breast feeding continuously during night

Leela - posted on 08/01/2011

I am in the same boat with my 19 month old who feeds all night and is like glued to my breast!

Beck did the book help with teaching you how to night wean?

Cora - posted on 07/26/2010

I would suggest maybe to stop breast feeding her. You have lasted a very long time. But if you still feel like you want to then I would suggest using a pump and giving her a bottle. It may seem like extra work but I had to do this a few weeks after birth because she would be hungry every hour and a half or so. But when switching to a pumped bottle she would sleep for much longer periods of time. Good luck sleep deprevation is tough!

Claire - posted on 07/24/2010

We were in a very similar situation and middle-of-the-night weaning helped a lot. DH had to be the one to go put our baby back to sleep, because I always caved and nursed, too tired to do otherwise. The Baby Whispere book was really helpfult to teach him to self-soothe. There were a couple of rough nights, but now he sleeps through the night unless he is teething or sick. Hope you are able to get some sleep soon!

Ilana - posted on 07/24/2010

I know exactly how you feel, my little one is 15months and does exactly the same. I have been told that the only way to get her to sleep better is to wean her. YOu and I both know it is much easier to give her the breast than to put up with a screaming baby 4-5 times during the night. I am curious what the others have to say about this dilemma of ours

Renae - posted on 07/17/2010

The answer is very simple. She will stop waking when you stop feeding her during the night. You need to put her back to sleep without feeding her. Within 2 weeks you will notice a change in her sleep.

Jennifer - posted on 07/16/2010

I went thru this with Madison. It was just a comfort to her to nurse in the middle of the night. I was a human pacifier lol. I had even weaned her during the day but at night she wanted to nurse. So what I did was completely wean her. I actually rubbed lemon juice on my nipple and she didn't ike the taste. It was a rough nite but it worked. I tried letting her cry it out but I would only let her cry for a few minutes, then I would go in and comfort her. Not by picking her up though. I would pat her back and turn on her music and she would put herself back to sleep. Now she sleeps all night and in her own crib. It took a couple of days but that's what worked for us. Good luck.

Alyssa - posted on 06/12/2010

First of all, great job on breastfeeding!! Second off, you are not alone! That sounds like me. I did the same thing with letting my daughter sleep in my bed with me while nursing, but I would suggest putting her in her crib in alternate feeding times. It's a big step to have her comfortable enough to sleep some in her crib again! You can do it. Then, with my daughter, when she would wake up to nurse, about half the time I would ignore her and she would fall back asleep in like one minute in her crib. She still wakes up to nurse during the night and I got down to nursing her only a few times and I get much better sleep (and so does she). Being a momma isn't easy by any means! Keep it up, you are doing fantastic. :) It's trail and error sometimes, think outside the box, she's no longer an infant :'(

Sini - posted on 06/11/2010

hi my son is 15mo oldand i still breastfeedhim like how u do. He sleeps by 11and initial 1 or 2 hrs he sleeps well after that he keeps on waking up now i dont even know ow many times i wake up to feed hi..its becomeso much a practice that i jus feed him when he wriggles... i tried to soothe him or comort him with other things but he for sre wants my breasts to feed...so no way around i thouht let me jus keep feeding atleast that way i get to sleep on without having to wake up completely...so may be as time oes by things shall change...

Carisa - posted on 06/02/2010

We had the same problem with my now four year old when she was that age...from very early on, her pediatrician told us to let her cry it out and that she probably was not hungry...while it's hard to hear them cry, it's worse for them to have a sleep deprived mother. They say within two weeks babies will change their sleep patterns. I know there are a lot of books out there on sleep training, but I never used them.

Oh, and my four year old is a very smart, happy girl, so letting her cry doesn't seem to have done any damage!

Marabeth - posted on 06/01/2010

i would recommend reading the book no cry sleep solution by elizabeth pantley. she has a lot of advice for this exact situation (she decided to write the book because she had a 14 month old constantly nursing through the night waking once an hour!!) so she did a lot of research with several types of mothers. my daughter nurses frequently throughout the night also.. a few months ago though we got her a twin mattress in her room and a loud fan and i swear she sleeps in there SO MUCH better!! we've always been a co-sleeping family and i am totally fine continuing to do so but when she goes to sleep for the night she usually starts out in her mattress. sometimes she'll sleep there for an hour then come to our bed and sometimes it's 6! usually it's somewhere in the middle.. something about falling asleep with me laying there and not having to shift her to a crib keeps her asleep and i think having more room to roll around and no milk to smell on keeps her asleep longer. not to mention the fan! we gate off the rest of the house so when she wakes up she just walks in to our room and says mama! or whines at me and i get her up into bed with us. it works well.

Jennifer - posted on 06/01/2010

My son is 14 months old and he wakes up every 2-3 hours at night to breastfeed. Often, I think he just wants comfort at that time. I work full-time, as well. And I'm 12 weeks pregnant and really needing some more sleep. I understand completely where you are coming from!!! So know that you aren't alone.



I can't let my son cry it out. I just can't do that. I am just going through the same motions as you, but knowing "this too shall pass. . . " I nap on the weekends with my son and I spend so much time with him. I swear it's so difficult working and being a mom that he just misses me at night and wants my comfort. It's hard to get in a routine like the previous poster had said because I don't get home from work till 6 some nights. I'm rushing like a madman to get dinner cooked, baby fed, house semi-organized, prepped for the next day, etc. . . .



I'm sorry I have no sage advice for the original poster. Just be reassured there are other zombie mamas right out there with you! And like babies reach milestone of talking, walking, at different ages, they also reach the milestone of sleeping through the night at different ages.

Beck - posted on 06/01/2010

Awww you poor thing. Sleep deprevation SUCKS!!!! This is an old post of mine, you may get some tips from it to help. Your beautiful girl is just used to feeding to sleep and the sleep association of feeding and sleep. Many people say feeding at night is fine and they still are BUT I feel that if it is no longer working for you (ie your drop dead tired!) then you need to make a change. Well done, for us I was over not getting any sleep at 6mths!
My little man who is the same age as your daughter, sleeps 7-7 and 12-2 during the day. He still wakes at night, sometimes once or twice. Sometimes (bliss!!) he sleeps through!!! love it! His teeth sadly do play a part now, which is why he wakes, but resettles after a quick cuddle (and some teething tablets or panadol).
I am writing this because I have posted similar responses to several posts of Mums who have bubs of various ages having trouble sleeping. I thought I would put it all in one spot and if you were having troubles maybe something I say would help.

My son was an angel child, he would sleep and eat happily for those first few months. I fed him to sleep all of the time and in the end we were co sleeping, one because I loves snuggling with my bub and two because it was SOOO Hard to lug my legs out of bed for yet ANOTHER night time feed!

By 5 and a half months we were OVER it, I was cranky cos I wasn't getting enough sleep, we were worried about my husbands health cos he needs sleep due to risk of seizures and we NEEDED to FIT our gorgous boy!! Corey was still in our bed waking every 45mins-hour and to get him back to sleep quickly I would feed him, over and over and over! This would mean during the afternoon we would flop into bed together and sleep all arvo.

I knew there was a sleep school in a near by town but I knew they did controlled crying at at 6mths I couldn't do it! BUT I knew that if nothing else worked we would HAVE to do it. I went out and brought several 'no cry sleep solution' books. The one that changed our life was DREAM BABY GUIDE by Shayne Rowling. An Austrlian author. It is 700+pages long and uses a lot of tecniques within the whole 24hrs to lead to healthy sleep patterns. I dont believe tht controlled crying is the only way!!!! and wanted to do what ever I could to help his sleep without it. My husband took three days off work and we planned nothing so we could tag team for three days if thats what it took. We started using the routines from the book and within 2 days we had a complete different bub! My husband even thought about going back to work cos we had him sorted with no tears!

I will tell you a few things from the book that may help you but obviously to get the full effect you would need to buy the book. Now I am not saying we have a 'perfect' sleeping bub all of the time, teething still effects his sleep from now and then BUT we have come a huge way and taught him many skills.

My bub is a low sleep requirement baby, meaning they only need 8-14hrs sleep in 24hrs. We do the following and it works a treat!! plus its getting better and better!! The book goes into lots about sleep requirments and the different nap times for different ages but if you are just after info re sleep routines this would help.

Corey, now 12mths, wakes usually around 7am (sometimes he sleeps in however I wake him by 7.30 to keep the day on track) he has a bfeed then breakfast (cereal and fruit)
9.30 milk (bfeed) and fruit for morning tea
11.20 lunch - meat, vegies, carb (rice / pasta / potato) then desert (yoghurt)
12noon bed time (usually sleeps 2-2.5hrs!!)
2.30 milk (bfeed) and arvo tea (cheese on toast / avacardo and ham on crackers, piklets etc)
5.20 tea (vegies and carb)
6pm Nudie time (clothes off play)
6.15 bath time
6.30 out of bath
6.35 milk (bfeed)
6.45 story time
6.55 into cot

Its the sleep time routine that makes the difference, my Mum and sister in law can also follow this and we do the same where ever we are so Corey always knows what is expected.
We also do the nappy change, story then bedtime routine at 11.45 before lunch time sleep.
Cuddle on couch whilst reading - household calm, whilst reading we say before, during and after we say "nearly time for nigh, nigh" "nearly time to find teddy" etc
We say good night to anyone at home - kiss
then into bed room
We lay bub in our arms and rock him whilst we sing twinkle, twinkle, (often now he wants to get into his cot cos he knows he is tired and ready for sleep) then lay him in his cot with his teddy (loves his bedtime ted)
We tuck him in tight - shoving a towel rolled up down either side to keep him in firm. Corey starts on his side. We dont have to tuck him as tight now that he sleeps so well.
We then rub his back and legs and say
"sshh, sshh, sshh, sshh time to sleep"
" sshh, sshh, sshh, sshh mummy and daddy love you"
"sshh, sshh, sshh, sshh nigh, nigh"

we repeat this twice, then stop rubbing and walk out. Corey now never needs re settleing but at first if he did put up a fight we would go in, after a couple of minutes only - shut the door behind us so there is no confusion that he is getting up then repeat the sshh, shh..... and out. It only ever took going in twice maybe three times (usually if he was over tired). We never have to go in twice now.

When he wakes and has had a decent sleep (if he ever wakes under and hour we do the sshh, sshh to get him back off for at least 1hr 20mins though usually he goes solid for the 2hrs 2.5hrs) we walk in and say "good sleeping bubba" happy and bright and get him up. This way he knows the difference between when you are expecting him to go back off and when he can hop up.

If he wakes during the night we go in (maybe give him a sip of water), re plug the dummy, re tuck him in and do the sshh, sshh - we are in and out in under 1 min and he always (except when teething and needs a shot of panadol) settles in one go.

He seems to know now when he needs more sleep and that he needs to go back off. He can now resettle himself too which he could never do, occasionally he will yell out once then go back off. We now wait, he will yell out, we wait, he may yell once or twice more and go back off. We were rushing in and therfore always helping him back to sleep. Now we wait only a minute or two and he goes back off. Anymore than that and we go in. Some people wait longer.


We must make sure he doesn't sleep when we are out in the pram or car before 12noon otherwise it can muck it up (occasionally its fine we have learnt to addapt) but we try to hold him out til 12 so he has one good sleep.

We dont follow the routine completly (there is more to it in the book) anymore, we still use many of the day time communication cues etc There is way to much to go into here!! I would recomend that you buy the book (hehehe I am earning no commision I just LOVE it as does a friend and many more people I would say!)

Good luck everyone, its so hard. You try and do the right thing by your bub but sometimes it leads to 'not helping them'. Corey was such a restless sleeper, I actually thought something was WRONG with him!! It was just that he didn't know 'how' to self settle or re settle between sleep cycles.

P.S I never thought Corey would cut all his night feeds (at 6mths) as like you he was still feeding several times a night in our bed just to get him back to sleep. He did in one night! of course I was up still pumping cos I had been used to feeding but that only lasted a few nights. I kept up at dream feed for another month but I dont think he necessarily needed it. After 6mths unless there is a medical condition bubs DONT need feeds over night! (no matter what people tell you... I know I am leaving my self open to 'different opinions on this one!!) I am sure Corey would still take a feed some nights if I offered it but he doesn't want it, when he has been unsettled due to teething some times I have tried of offer it and he isn't interested! :-( ... a dummy or a sip of water does the same job. The first few nights if he did wake his Dad would go in, after that he has been happy to take water from me. Its all about creating sleep associations and the same environment so when they go to sleep its the same when they wake up so they can think 'ok, all the same, goodo, off to sleep again!" This is why its important to be out of the room when they go to sleep, cos of course if you have them back in their cot you are not there when they wake between sleep cycles. We were expecting to HAVE to use controlled crying with Corey at 6mths but never had to using this above routine (and many more hints from the book) - like having a heater in his room set at 21degrees in winter, using a sleeping bag etc and lots of other day time communication things. This is just a wrap up for you... would love to think it works for you like it does us.... fingers crossed for you!!!

Email me for more info if you would like

Sorry, I could go on all day!!

WOW, THIS WOULD HAVE TO BE ONE OF THE BIGGEST POSTS EVER!!

I hope someone gets something from this to help them and their bub get a good night sleep. Don't expect too much though, bubs still need us and it very rare for any bub to sleep 12hrs straight! But for us, we were just dying for 4 hours sleep straight!