LO's 12 months old and I still nurse her in the middle of the night. My pediatrician said it was a no-no and made me feel like shit.
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Awww.... you're a good mommy! A lot of things we all do are no nos. But every baby is different! If LO screams in the middle of the night we'll get up and give her a bottle to help her get back to sleep. But that's very rare. She's slept 12 hours since she was 2 1/2 months old.
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Oh no!! Don't feel like shit. =(
My LO also stopped waking up on her own at an early age.
What do you think you will do now?
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@artbee: So lucky! I really do need to do somethign about LO sleeping through the night. She used to sleep 12 hours straight. Once she started crawling her sleep went to shit. -.-
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Mine is 7 months old and I still do it too. Our pediatrician said, at her 6 month appointment, that we should probably stop it soon. Easier said than done!
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@Andrea: I don't know. DH wants to start having her sleep in the pack and play (no more floor bed).. but ugh. I don't knooooow!
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@BabyLove: Seriously. Life probably would have been easier if I had listened back then! HAHA.
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@chopsuey119: so the issue is that she crawls off the bed and wakes up? You could just not feed her if she wakes up? She won't like it but she will learn.....
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@Andrea: Yeah. problem is she crawls off the bed and comes looking for me. She falls back asleep so much easier when I just nurse her. (#selfish). I'll try not feeding her when she wakes.
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@chopsuey119: maybe the pack and play itself will solve the problem then. Or she just might cry for you to come get her. Is she eating 3 meals of solids now during the day? Is she hungry at night or just wants comfort?
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@chopsuey119: Oh no! Things for me to look forward to.
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@Andrea: She doesn't eat very much solids yet. I do give her 3 meals a day. Pediatrician thinks it's because she fills up on breastmilk. I usually feed her food before I give her milk though. I think sometimes she's hungry at night cause she doesn't ALWAYS want to nurse.
I usually nurse her to sleep so the thought of throwing her in the pack and play and making her cry it out stresses me out -
@chopsuey119: I know. That will be rough. Why does the peds think it is bad to feed her?
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@artbee: Do you have your LO on a floor bed too?
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@Andrea: Something about the sugar in my breastmilk rotting her teeth. -.-
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@chopsuey119: No, she's in her crib. But that doesn't mean she won't wake up when she starts crawling, I hear that different milestones mess with sleep. And I'm also not a big crying it out fan so we'll go to her.
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My LO still wakes up in the middle of the night to nurse and she's 10 months. She also used to sleep better and once she learned to crawl it went south. Not because she crawls out of bed or anything. I just thought maybe she needed more energy or something.
I thought about you the other night when I left my bed and climbed into bed next to LO and thought I really should stop doing this, but hubby and I are in your 4-7 club too so then I laughed and thought the two co-sleepers somehow are the busiest, the opposite of what you'd think would happen.
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@artbee: ohhhh okay. HAHA. Yeah. crawling and milestones seriously mess with their sleep. -.-
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LO wakes up once in the night for a feed...Usually around 2-3am...And I will breastfeed her.
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@Maysprout: HAHAHAA right? What the heck? Maybe all the mamas in the 0 club should start co-sleeping with their LOs
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@chopsuey119: One more reason I'm ok with LO waiting to crawl. I'm also not looking forward to her getting into everything! Although she does get around, just by scootching and rolling now.
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@chopsuey119: ah I see. Gah. Since she already sleeps on a bed, switching to a PnP seems like going backwards to me. I would try and get her to eat more food during the day and then not feed her anymore at night. My two cents.
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@chopsuey119: Did the doctor give you suggestions on how to cut out the night time feed?
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Our pediatrician said to stop with the night feedings at 4 months, but we probably waited till about 7 months, and would do it occasionally after that if he was sick or something. I didn't want to stop doing it at 4 months because I felt like, even though LO woke up a lot, it was really easy to get him back to sleep. Give him a boob for a minute, and he was fine. But then around 7 months or so, he would still fuss even after the boob, so I figured it was time to stop using it as a crutch- also, if he only nurses for like a minute, he's not actually hungry, and I knew he didn't need the food.
LO sleeps in a crib so we don't have the floor bed/ crawling out issue, but here's what we did:
- we never did a strict CIO program, but we followed some principles, like not going to get him right away (waiting a few minutes, and he'd sometimes settle himself), comforting him without taking him out of the crib (encouraging him to lay down again, patting his back, sometimes giving him a pacifier),
- having DH go in instead of me so there was no chance of him getting food during the encounter. -
RJ dropped his last night feeding around 4 months when he started sleeping thru the night. As soon as the pediatrician said he didn't nutritionally need the feeding (he was so fat!) we stopped and he was able to learn how to go back to sleep on his own.
Our pedi gave me a guilt trip about giving RJ baby food past 1 year old... :T we did bump up the table food efforts after that but it was so hard to give up those baby food pouches. So easy!!!
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Our LO stopped waking for her middle of the night feeding around 2 months. She's 3 months now, so it's been a little over a month now. She takes her last feeding around 8:30 or 9 though, so kind of late. She takes her first morning feed around 7:30/8:00.
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@Andrea: thanks! will try.
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crappp.. i definitely need to cut out night time feedings. HAHA thanks ladies!
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@artbee: she didn't. maybe she did and i stopped listening? oh! she said i just need to go cold turkey.
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@chopsuey119: *hugs* let us know how it goes!!
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@chopsuey119: I co-slept with my LO on his floor mattress until a few months ago. At first he would cry when he would wake up in the middle of the night and nobody was next to him.
For a few nights, if he woke up, either the hubs or I would go in there and lay down with him until he fell back asleep. Then we would leave again. After about a week or so, he just slept through the night. It was a rough week but now that he's 2, I felt like it was time for him to sleep ON HIS OWN. Totally worked out for us cause now he sleeps 11-12 hours straight. Oh, and we also put up that plastic baby fence around his queen sized mattress. Looks like a GIGANTIC crib. But at least that prevented him from getting out of his bed. Maybe you can try babysteps? It'll be probably emotionally hard for you to just let her cry by herself at night when she's so used to mama's comfort. Babysteps always worked well for us cause kids like routine and are very hesitant to change.
Good luck!!! Hope it works out for you!
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@banana: Omg I want to cry. Thank you so much for this encouraging comment!!! We have a queen mattress for her too. Where did you get a fence big enough?
Thanks again!
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I would say about 6 months was when I din't nurse her at night anymore.
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We night weaned at 6.5 months when we sleep trained. I knew I wouldn't be able to nurse him and be consistent with sleep training so we did it then. If you are still happy nursing your LO at night then do it. I don't see what the harm is at all.
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@chopsuey119: You are such a great mom! Your love for your LO shines through every time you talk about her!!!
Do you think it would be possible to cuddle and comfort her without nursing at night? I've read on attachment parenting mom's blog somewhere that when she was gently weaning she told her LO that "Mommy doesn't make milk at night anymore because you are a big girl." I'm not sure how much your LO will understand because she's not as old as this blogger's LO, but at least you aren't just leaving her to CIO...?!?
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@chopsuey119: We bought this fence + the extension and it fit around the queen sized mattress just right. It left a few gaps on the edges so we just stuffed the edges with some of those hard korean pillow things.
http://www.amazon.com/North-States-Superyard-Play-Classic/dp/B00020L78M
We already had this fence for when we gated off his playroom area in our living room so we repurposed it. But you can also put up a baby gate by the door (which was our 2nd option) if you want her to not leave her room.
I know it's hard mama! I'm not a CIO type so I try to find more gentle ways to sleep train and so far, babystepping always worked for us. It's harder on the parents to do it this way but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for him.
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Wow, I'm kinda surprised at this post because our LO is almost 8 months (AHH) and is still EBF (+solids) and has one night nursing. I do think that by a year I want her done with that feeding. Before 12 months though, she's still a baby and the BM goes fast! Plus now that she's crawling she's often so tired at night she falls asleep before filling up.
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@daniellemybelle: Thanks danielle! You're so sweet.
I'm going to try the cuddling/patting tonight and see how it goes! Sometimes I honestly think she's just hungry. Esp when she doesn't get much to eat before she falls asleep.
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@banana: Awesome! Thanks!! I'm the same way. So will babystep it and see how it goes.
It's definitely tough, but it's something I'm willing to do too. I actually like sleeping next to her cute little body. 
haha. Especially since DH's gone 3 nights a week til the end of May.
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@Thehistoryofus: I was shOcked too. Makes sense though since I stopped middle of the night feedings for a while once LO started sleeping through the night. Things changed for us when she started crawling.. I still feel like LO's a baby at 1 years old and sometimes she'll fall asleep without filling up too.
Just going to go with my instincts and hope for the best!
For a few nights, if he woke up, either the hubs or I would go in there and lay down with him until he fell back asleep. Then we would leave again. After about a week or so, he just slept through the night. It was a rough week but now that he's 2, I felt like it was time for him to sleep ON HIS OWN. Totally worked out for us cause now he sleeps 11-12 hours straight. Oh, and we also put up that plastic baby fence around his queen sized mattress. Looks like a GIGANTIC crib. But at least that prevented him from getting out of his bed. 
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