I'm heading back to work in a few weeks and W will be starting daycare (he'll be a year old). I'm working on cutting down his nursing sessions to just morning and night. The problem is that he still nurses once overnight, and the time varies - sometimes it's 3am, sometimes 5am - and I'm going to have to get him up to get ready for daycare at 6. So...do I nurse him at his nighttime session, whenever that is, and at bedtime? Dream feed him at 3 and then wake him up and nurse him at 6? Let him CIO overnight until he goes straight through and then nurse him at 6? Some other obvious idea that I'm not thinking of?
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Honestly, if I was in that situation, I probably would just go grab the baby, bring him in bed with me to nurse lying down, and then cosleep til it's time to get up.
But not everyone enjoys cosleeping. I don't really mind it. Sometimes it's annoying if my son is rolling around a lot in his sleep. Sometimes I love it because I get extra cuddles. The deciding factor for me is that it's usually the fastest path back to sleep for me. Well, for both of us, but in the middle of the night I usually care more about my own sleep!
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We just play it by ear. If its a 3 am feed, I consider that middle of the night and we nurse again in the morning. If its a 5 am feed, ehh close enough, sleep a bit later and drop off right to school.
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I am working through this now with my 15 month old. Sometimes he doesn't wake up at all and other nights he wakes up at either 3ish or 5ish. He will not fall asleep if I try to nurse him in bed - I really wish he would!
If it's around 5, we usually just get up for the day if it's during the week since we have to be up soon anyway. If it's the weekend, I treat it like a MOTN feeding and put him back in his crib. I do let him fuss for at least a couple minutes before going in there anytime he wakes up overnight and sometimes he does go back to sleep on his own. Or I have DH go in to pat his back, etc and that works about 70% of the time. I haven't done full on CIO yet.
Personally, I would not do a dream feed bc I wouldn't want him getting used to that just to have to break the habit later.
Oh, and to actually answer your question- if it's 3 am, I nurse him again at 6 when we wake him for daycare, but if I nurse him at 5, then that's it.
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At a year old, I wouldn't worry about it. My daughter is about a year. If she nurses at 3/4am, I don't do another session before work (unless she's asking for it, but generally I try to deflect her to solids in the am). I personally wouldn't cry it out in the motn because I'd want all the sleep I can get before work!
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Thanks, everybody - this is helpful. And actually what I accidentally did today - he woke up at 5 and I nursed him, and then when he got up for the day at 6:30 I just did breakfast. I had a vague plan to nurse him again before his nap but forgot.
@ElbieKay: Co-sleeping wouldn't really work because I'm going to have to get up at 5 to get ready for work and I don't think he could sleep in our bed alone while I get ready. He's actually a really easy sleeper, though, he almost always goes right back to sleep after feeding so nursing him at 5 and putting him back in his crib for an hour is usually fine.
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I still nurse my wee guy when he wakes in the night (which can be anytime between 0030 and 0500) and then feed him again when he gets up for the day but I'm also trying to maintain my supply. I went back to work three days a week when my guy was 14 months and he's continued nursing just fine although he does tend to lunge for me as soon as I get home from work!
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