https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 19 Oct 2026 04:01:52 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1193322 Sun, 03 Nov 2013 08:50:40 +0000 autumn865 1193322@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think what you're doing sounds fantastic! If she is hungry or wants the comfort and cuddles go for it because what you're doing seems to be working nicely. We did EASY but then nursed to sleep/ rocked to sleep at bedtime for the majority of my LOs life. Now at 14 months we sometimes rock to sleep sometimes put down sleepy but awake (she self weaned at 13 months and had no trouble transitioning to not having the session at night.) i try to let her call the shots! Don't listen to those doom sayers when you hear "your baby will never sleep through" or "your baby will never nap". There are no absolutes with baby sleep and your LO will do things when they are good and ready. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1193321 Sun, 03 Nov 2013 08:50:37 +0000 lawbee11 1193321@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@delight: M is the same--usually only awake for an hour or hour and 15 min before it's time for her next nap. The not nursing to sleep has been going really well. But if your LO is napping well, then maybe you shouldn't mess with it? M only takes 45 min naps (maybe an hour if we're lucky) so I wasn't worried about them getting worse. </p> <p>I also wanted to start a strong nap routine so that DH can put her down, too. What I've been trying to do is not feed her immediately when she wakes up from a nap. I'll change her diaper, sing to her, read a book, etc. Then about 20-30 minutes after she wakes up I'll feed her. That way her feeding is closer in time to her next nap, but I am not having to nurse her to sleep. </p> <p>M is 13 weeks now so she's out of the "fourth trimester." I think this is the time that bad habits begin to form, so I am trying to avoid as many as possible. We've only been doing this a few days and it's already gotten better. I just put her down for her morning nap and she fussed for less than a minute. DH and I are also reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child"--I recommend it! I wish I had read it while I was pregnant.</p> <p>ETA: I still nurse right before bed at night because her sleep stretch is much longer at night. Sometimes she falls asleep while nursing, sometimes she doesn't. But she can still put herself to sleep at night if she doesn't :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1193302 Sun, 03 Nov 2013 08:38:15 +0000 delight 1193302@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: our girls sound similar with feedings! We are definitely on an EAESY schedule here too. L eats within a few mins of awaking for 5-10 mins and then I nurse her to sleep for 10 mins or so before naps and bed time. She's only awake during day for about an hour at a time but it's slowly increasing. She also spits up all the time, but is happy like M is after the spit up.<br /> I'm just starting to think about how to go about not nursing to sleep. When M took her naps a couple days ago without nursing, what did you do differently? Just didn't nurse? Rock her or sing? I'm so scared to try to eliminate the nurse to sleep. L is a great sleeper for naps and STTN so I don't want to lose that! Usually she starts getting fussy around the one hour mark so we go to her room, read, swaddle, turn on white noise, nurse, then I place her in crib.</p> <p>L is 11 weeks. When did everyone stop nursing to sleep? Should I try naps without nursing first? My biggest concern is come march my SO is taking parental leave for 12 weeks while I go back to work for rest of school year. I want him to be able to put her down for naps ok. She will be 7 months then. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191768 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:56:11 +0000 lawbee11 1191768@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Beehive: Yes! She will spit up then immediately try to shove it back in...I don't get it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191762 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:53:24 +0000 Beehive 1191762@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: Hahahaha I know what you mean, LO still does that at 12 months! And he always looks surprised too. Luckily he always stops before he actually spits up. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191758 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:52:05 +0000 lawbee11 1191758@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Beehive: She's definitely a happy spitter--she will spit up and immediately be smiling afterwards. It's actually improved a lot recently. I have an overactive letdown and it was causing her to cough/gag and spit up, but I think now that my milk supply is regulating it's gotten better. Or she's just gotten better at controlling it. Our newest issue is she found her hands and gags herself/spits up when she tries to shove her entire fist in her mouth! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191752 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:48:46 +0000 Beehive 1191752@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: LO was kind of a lazy eater at the time (not anymore), so he would take maybe 15-20 minutes a side minimum. I think if you start spacing the feedings a bit more, your LO will hopefully take the hint and consume more at each sitting. Since she's only nursing for a very short time and only one side at a time, it really does sound like she's snacking all day long. </p> <p>I'm not sure about the spitup - J did spit up fairly often (not a lot, but a little spitup maybe with every few feedings), but grew out of it. I think the spitup peaked around 4 months or so then went away. Does she seem bothered by the spitup, or is she a "happy spitter"? If so, it's probably nothing to worry about, or change feeding styles to accommodate (but of course that's just my own experience). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191733 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:38:02 +0000 mrsjyw 1191733@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we pretty much followed what you're doing. half baby led feeds/easy routine...even up until i cut down to one nursing daytime session A was going down sometimes after a nursing session sometimes not! </p> <p>At 11.5 months he takes both naps without nursing and we do still nurse as part of his nighttime routine. He usually is awake when we put him down (as he also wakes up if he falls asleep nursing). </p> <p>I think she's a good sleeper and the nursing sessions will fade on their own! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191731 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:37:10 +0000 lawbee11 1191731@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@scg00387: it's more the frequency than the nursing to sleep part that I am concerned about. Her naps are bad (I'm hoping a routine will help), so she'll nap an hour if I'm lucky. So nursing before and after an hour long nap or shorter seems excessive. And she'd nurse 5 min/feeding instead of one longer feeding. If I were a sahm I wouldn't mind as much, but for daycare purposes I don't want her to get into a habit of eating every hour. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191702 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:19:05 +0000 immabeetoo 1191702@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@.twist.: Oh man I'm certainly no expert! I know every baby is different. I honestly don't remember what the heck we were doing when he was as young as your little guy is. But, I will tell you I've never, ever regretted putting him in bed too early. DH will always be like "ohhh man he's gonna wake up so early, or he's never going fall asleep this early" and he always has fallen asleep easily, and slept in later. So, if I've ever erred on bedtime.. it's been on the side of too late :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191696 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:16:24 +0000 .twist. 1191696@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@scg00387: you have been so helpful to me with my sleep troubles! So, if his last nap ended short, I could bump bedtime up to like, 6:30?? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191680 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:02:08 +0000 immabeetoo 1191680@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: I think you've already gotten the answer, but I don't think there is anything wrong with nursing to drowsy and then stirring her, and putting her in her crib. She's putting herself to sleep. Eventually you could nurse until less and less drowsy if you wanted, but nursing to sleep works for some folks just fine.</p> <p>@.twist.: DS definitely sleeps better when he goes down earlier. His bedtime has always depended on his last nap as opposed to a set time, but especially in "transition" modes (like from 3-2 naps, and now from 2-1) it gets bumped wayyy early. The last two nights he's been asleep by 6:30 (earlier than normal for him), and then slept until 7:30/8 (later than normal for him). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191627 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 18:15:36 +0000 lawbee11 1191627@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@.twist.: That book actually talks about how babies sleep longer/later if they go to bed earlier. It was true for us--two days ago she went down at 7:45 and was up for the day at 6:30. Last night she went down at 8:30 and was up for the day at 6 this morning. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191619 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 18:12:11 +0000 .twist. 1191619@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: thanks! I'll look into that. He's been napping exclusively (lately) in his swing. I'd love to move him to his crib. I ended up moving L's bedtime from 8/8:30 to 7/7:30. I almost feel like I could move it up again! But I don't want him to start waking up at like 5am for the day! Haha our bedtime routine is the only solid thing we have going. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191614 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 18:05:12 +0000 lawbee11 1191614@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@.twist.: Up until this week we haven't really had a schedule, so that's why I decided to start because I need some more organization to our day. So now she takes all her naps in her crib. Her max awake time is 1.5 hours (usually she goes down a little before that, though, especially in the morning). She usually wakes up around 6:30, but her schedule largely depends on what times she wakes up in the morning and from each nap. I'm also planning to move up her bedtime. She's been going to bed around 8/8:30 but she is fussy in the evenings, so I think I should move it up. I've been reading "Healthy Sleep habits, happy child" and I really like it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191606 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 17:59:36 +0000 Adira 1191606@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@junebugmama: Oh no, I know that! I didn't mean to imply that a weighted feed would tell her how much her LO was eating at every meal - it just might give her some insight into why she was eating every 1-2 hours vs longer stretches! I found doing weighted feeds with Xander EXTREMELY helpful, so it's just another resource to look into that she might find useful! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191604 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 17:57:47 +0000 .twist. 1191604@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Ugh. I would love to get L on a schedule like you have M on!! How did you decide to start? I'm so scared to change what we have going because I don't want to mess with the little sleep we get. And what does your schedule look like? I guess I'm unsure about Schedules... :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191596 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 17:49:47 +0000 junebugmama 1191596@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: I think what you're doing makes perfect sense. My son ate every 1-2 hours FOREVER and then just didn't anymore. It will happen. I think that if what your doing is mutuky agreeable, then it doesn't matter what everyone else is doing. </p> <p>@Adira: a single weighed feeding wouldn't actually determine how much a baby is getting each feed. We all have certain times of the day where we make more/less milk. I have a scale and in the morning lo has taken as much as 8oz and at night less than 2oz. Most weighed feeding a are done to make sure that babies are transferring milk properly. You would really need to do every feed for a couple days and get an average with an older baby who is gaining appropriately </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191588 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 17:44:24 +0000 Adira 1191588@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: Our bedtime routine at that age was this: nurse, bath or just diaper change, read a couple short stories, turn white noise on, hold and pat back a couple times (hold for like 10 seconds maybe, haha), place in crib (bassinet actually at 11 weeks) and half swaddle (Xander never liked his arms confined, so we just swaddled from chest down), give pacifier (if fussy, often we didn't give him his pacifier), and say "good night, Xander, I love you" and then turn the lights off and leave the room. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1191582 Fri, 01 Nov 2013 17:37:40 +0000 lawbee11 1191582@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: M took two naps today without nursing beforehand! She nursed when she woke up and for longer than usual, so I think everything is on track. I am excited! She fussed for a few minutes then fell asleep. I am hoping soon she won't fuss at all. What does your bedtime routine look like? Do you nurse right before bed or throw something into the routine to split it up? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188777 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:14:44 +0000 lawbee11 1188777@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Beehive: That's what I would ideally like to do. Before you made the switch how long was he nursing at each feeding? My LO usually only nurses for about 7-10 min per feeding (I have a fast letdown, though). She's always been this way. I also only feed on one side per feeding. She spits up quite a bit so I read that smaller, more frequent meals help with that. The spit up has improved recently, but I am worried she'll start up again if I try and make her have less frequent but bigger meals. But maybe she's just outgrown the spit up phase? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188712 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 15:44:48 +0000 Beehive 1188712@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: We had to stretch out feedings around 3 months, because LO was kind of "snacking" all day. I was feeding him every 2 hours or so (never longer). The doctor said he should be eating every 3 hours, so we just made the switch one day (and entertained him when he got fussy from being a little hungry), and he just started eating more at each feeding. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188616 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:57:48 +0000 BabyBoecksMom 1188616@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I agree with PP's - it sounds like you're doing the right thing and putting her down drowsy. So, technically, you're not nursing to sleep. She might be using you as a little bit of a pacifier, but it doesn't sound like she's depending on it to fall asleep. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188553 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:29:19 +0000 lawbee11 1188553@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: she sleeps well at night. Goes down at 8, usually up for a feeding between 3-4 and then back down til around 6:30 or 7. </p> <p>@Alivoo01: Ha I allow it but she doesn't! We've tried 3 different brands--she spits them all out. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188500 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:09:23 +0000 cascademom 1188500@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>It sounds like you're putting her down drowsy which is great. It took us forever to learn this with LO. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188498 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:08:31 +0000 Alivoo01 1188498@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Do you allow a paci? DS will go down with a paci. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188494 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:07:45 +0000 Beyond2 1188494@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would stick with what you are doing. My son liked to nurse before naps too but has always actually put himself to sleep in the crib. That hasn't been a problem for us. DS is almost 14 months old. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188490 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:06:58 +0000 Adira 1188490@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: How does she sleep at night? And if you don't mind feeding her that often, I wouldn't worry about it!</p> <p>If you are concerned, you could try stretching out the time between her feedings gradually. Say she normally eats every 1.5 hours. Make her wait an extra ten minutes. Your boobs will be a little fuller and she'll be able to eat a little more. Then make her wait 20 minutes longer, etc.</p> <p>Although talking to an LC might give you better advice. I'm just pulling stuff out of my ass. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188474 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:01:14 +0000 lindseykaye 1188474@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: She will probably just do it on her own eventually. </p> <p>We also followed a loose EASY schedule for a long time. Until we sleep/nap trained we did the true EASY routine, but then after training I was so worried she would be hungry and wake quickly that I would nurse before naps but put her down awake (I don't know why I started that!?). This past weekend we went back to EASY and it's been great.<br /> So, anyway, if it works for you now I wouldn't sweat it. She may stretch out her feedings on her own as she grows. I know my LO only started to lengthen the time she went between nursing when she started to become a lot more active during the day, with more fun stuff to distract her from being fussy/hungry. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/question-about-nursing-to-sleep#post-1188312 Thu, 31 Oct 2013 13:16:24 +0000 lawbee11 1188312@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: Ugh she's always eaten every 1-2 hours during the day. I wish she'd go longer between feedings but I don't know how to make that happen. </p>