Mums who used to BF baby to sleep.

[Reesie]

My lo is 9months old and I have BF her to sleep. She has been a terrible sleeper from birth (hourly wakings from birth to 3 months then 11/2 to 2 hours until 6 months). I have tried lots of things to try and get her to sleep but have failed miserably. I nearly ended up going mad with it all.

In the end I decided to not to worry about it anymore as I couldn't seem to change things. So, I just relaxed and BF her to sleep each night and often let her stay in our bed. Lo and behold a few days after I made that decision she started to sleep up to 8 hour stretches!!!! I have been co-sleeping with her the last few nights and despite my stiff shoulder and back in the morning - am starting to enjoy it.

However, a close friends and family have told me that I must be mad to do this as she'll never learn to sleep on her own or settle herself to sleep. I've been told that by the time she's about 2 - I'll have lots of sleep issue problems.

I'm going back to work in 6 weeks and my job can be quite demanding and stressful. I'm dreading having to go back without having any sleep the night before...

Is anybody out there who has said b***ks to routines and self settling techniques - what happened to you lo's sleep a months and years down the line?

hello! sorry late to this thread
I bf dd1 to sleep for ages, can't say when but at some point around one year I started to put her down a bit more awake. I carried on bf last thing until she was about three but she would be getting into bed still awake and settling herself. it was a gradual thing. dd1 was always a good sleeper.
dd2 I did pretty much the same thing, although I did use to rock her a little bit too before I laid her down and after finishing bf. she has been able to settle herself since she was nine months old. I am still feeding her and she will be 2 in November. I am happy to carry on feeding as long as she wants, and I love the last feed of the day.

I've BFd and coslept with my lo since birth. He's now 2.7 and still cosleeping, often BFing to sleep, and BFing first thing in the morning (I say no in the middle of the night, now). It's not a great night's sleep for me, but I work from home and only part time, so it's manageable. He starts his night off in his cot, and wakes up at some time during the night wanting to come in with me. Occasionally, he'll sleep all night in his cot, and it's a blissful night of space in my bed. I will cosleep for as long as he wants. I doubt he'll want it forever. May try and get a bigger bed, though.

can anyone help me with DS2?

I BFd DS1 to sleep and through the night (co-splept from 12-18 months) until 16 months when I'd had enough and started to say no (also stopped feeding him to sleep). it was a piece of cake.

DS2 (1 next week) has been awful from 4 months, culminating in him waking every hour for a BF, with the last month or so every 30 mins. He's had a bad cold, teeth etc and I know from history with DS1 that this is the worst time for night-wakening. I've started co-sleeping with DS2 and gone cold turkey with night feeds but he still wakes every hour or so. very occasionally I'll get a 2 hour stretch from midnight-2am. Last night was night 3 and I re-introduced a midnight feed as I felt he was a bit hungry. Nappies also very dry which worries me (DS1 has always had big wet nappies).

It's just awful. I'm utterly exhausted.

Any tips? Am I night-weaning too soon?

Night weaning at age 1 is not too early imo. My two went without night feeds from 4months! Is he drinking much during the day and how? I mean, water from a bottle or what?

Id be tempted to offer drinks only and that way he will realise there is nothing else on offer during the night and therefore decide waking up is not worth it. I wouldnt encourage him into your bed, but thats just my opinion, i dont think its the way to go, for me anyway - i like my bed to myself, undisturbed all night.

Id, try to settle him in his cot, without talking or lights just a bit of stroking and shh-ing. Id also try a bit of cc, but i realise not alot of people agree with this. Id also give him a little calpol late evening for the teeth.

Sorry, long message but I'd really appreciate some advice. I've been BFing my ten month old to sleep and co-sleeping, which is working fine-except I have a logistical problem. I think there must be an obvious answer, but I cant seem to find it... He goes to sleep at about 8pm, but I cant leave him in the bedside cot, as he could crawl out very easily. We are now sleeping on a mattress on the floor with his mattress up against it,(from the bedside cot, with the base from the cot under it to get it to height) but I still wouldn't leave him unattended as the room isnt really safe-lamp on floor etc.
Just got a second hand travel cot thinking I could leave him in that for a few hours every evening in the bedroom until i come to bed...but on teh cot it says "do not leave child unattended"...not much of a cot then is it???
What do other people do in the evening? will I have to get another cot as well as the bedside one just for the hours between 8 and when I go to bed? this seems like a lot of faffing about and we havent really got the room...
Am I being too cautious not leaving him upstairs for a few hours in the travel cot, because of what the instructions say?
Sorry this is getting very long, but I really would like to know what other co-sleepers do, and I dont want to keep rearranging the bedroom and buying new stuff I cant afford unless its going to be a real solution.
Anyway, i'm glad to read some positive stuff about co-sleeping adn BFing to sleep as I've jsut been given a hard time by a haelth visitor about it...but that's another story.

hi RosJ with my ds2 we used to have a little mattress (from the cotbed) on the floor in between our bed and the wall - he used to go to sleep on that and then come into our bed in the night whenever he woke up for a feed (or just felt like coming into our bed). It felt pretty safe as there wasn't really anywhere he could go apart from up into our bed.

We did this until he was able to climb up into our bed himself anyway.

but if you don't think your little one will wake up until you get to bed I don't see that there is any problem with the travel cot.

and tbh I think you should move the lamp from the floor in any case, as it doesn't sound very safe whatever your sleeping arrangements.

in answer to Reesie, my ds2 also bf to sleep for ages but at a certain point I just told him I didn't want to any more, and after a few nights of whinging he accepted it. This was after I'd already stopped night feeds. However I had tried to night wean him a couple of times before and he just didn't seem ready, so it was a bit trial and error. And Hattie's comments are very wise.

Two books I'd recommend, if you haven't seen them already, are 'Three in a Bed' by Deborah Jackson, and 'The no-cry sleep solution for toddlers and pre-schoolers' by Elizabeth Pantley which has lots of ideas for cutting down on night feeds or feeding to sleep, if you want to do that. Also your local LLL will have lots of women experienced in co-sleeping and the practicalities involved so it might be worth giving them a call.

Hi thanks mummypig...did you leave ds to sleep on the mat alone before you came to bed? i suppose I could do this if I make the room safe, though I dont really like the idea of him getting out of bed and exploring without us around...he's a very curious baby...
I think I'm probaly being a bit paranoid not wanting to leave him in the travel cot for a few hours, I wonder what the reason is that they say dont leave child unattended?

hi sorry for late response, yes ds2 was on his own in the room before we came to bed. I like that arrangement (as long as the house is fairly safe) as when he was older and walking around, he knew he could come to find me if he had woken up. It felt far better than having a child standing up in the cot screaming their head off waiting for someone to hear them (which I'm sure ds1 did on several occasions, despite having a baby monitor).

I'm not sure why the travel cots say not to leave the baby unattended. They aren't as sturdy as proper cots so maybe it's the problem of them tipping over if the child tries to get out?