I know it is the number one thing not to do with baby sleep but DD wants to nurse to sleep every night. We have a strong bedtime routine (bath, lotion, pjs, books, nursing, kiss, bed.) The problem is DD will always want to fall asleep nursing. When I take note she is relaxed, sleepy and no longer eating I will unlatch her only to experience crying and protest from her. When I do get her unlatched and in bed she escalates when i leave the room to a frenzied crying (throwing up, snot everywhere, ragged difficult breathing) and all of our work getting her sleepy is a waste. Please does anyone have any suggestions of what to do? Her sleep is my biggest stress 
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Can you switch the nursing and books maybe? That way after you wake her up while unlatching her she still gets some drowsy cuddle time before being placed down and it might not be so upsetting?
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can your so give a bottle at bedtime instead?
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I had the same issue. I nursed Liv to sleep every night until she was 18 months old. When she finally weaned, we started rocking in her rocking chair instead. But I never figured out a way so I just went with it. I feel ya
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LMW falls asleep drinking her bottle every night (and for most naps) and she's never had a problem with her sleep. She learned how to self-soothe on her own, so we don't mind letting her fall asleep eating. I know people say the worst thing you can do is let them fall asleep eating, so we were careful with our first, but this time around we decided not to worry about it unless it became an issue (like if she couldn't fall asleep without the bottle) and it's gone just fine. She is a phenomenal sleeper though, so if your LO isn't a great sleeper, this obviously might not be the best choice!
Sorry if I'm no help :T
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Wish I could help you, but we are at 10 months of nursing to sleep. Honestly, it's a pain because I want to be doing other things, but I just remind myself that it won't be this easy forever. Hard part is I know she CAN go to sleep without nursing because she did it for grandma!
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We only stopped nursing to sleep when LO stopped falling asleep and would keep nursing forever. Now at 15 mos we nurse for 20 minutes, say goodnight to the things in the room, and turn off the lights. Then i rock her briefly, she falls asleep, and i hold her a few minutes before putting her in bed. She usually sttn and can self soothe, so this has worked for us.
I know that was not your question but i just wanted to offer another perspective.
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LO will almost always fall asleep nursing (tonight I topped him up with a bottle of pumped milk after nursing as he still seemed hungry, and he fell asleep drinking the bottle!), but I try to wake him up a little when I put him in the crib - I'll sing to him while I put him in his sleep sack, so he is very sleepy but falls asleep on his own in the crib. Sometimes he'll fuss a tiny bit if he's more awake, but the only time he really gets upset is if he's still hungry - like this evening whenever I unlatched him when he was getting sleepy, he started really crying, so I knew he was still hungry. I'm not sure if that's the case with your LO.
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We never figured it out either! LO nursed to sleep for every nap and bedtime until he decided on day was no longer going to nurse. Like magic he started falling asleep on his own next to me for bedtime.
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I nurse P to sleep. Sometimes she'll fall asleep on her own, sometimes she's on the boob. I don't see an issue with nursing to sleep... to me it's the same as a bottle or paci to fall asleep, which many find perfectly acceptable.
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I always nursed to sleep until she refused the breast around 8 months. After that, we gave her a bottle at bedtime, while we read her a book. She's 13 months and we need to figure out a way to wean her from the bottle, but I don't see the harm in nursing to sleep. I liked knowing she found comfort in it
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Thank you everyone for your responses. It makes me feel better that we aren't the only ones who can't work the awake but drowsy thing!
.@LemonLong: this is what we might try so she has a lesser chance of falling asleep while nursing
.@LivsMama: @bpcmarj: @MamaCate: @Beehive: @anbanan15: @runsyellowlites: when you nurse your LO to sleep do they stay asleep? For night wakings do you always nurse back to sleep? For awhile the nursing was working for us but in the past two weeks or so DD started to wake up after we put her down repeatedly (like 2-3 times between 7 and 10 and then doing 3 night feedings) and we were spending our whole night rocking her because she wakes up in such a frenzied state. Baby sleep is HARD! -
We just figured out how to separate the two, but with a bottle. We do bath, pjs, Bible story, bottle, sleep sack and bed. Waiting on the sleepsack keeps her awake a bit. This would not have worked 3 weeks ago. Having her learn how to put herself down at night has significantly improved naps too!
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My LO is the same way were always immediately fell asleep while nursing and this was the only way he could fall asleep and he would kick and scream if I tried to put him in the crib before he was completely asleep. Now I nurse him in my bedroom with the lights off and the tv on and let him cry on my bed next to me. He usually falls asleep within 15 minutes and then I move him to his crib. I plan on starting to transition him to his crib soon to see how it goes.
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@autumn865: how old is your LO? we got down to one night nursing by around 4-5 months I think. I was usually able to soothe her without nursing if it was early. We always started by giving the pacifier, and that often worked. If not, then patting and shushing, and then worst case rocking and patting and shushing in the rocker. I tried not to nurse unless it was after 12 or 1 (LO usually went down around 7).
After a year I started being stricter about not nursing at night but have made exceptions for teething and sickness, which has been kind of a lot lately. But now it is quite rare to nurse her at night...
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@Autumn865: I wake him up a little when I put him in the crib when he falls asleep nursing. That way he has a chance to put himself to sleep when he first goes down. When he wakes up at night he puts himself back to sleep (he did before when we swaddled him, but now that he's unswaddled and in a sleep sack it's easier for him, since he can suck his thumb). We don't do any night feedings at the moment. Knock on wood!!
Before we unswaddled, LO would need a pacifier to fall asleep in the first instance (and some nights we'd need to put it in a few times before he fell asleep). Generally he wouldn't need the pacifier overnight though, and would be able to fall back asleep without it. Now he just plays with it like it's one of the toys he loves to eat.
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@MamaCate: She is 6 months so we are definately at the point where we should have one or less feedings! Tonight I dreamfeed her at 10:30-11 but she woke up at 12:30. DH went in and rocked her with the paci. Tried three times to put her down dead asleep and she wakes up. We waited another 20 minutes of crying and it is 1:30 now and I am feeding her. She will be up in 3 hours or less to nurse again. Girl likes to eat!
@Beehive: maybe I can wait and put her sleep sack last after
feeding her so that way if she was asleep she would be nudged awake a bit. DD is the same way with the paci. We watch her just playing with it on the monitor. She manages to get it back in sometimes lol. -
@Weagle: I think naps are half the problem. During the day she sleeps every two hours but takes 3-4 naps a day that are 20-30 minutes long. 3 times she has surprised me with a hour+ nap but in those times there weren't any improvements in nighttime.
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She estopped falling asleep while nursing on her own around 5 or 6 months. We also changed up the routine and I now nurse her after bath, before books and songs.
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I never considered nursing to sleep much of a problem; my rule was that she was going to bed after that whether she was asleep or not. We did change up her bedtime routine to nurse with lights on and after nursing do sleep sack and lullabye. I'd say she still conks out while eating like 50% of the time, and she is 10.5 months old. She started sleeping through the night around 9 months but before that I'd nurse her 1-2x a night when she woke up.
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What's wrong with nursing to sleep? We do it and plan on doing it as long as it works. DS can put himself to sleep if he wakes up by sucking on his hand though. I'd much rather nurse to sleep than to listen to him cry.
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I didn't know nursing to sleep was bad! At what age is this is "no-no"? My LO is a month, I am nursing to sleep all the time, hope I am not setting myself up for disaster!
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We always nursed to sleep. It just seems so natural for them and relaxing, why would you not? He naturally grew out of it gradually so some nights he'd be sleepy but not asleep, then eventually when we stopped nursing we just rocked and it was a very easy transition. Why stress about this?
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@ohapostrophe: Glad to read your reply, it hadn't even crossed my mind that it could be bad?! Seems like a natural part of breastfeeding...
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@lolabee: I say do what works for you until its not working...THEN worry about changing it! I would have missed out on many wonderful nights of nursing my babe to sleep, and he's 2 now so I can say I actually miss it!
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@autumn865: we started cobedding to stop the wake up right when moved or a million times a night. So, I nurse her to sleep, lay her next to me and surf HB on my phone. She stays asleep this way. Her room gets really cold, so we are.waiting for it to warm up before we try to transition to the crib.
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@ohapostrophe: very well put. We bounced or nursed our LO to sleep for his first 5+ months because that's what worked, but when he was ready to go to sleep on his own at night, he definitely let us know.
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@autumn865: I wonder if something else is going on that is making it harder for her the last two weeks. Will she ever go back to sleep without nursing? Is she doing okay in general?
If you were happy nursing her to sleep otherwise, maybe try to figure out what else is going on and address that. If you are bound and determined to do drowsy but awake, maybe moving nursing up in the bedtime routine would make a difference? Good luck!For what its worth, my LO continued the one nightly nursing until 13-14 months, and gradually dropped it on her own with a little encouragement from me. This worked for us but I know it is not for everyone...
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