As the title says. I still feed my 16 month old to sleep for naps, bedtime and any wake ups. Not planned, I didn't feed to sleep from newborn but it's just sort of ended up this way and I’m not mad at it either. It's the quickest way to get her to sleep, it maximises the amount of sleep, she doesn't wake up at an ungodly hour in the morning and I love our closeness.
That being said, she'll wake continuously through the night. We're talking every hour, 2 if I’m lucky. Has a little feed and off to sleep she goes again. I think mostly it's not a feed at all, just comfort sucking. Hell on Earth ensues if I don't there quick enough if I'm still downstairs in the evening or suggest something else like a cuddle/pat/shush or heaven forbid Dad tries to settle!
Yeah it's annoying and yeah I'd love an evening out or a couple of hours to myself however as I say, it currently works for us.
Here's the BUT. I really worry that she's not getting quality sleep and that I’m not teaching her skills to fall to sleep independently. The unsolicited comments from family and friends don't help either - "she's STILL breastfed?!" ... "she STILL doesn't sleep through?!" ... "she's woken up AGAIN?!"
Is it really the big problem that people are making me believe? Am I committing a huge parenting faux pas?! I’m feeling like a pretty sh*tty Mum at the moment. It's as if I've let her down in some way because I haven't taught her how to get herself to sleep.