How did you stop breastfeeding your baby/toddler to sleep?

[goddessofdawn]

OH also - If I stop BFing to sleep, that also means I can't BF when she wakes during the night either, doesn't it???..... That will be even tougher to deal with!!
When DD wakes at 5am, that's what puts her back to sleep until 7-7.30am....

EDIT: Sorry should also have said DD has her day naps on the boob too - so we are very firmly entrenched in feeding to sleep.

The more I think about it, the more I think we might have to wait until I can explain it to her & she can understand that BFing won't be happening anymore... so maybe another year! Not sure how I will go waiting that long though.

[Arcadia]

Just go with the flow hun...it is perfectly normal for bubs to still be feeding to sleep at 2. By now though I can feed DD a bit and tell her its time to come off the boobie and she rolls over and goes to sleep. I HAVE to breast feed a bit though, because lying with her squirming for 45 mins does MY head in. I would rather a 10 min feed and off she goes.

i do remember a wriggly stage at about one. It did get better when DD dropped to just one day sleep...it meant she would be asleep in a few minutes flat by 7pm. (Now she is in bed at about 8:30 instead).

HTH

ETA: I night weaned DD a few months ago, but I still feed to sleep...so you can drop the 5am feed if you like, but I think that would just equal a 5am start to the day!! (We started keeping bananas by the bed, because for me, I prefer feeding to sleep than feeding at 3 or 5am...)

[Heda]

Just go with the flow hun...it is perfectly normal for bubs to still be feeding to sleep at 2. By now though I can feed DD a bit and tell her its time to come off the boobie and she rolls over and goes to sleep. I HAVE to breast feed a bit though, because lying with her squirming for 45 mins does MY head in. I would rather a 10 min feed and off she goes.

i do remember a wriggly stage at about one. It did get better when DD dropped to just one day sleep...it meant she would be asleep in a few minutes flat by 7pm. (Now she is in bed at about 8:30 instead).

LOL when I read that That squirming is sooo annoying - mine tosses and turns from one side to another! I'm leaning towards that the best time to try to stop the overnight feeds comes with the understanding of no more boobies at night - but I'd love to TTC again - and don't have my AF back because of nightfeeding - still at 17 months (oh and I've got mastitis right now too...grrr) did anyones AF wait for that long too? Sorry OT there...

I would actually be happy to still feed to sleep..just staying asleep is what I need!

[Erin_25]

with my DS2 who is almost 11months and wakes all the time at night...grrrrr....I've started feeding in his room as usual in the quiet etc and what I do is offer one side that gets him nice and sleepy then switching sides wakes him up a bit and whilst he is still sucking before he nods off on the next side I take the nipple out and then given him a little cuddle/pat then put him into bed. It does not always work, but is teaching him he doesn't go to sleep with the nipple in his mouth which I think is the prob not the food part. He won't take a dummy, think I am it!!!!

[goddessofdawn]

don't have my AF back because of nightfeeding - still at 17 months (oh and I've got mastitis right now too...grrr) did anyones AF wait for that long too?

Heda I believe that some people's AF doesn't come back until BFing stops completely.
I was hoping I'd be one of those people, because we aren't planning on having any more kids... unfortunately mine came back 2 months ago.

[Swoop]

I've been keeping an eye on this thread as I started one myself recently to ask when people stopped feeding to sleep and how, so it's interesting to hear how people did it when they decided to stop it themselves. From reading this thread it really does sound like a hard slog... did it take a long time to achieve?

[Kailani]

The more I think about it, the more I think we might have to wait until I can explain it to her & she can understand that BFing won't be happening anymore... so maybe another year! Not sure how I will go waiting that long though.

This is exactly my thinking with DS too. I don't want to traumatise and confuse him by suddenly refusing boobie - so I'm continuing to feed him until I think he is able to understand why he needs to cut down a bit! If that's another 6 months away then so be it. I do find it exhausting and annoying when he won't let me roll over and get comfy in the middle of the night, but oh well!

Oh and AF returned for me when DS was almost 18 months - had nothing to do with our breastfeeding patterns, as we haven't cut down at all.

[Heda]

This is exactly my thinking with DS too. I don't want to traumatise and confuse him by suddenly refusing boobie - so I'm continuing to feed him until I think he is able to understand why he needs to cut down a bit! If that's another 6 months away then so be it. I do find it exhausting and annoying when he won't let me roll over and get comfy in the middle of the night, but oh well!

Oh and AF returned for me when DS was almost 18 months - had nothing to do with our breastfeeding patterns, as we haven't cut down at all.

Yes, I have to agree - I'm hoping with a bit more age, will come some more understanding and we'll be able to get there as a pair, in comparision to me just saying 'no more boob!!!!'! LOL

I thought that when you reduced your overnight feeds that's when AF was likely to come back - but I am glad that I'm not the only one whose dear aunt hasn't visited for so long..I was really getting a bit worried..

[goddessofdawn]

UPDATE!

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse! In addition to all the problems I mentioned in the initial post, now she's started waking up every 2-4 hours... she hasn't done that since she was about 4 months old!
Who knows what's going on!
I was very happy with her 9-10 hour stretches of sleep - sure, I had to wake up between 4.30-5.30 to feed her back to sleep until 7ish, but I at least got 8 hours sleep in a row! (I go to bed early)....

I'm not sure if it is related to her currently fussy eating?
I really hope it isn't because she needs the boob to fall back to sleep whenever she wakes up at night?!! Well she's capable of sleeping through, because she has done it before, albeit briefly.
For a few nights before she turned 10 months old, she slept 11-11.5 hours a night... lovely!