Baby wants to sleep with nipple in mouth - help!

[Tier500]

Baby is 14 weeks. We cosleep and all of her naps are in the sling/pram/my arms. Dummy totally rejected. She has never slept in her bedside cot - would just wake up screaming when I put her in, and I did what I could to survive in the early days!

She sleeps well at night - will do a 6 hour stretch from 7pm-1am, and until recently had one other feed at 5am which was great! However, I was sitting up in bed to feed her but now she’s bigger it’s easier to feed her lying down and I’ve basically become an all night buffet. In the last week she’s wanted to be latched on pretty much all night.

How can I stop this becoming a habit? My first daughter was a terrible sleeper from the 4 month sleep regression - she woke every 45 mins for about 3 months. I can’t cope with that again now I have 2 of them to look after!

Can anyone recommend gentle methods to try? I’d love to work to the goal of putting her down in her cosleeper cot to sleep by 6 months so we can have our evenings again, and have her sleep in there at night without needing to be latched on.

I would do it by feeding her, then unlatching her and rock her to sleep in your arms. Then she will be able to get used to falling asleep without a nipple in her mouth. Trust me, she will sleep eventually, she’ll be too tired to stay awake all night! Just keep removing the nipple and don’t let her do it! Don’t be a martyr, you need rest and sleep as a mother, otherwise how on earth can you be a good parent with no sleep. Don’t feel guilty about needing to do this. Good luck!

I had this and then what I started doing was winding her which would rouse her slightly and then she would fall asleep in my arms again. Still bloody cosleeping though...

She's probably having a growth spurt or developmental leap. I have a vague memory of both of mine going through phases of trying this.

Just keep trying to unlatch slowly and gently. I generally found removing the nipple from underneath (like pulling down slightly to break the suction and then removing slowly after a pause) worked well when they were in a period of waking as soon as I removed the nipple.

Thank you for the tips - I will persevere!

My first daughter had this. We co-slept and she would, as you say, use me as an all-night buffet. Terribly irritating for the nipples. The solution I found was (drumroll, please...) sleep-training! Put her in her own cot and did a mixture of CYO with pick up, put down. Never looked back.

Ooh I did this with mine
Absolutely stopped the bed night boob thing... fed him in the living room

When snugglling in my elbow would sneak the dummy in whilst he was rooting but absolutely stuffed with milk and would gently pull on the dummy to get him to latch
It took a while but he got the gist and accepted it
Off to bed he went

She’s only 14 weeks though - too young to sleep train and still needs her night feeds. She has rejected the dummy totally as well despite numerous attempts - think I left it too late 🤦‍♀️. I think maybe I should stop feeding her lying down so there’s a definite end to the feed as that seems to be where the problems crept in. They’re sneaky!

My DS did this when he was way younger. He sometimes does this now when things get too tough for him (stressful day, new skill development, teething etc ). But tbh I was so tired (the amount of sleep debt if could exchanged in monetary value will make me go broke three times) so I fall asleep with him while he’s nursing. Obviously I’m very careful by following the safe sleep seven guide.

It’s a learning curve for mom and kid. It does get better !

DS only wanted to sleep in my arms. However, if I fed him to sleep, then nipple out, then held him for 20 mins til he was really deeply asleep, I could then very gently put him down in his cot and he would stay asleep.

My LO does this on and off. Ive got quite used to it! She would not sleep on her own at all till she was about 4 months. And then we just started trying her in the cot and she would sleep there for a bit and this has slowly got better. I start her out in her cot but she still comes in with me through the night because I'm too lazy to resettle her. I can unlatch her more easily now and she stays asleep. It's probably got easier since she was about 5/6 months.

This might be a long shot as this was last year but mum who posted the question, how did you solve this? 😅 Same problem here 😊

Yes, update please. In the same boat and it’s very hard.

I didn't mind the co-sleeping (and whilst it's frustrating, that thing they do when you try to extract your nipple because they've fallen asleep and they half wake and go 'I'm sucking, I'm sucking' for about 3 sucks before drifting off again is very cute), but when mine did this, I started wearing a thick, crew-neck t-shirt - a mens one - close enough they could smell me, but it was the skin contact that sent them mad for boob (and yes it interrupted both of our sleep)

This boy managed to bf through my nightie the other night. Hard to deter! He used to wake v briefly for two feeds until about a month ago but now just wants to be latched on all night. Very poor sleep as I drift off exhausted after trying to get him to unlatch repeatedly like Elizabeth Pantley says. Then I wake up an hour later and he is still going. Argh.