Feel like I have a newborn again

15 month old DD is exhausting me. About a week and a half ago her nice, short 20-mins-max night time feeds turned into 1-2 hour marathons. I've been waiting for the "phase" to end but not sure it will.

A friend warned me that the same thing happened to her when her milk started to dry up. I know mines been getting less and less cause my boobs never feel full anymore, but what do I do to stop this? I'm lucky if she stays on for 5 minutes during the day. Should I be trying to move her onto cows milk for daytime now? She drinks it when I'm at work so I know she'll take it. If so, how many cows milk feeds and how many breast milk feeds and when? Ta

Interestingly, milk doesn’t just dry up” but obviously when a baby adopts this pattern mothers wonder what’s going on. For as long as you feed you will have milk (though a new pregnancy will put a stopper on milk supply - could that be a possibility?) After the early months your breasts will feel pretty soft and normal but will make milk just fine. At this age its more about wanting to connect with mum than the milk. What’s been going on for your little one? Has she been unwell? Any changes in household routine? Does she co-sleep with you? You can put a bit of a boundary round feeds (harder with a tired cranky child - but it could be 20 sucks and then we’ll cuddle. Tell her it hurts/makes you tired if she does it for two long, she can understand you! Let us know how you go

This has happened with both mine around that age (currently enjoying it with DD2). It was just a phase with DD1 (and I assume this time too) and nothing to do with supply issues, she went on to feed till just after 3 through a pregnancy and with 6 months tandem feeding! It did last a few months and I think it is a symptom of the developing realisation of seperation between them and you, they just want to feel safe and close to mum!

We coslept which helped to feel more rested as I could doze a bit while they fed. My partner then gets up with DD2 in the morning so I can have an hour or two alone to sleep which also helps.

It is hard but it passes. Hope you can find a solution that works for you all.

It's a tough time. If you weren't breastfeeding, she'd be doing something else - screaming for attention, demanding cuddles or something like that (maybe she's doing those things, too?) It could be she out of sorts for some reason, but I've found with both of mine that they ramped up the feeds - or demands for feeds at least - at this age. It eased off again after 18-19 months-ish. My friends who were not breastfeeding had similar issues, they just didn't have boobs to help them deal with it. It felt like an imposition at the time, but in hindsight it really made getting through this much easier.

No, we can't cosleep. I'm the world's lightest sleeper. I change positions all night. We'd just wake each other up all night and get less sleep than we do now. Plus DH refuses. So over this and you're saying it lasts another 3 months?!

15 months is a wonder week I dunno if you follow them but they've always been spot on with ds and he wants more comforting and bottles during this time and tends to regress a bit

Yeah it reckons she's halfway through a happy bit ATM? And she is happy and chatty and playful etc during the day. It's just night time ATM.