bore me with facts on this

[justtryingherbest]

so my daughter is not a good sleeper (for me, everyone else she’s great) but with me, she wants milk to go to sleep. she’s 18 months so only feeds to sleep at bedtime. if i feed her to sleep, she wakes over and over and over. all night pretty much!

but if by some miracle she lets me settle her to sleep without feeding to sleep she sleeps sooooooo much better. for example usually by now she’s woken at least twice after a bedtime at 7:30pm. but tonight she didn’t want boob to go to sleep so she settled herself and hasn’t woken once!

WHY?!

Breastfeeding can increase drowsiness because of the melatonin, prolactin and oxytocin but drowsiness doesn't always mean deep sleep.

The act of feeding is a source of stimulation, and comfort, but can be overstimulating sometimes and that overstimulation can lead to fragmented sleep.

She's at a transitional age where she's developing skills to self soothe through being comforted by you, but she's historically relied on you to survive and thrive and so the fragmented sleep to feed has been a survival tool.

Also the commotion of removing yourself after a feed can lead to disruptions which can mean a lighter sleep and more frequent wakings.

She’s waking because she was I tge middle of doing something and dozed off but then suddenly she wakes up in a different place! Imagine if you were dozing on the settee and you started to wake and discovered you were in bed. You would also wake pretty quick!

the best way to get a baby to sleep longer is to put them down slightly awake so they fall asleep where they are. It means they know where they are and it teachers them to put themselves back to sleep. So if they do stir they just drop back off.

@autienotnaughty my god….that makes incredible sense. and i completely get it now! haha thank you 😂