Bedtime & feed to sleep advice/reassurance
Show your support
It is never bad to tend to your child's need. Baby is still too young to be spoilt or to create bad habits. It sounds like the dreaded 4 month sleep regression. It lasts up to 8 weeks and all you can do is ride it out. Lots of people and myself included tried everything in the sun and little ones still woke up more frequently during regression. It is not environmental, so nothing to be done.
Following as currently going through the same thing!🤣 I have resorted to co sleeping a few times (closely following the safe sleep 7 guidelines) but it doesn’t really help as I can’t go into a deep enough sleep with him beside me, I love feeding to sleep it’s such a beautiful bonding moment but the second he’s off the boob and in his crib he’s awake and crying! He does also have a cold at the minute so maybe it’s to do with that..?
Hi been through this when my son was a baby. I found the best way was to practice side lying breastfeeding so place baby on the bed next to you and allow them to feed to sleep - this way you don’t have to put them down if you’re happy co-sleeping and can sometimes creep away for a bit! Or if you’re happier then slowly slide them into next to me cot seems to work better then putting down straight from your arms. He is now 2.5 yrs old and I still feed to sleep so no tips with that but even with feed to sleep they gradually sleep longer stretches without any sleep training - he can now sleep through or wakes only once
@Ciara that’s exactly what I do! X
I still feed my 16 month old to sleep (or others cuddle / rock her).She has been sleeping through the night from 11 months (unless she is poorly or teething!) and has nearly always slept at night in her cot. She went through phases like this. We found it helped to feed her to sleep until the point you can unlatch then hold her for about 10 mins. She’d then be in a deeper sleep. Lift with hand under knees and neck (if that makes sense) lie her down in cot and pat bum if stirs. Takes some practice. Had some phases where she’d be so hard to get down. We don’t have to wait the 10 mins anymore! One thing that can cause this is if they’re not tired enough. Could try pushing bedtime back 15- 30 mins. As others have mentioned the ‘regression’ happens around that age. Also being poorly can make it harder. It really isn’t a bad habit. People will have you believe it causes problems with sleep but really doesn’t! Also so much easier to get baby to fall asleep with a feed! Xx
Could be the 4 month sleep regression if she wasn’t doing this before?
Thanks @Katherine that’s helpful to know! We’re trying a later bedtime and yes, holding her for a while longer to try and get her into a deeper sleep. Here’s hoping something works 🤞🏻
Following as we got into the habit of feeding to sleep (baby is a couple of weeks older just turned 5 months) and the last 2 nights he’s woke every 45 minutes and won’t go back to sleep without the boob 🙃 he’ll sometimes feed for 20/25 minutes sleeping until he pops off and then will wake 20/25 mins later in the cot once I’ve put him down. Exhausted is an understatement. We’ve always fed to sleep and this has never been an issue before but now I seem to have created a habit that I’m not sure how to break 🤦🏽♀️ x