How did you stop nursing to sleep at night and for naps? Did you do it when you sleep trained (tell me more about that, if so) or did you replace it with a different "sleep prop?" At 12 weeks I'm nursing DD to sleep for naps and bedtime. I truly enjoy the time and don't plan to cut it out completely, but I do need to figure out how to stop for the most part. I'd like for DH (and my mom when I go back to work in August) to be able to out her down without a fight. I'm sure this is all a part of the bigger discussion of sleep training, but I'm curious what everyone else has done.
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I'm no help, I'm sure. It just stopped working for M eventually. Probably around 10 months. Sometimes if she's really tired she'll fall asleep nursing now, at 14 months, but it's rare. DH and others can get her down for a nap, but we haven't tried anyone else putting her to bed.
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I started doing EASY at 4 weeks! You could probably try to start doing EASY now and it might work for you. I think the sooner you do it, the easier it is, but I also had an easy baby, so... take my advice with a grain of salt!
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I also started doing easy around 7/8 wks old...but instead of nursing to sleep, I was rocking him to sleep. That lasted until 6.5 months when we sleep trained, using CIO with checks.
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We never nursed to sleep for naps, but we just stopped at 4.5 months nursing to sleep for bedtime. I nurse in the living room right before bed so she doesn't fall asleep, then I do our nap routine and put her down. My pedi said to keep bed and nap the same so she knows our wind down routine. We do:
Sleep sack
Paci& lovey
Curtains closed
Short book
Sing 2 lullaby's
White noise
Put in crib on her side
Pat her butt for a min or 2.For the whole month of month 3,I worked on putting her down for naps drowsy but awake.
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DD nursed to sleep for naps and bedtime starting ~6 months. I weaned her from naps around 11 months in anticipation of my return to work. We did CIO, not hardcore cause she'd pass out within 1-2 minutes.
I weaned her from bedtime at 15 months when we weaned overall. I was very attached to her bedtime nursing and knew that it would be easier for her to not have it if DH did bedtime. She had no issue with him putting her to bed. -
We only stopped because it stopped working 100% of the time, and I still occasionally nurse to sleep (and do in the MOTN).
Now, I nurse her downstairs, instead of in her rocking chair, then DH takes her up and puts her to bed. If I put her to bed, she expects me to nurse her. -
We stopped when she was 4 months and sleep trained. I would still nurse right before bed, just did with a light on, then we would rock her for 5 mins and then just put her in the crib.
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My LO just quit at ~13m. He had always demanded that nursing session and one day didn't and never did so again.
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It stopped working all the time around 4 months. Now at around 9 months it's rare that she will nurse to sleep (unless it's MOTN). I miss it!
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So I figured that so long as it was working and wasn't an issue for me, I would continue to do it. We nursed to sleep for all naps (not nighttime - DH always did bedtime and gave her a bottle of pumped milk) until 8 months. It stopped working at that point - if I nursed her to sleep she would wake up after ten minutes. So, one day, I just stopped nursing to sleep. I still nursed to drowsy though. And it worked miraculously (I think she cried for four minutes and then went to sleep), because I think she was developmentally ready for it at that point. Now (14 months) we just give her some water before bed, and then hold her and rub her back for a few minutes before putting her down, and she puts herself to sleep (although she sometimes falls asleep in our arms
).
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@Adira: @hilsy85: we do easy but it's more like EAESY most days...problem is she's a catnapper and takes about 5-6 naps a day so Between regular feeds and nursing to sleep I'm feeding her all. The. Time.
@abbydabbydoodlebug: I've been wanting to attempt drowsy but awake, but I'm so nervous to start because she has SUCH a small drowsy window and as soon as she is transferred to her crib or RnP she wakes up! No crying, just wide awake. Ugh.
@Zbug: I have a feeling it's starting to lose effectiveness for naps, too. The past week she's been a bit harder to put down. She's usually so easy to get to sleep, it's the staying asleep that's hard lol.
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For naps: I would unlatch her when she was only sucking for comfort. That would usually wake her if she'd fallen asleep, then I would sing a couple of songs to her before putting her down.
For bed: Introduced a book after nursing. So now I nurse her then DH comes in to read her a book and he puts her down.
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@fussygal: it took a long time to get her to go down in her crib awake. Even now, I pat her butt until she's almost asleep. I just rocked/swayed her until she was almost asleep, then gently put her down. And slowly worked down to swaying until her eyes were slow blinking. I thought of it like a number scale. 10 being fully asleep, and 1 being wide awake. She's probably at a 6 right now. I'm not sure if lower than that would work without crying. I might be more brave to try when she's 6 months. But right now I'm happy with where we are. It really did take all of month 3 to get her from 10 to 6!
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For bedtime, I moved it closer to the beginning of the routine. Now it's diaper/pjs/nurse/song/rock. I'm going to add a book in there soon. For overnight, we just nurse and she goes back to sleep. I'm not sure she's totally awake for those.
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We switched off nights - DH would give her a bottle some nights and I would nurse her to sleep other nights. Eventually she got used to having the bottle instead of me all the time.
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I never did stop-I still nurse him for most naps and bedtime, but he seems to be growing out of it now, around 12.5 months. DH always put him down for naps when I was at work, and LO had gone through stages-bottle, swing, white noise, yoga ball, taking walks, being in the carrier, driving, these are all strategies DH (and sometimes I) have used for naps. LO's preferences go through stages, and we try to roll with them.
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@fussygal: no help here, just hugs. This kid doesn't sleep, and if it takes me nursing her to do it, well then, whatever. I am also 100% sure that CIO is not going to work for us, because her crying just makes her angrier and angrier. So, yeah.
Hoping you can figure out something that works for you and N
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We just put it at the beginning of the bedtime routine. We used to do bath, pajamas, nurse in bed, put in PnP. But we decided to have DS sleep in the crib and I lost my supply thanks to a sinus infection and needing decongestants. I wanted to avoid it but we ended up biting the bullet and sleep training. So now we do bottle, bath, crib. We have to get the timing just right though, if he's too tired he'll still fall asleep while eating.
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I haven't made an effort to stop, but she seems to just be growing out of it. We always nurse right before bed, and over the last month, more and more often she ends up just unlatching and acting finished but is not asleep yet. So now I just put her in her crib and she usually wiggles around for 5-10 minutes and then falls asleep. She's 8.5 months now.
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@fussygal: right there with you. I have resigned myself to the fact that my maternity leave has basically been on the couch with a boob in his mouth. Oh well, I go back to work in 3 weeks and daycare will have to figure it out. My first son did the same thing and eventually learned how to fall asleep on his own.
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At four months I woke LO up after I nursed him to sleep, and put him in the crib awake. There was no crying, I was shocked. He did get very upset if I tried to read a book after nursing, so I just but him downb. He eventually stopped nursing to sleep at all. I thought it would help his night sleep, which was pretty good, but suffered from some early wake-ups, but it had no effect. In retrospect I would have waited until it stopped working or his sleep got bad. He never regularly nursed to sleep for naps, although at 10 months he still will occasionally.
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I stopped nursing to sleep when he stopped falling asleep when nursing, probably around 6-7 months. Now I nurse, then cuddle, then put him into his crib awake (12m).
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@QBbride: @catlady: She still falls asleep on the boob a lot so maybe it will be easier to attempt "drowsy but awake" then when she's a bit older like your LOs!
@lovelyplum Word. Nursing just makes it so easy to pit her down, I'm afraid to stop! There is no way I can do CIO either so I'm hoping she naturally adapts to sleep training with an adjusted routine (with me following her cues). That's the plan at least, haha. We'll see if that actually works
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@fussygal: how did this end up for you? Currently I nurse dd to sleep. She's 8 weeks. I'm just getting nervous for when I start working part time and she has a nanny... She won't sleep at all for my mom and for DH to get her to sleep he has to hold her.
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I won't be any help, I still nurse to sleep for naps bedtime at 15 months. Though sometimes she will push away from me and then I put her in the crib and she will go to sleep on her own. I feel like if she would still take a pacifier (she stopped using it at 7 months) then I could use that as a substitute.
Eta:oops just realized this is an old thread
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@kml636: Sorry I'm just getting back from vacation and seeing this! For night time sleep we still nurse to sleep which is fine by me, BUT I generally don't nurse her back to sleep every time she wakes (which I used to do!). Now I nurse her down around 7:00 and then we rock her back to sleep if she wakes up until after mid-night when I'll give her another feeding. It's not perfect, but she does wake up a bit less now - although she's still up 4-5 times a night and we may have to look into sleep training in the near future.
For naps, she's been a champ at going down for DD, my mom, and anyone else who watches her. I was worried she'd need me to nurse he down each time, but as long as they catch her sleep cues she goes down without much fuss.
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My DD just quit around 9 months. I was worried about it but she did it on her own, saving mama the stress!
).
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