants mum and of course boob cuddles.......

Be good to hear from some mums who have older toddlers who they successfully settled other ways and breastfed over 12 months etc....

Hang in there!
❤️

I need the answer to this... It breaks my heart not to give her the breast when she cries and wants it... am finding it very stressful but really want to stop breastfeeding now.

Hopefully someone has been through this and can share their experience....

I still breastfeed mine, but she will go down without it if nanny or DH puts her down. I would leave DH with a bottle of expressed milk and go out for an evening. LO will be fine, they'll be comforted and soon drift off. And then, once you've done it once, you'll be able to send him in to do it more often.

My daughter is 18 months now and I stopped feeding her to sleep at 16 months. Her sleep was actually horrific and she was waking at least hourly to be fed back to sleep, I was an absolute wreck and she was too as she was constantly exhausted. She would often be up for hours during the night as well.

We got a gentle sleep consultant in because I just didn’t know what to do and the answer was to put her in her own room and stop feeding to sleep. By night 2 she realised what was going on, and there was minimal crying involved. She now sleeps through reliably 11-12 hrs a night. It was the best thing we’ve done, she does wake sometimes but is able to settle herself back to sleep without my help.

She does still feed twice a day, first thing in the morning and before bath time at night. If she wakes distressed in the night I will feed her, keep her awake and then put her back in bed to fall asleep herself. This happens once every two weeks at most.

I personally wouldn’t stop feeding overnight until at least 12 months, but that’s up to each individual family.

Chocolate how did she get to sleep in her own room? What did you have to do?

Ive just recently stopped breastfeeding my DS when he was 9.5months. Same reasons- I was just fed up of having to do every bedtime and he was waking up 2 hourly all night and only boob would put him back to sleep 😢 We were both exhausted and although I was sad to end the journey I just knew I had too.
Don't know if this helps but basically I started with a bedtime bottle and then rocked him to sleep. All subsequent wakes through the night i picked him up and walked around/rocked him relentlessly. Yes it was 2-3 rough nights with very little sleep but actually it was ok with not much crying, as long as I held him, and so worth it. I'm currently about a week into the Lucy Wolfe Stay and Support sleep plan now I've night weaned, and we're making good progress with some good chunks of sleep...in his own cot 😬

Found this which is quite practical:
www.ahaparenting.com/Ages-stages/babies/teaching-your-baby-to-put-himself-to-sleep