What happens if you don't CC/intervene in any way?

[Manoo]

Have been wondering, what happens if you don't do any sort of sleep training at all? I am still breastfeeding my 18mo to sleep. Obviously I won't be breastfeeding him when he's eighteen.... So what happens in between? I am very curious to know!

It's terrible you have to hide something so lovely as sleeping with your baby from people. If I tell someone it's like I've told them I give her whisky to drink.

Someone said to me "we're the only mammals that throw their young out the nest!"

oooh I love this thread... my dd's only 7 months but I have always b/fed her to sleep and during the night and waver between questioning my own wisdom and thinking how nice it is to have it reasonably easy. Because she feeds quickly, we have a good old cuddle and down she goes... 5 mins flat. Sometimes this happens 3 times a night and that's a bit much but once or twice I can TOTALLY handle. I just wonder about the teeth cleaning thing... she hasn't got any yet...

I saw the LB sketch for the first time last night. It was spot on. I was on my own but cackled!

I love sleeping with my ds - he's only three months and goes to sleep on his own at about 7, then when he wakes for a feed at about 10pm, I bring him in bed, he feeds lying down and goes off to sleep again. And repeats an unknown amount of times until about 8am! Nights with him are sooo much easier - dd is so hard` to settle if she wakes up (2,5).

another lazy bf cosleeper. I could never get out of bed during the night

She's 14 months now and i dont even knlow if she sleeps through the night!

Dont worry about that. When I've gone out for the evenign dh has never had a problem putting either to bed. I went back to work when dd was 6 months and wondered how she'd go to sleep but dh wasnt concerned and she has 2 naps with him at set times. With me she has one nap at no set time.

can anyone tell me and dp how to co-sleep. if baby is in middle what bed clothes do you have over you all? our baby due in march. thanks

Hiya, another breast-feeding, co-sleeping veteran here! DS was breast-fed to sleep until he was about 15months. This was partly because I couldn't work out how to express milk, so only mummy would do. Then he made his own decision to stop breast-feeding.
Now he's 3.9 and happy to sleep in his own room in his own bed, but comes in to our bed to visit when he has a bad dream or needs a cuddle.
Re co-sleeping, I recommend Deborah Jackson's book, Three In A Bed. DS slept in our bed but not under the bedclothes--he lay on his back next to my pillow wearing his babygro and sometimes a light cotton blanket.

a second for Arabica, ds1 was 16 months when he gave up feeding to sleep and ds2 is that age and still feeding to sleep but no longer co -sleeping and is going through the night now (thank goodness)

IMO the BF and co sleeping combination did prevent my kids from learning to settle themselves in the night if they woke, but that's just my experience.

BF and cosleeping great as long as you are all getting enough sleep.

cloudexplosion, what you do as they get older is give them a big BF at night as normal but just a bit earlier so they still have a bit of spark left and then spend 15 mins reading and singing and then cuddle them to sleep or pat them down. Getting DH/P to go in when they are on their last legs so to speak is the best way to help them learn to actually put them selves to sleep.

HTH

and if he's only 3 months old don't worry at all!
He will probably change his sleep patterns a couple of times what with teeth and colds and then there's the obligatory getting up at 5 phase, as long as you are confident you can get him to sleep after a BF but not on the boob (if you do want to continue BF that is) then that's your bedrock and you just have to take the nocturnal variatons as they come

Sorry I haven't read all this thread in the right order but those pesky kids are snapping at my heels