I have been nursing DD to sleep because it was the easiest way to get her down. But I have to go out of town for work in February and worry about how she'll get to bed without that so have been figuring out how to break the habit. I nurse her after work/daycare around 6:30-7pm and then we typically start bedtime around 8:15-8:30. So she really isn't eating a ton at that time, maybe topping herself off slash soothing before bed? We're also just starting solids so not sure how that will or won't factor in. Any suggestions on how to change routines or what to maybe do differently?
-
Try moving nursing to the beginning of your bedtime routine? Then also let someone else try putting her down too?
-
I nurse lo to sleep but just worked evenings for two weeks and my mom put him to bed. They made up their own routine, I think the first night was a little hard but it went fine after that. I find that babies are often more flexible with other people. If I tried to not be to bed lo would be so mad and fussy. But with others nbd.
-
We just slowly had to cut back to where I was nursing him until he was drowsy and then rocking to sleep from there. If she's too upset to be rocked you may have to put in the crib and rub her back
-
I had my husband do bedtime for a few weeks to break the association. After that I was able to rock him to sleep.
I was forced to do this because he could no longer nurse to sleep -- he would not fully settle down anymore from nursing -- but whenever I tried to rock him he would root. So it literally became impossible for me to put him to sleep unless he CIO'd.
-
I nursed mine to sleep until she weaned at 21 months and she never had issues when others would put her to bed. I always left a bottle to offer but she never took it. If you do want to stop nursing to sleep though, I recommend having your partner do bedtime for a week or so.
-
Not really what you asked but my LO (6 months) lets others put him to sleep with a bottle even though I nurse to sleep. DS usually nurses when I pick him up from daycare at 5:30/5:45 and then nurses again at bedtime 6:45/7. When DH puts him down he drinks a full bottle both times even though I know he doesn't really drink that much when I put him down.
-
You could just shift nursing to earlier in the bedtime routine. When we sleep trained and stopped nursing to sleep, our bedtime routine was: bath, pajamas, read books while nursing, then put in sleep sack/sing/turn on white noise. Even if he fell asleep nursing, putting him in the sleep sack woke him up enough.
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
7 comments