Sleeping, bottles, milk — I give up!
My son is now 18 months old. He has only slept through the night once. ONCE! He’s always been a light drinker when it comes to milk. According to my research, he’s supposed to be around 16-20 ounces/day at this age. We’re lucky if he takes 10. He eats solids fine, but can be totally disinterested at times. He’s just so distracted and needs to be constantly moving.
But then at night, he wakes 2/3 times insisting on milk. Nothing else will cut it and if we try anything else, he just screams louder, pushes harder, and wakes up more.
And he always tries to get nursed before bed. I only allow that when he’s sick but in those cases he sleeps much better. He’ll only wake up once for milk if I nurse him. But sleep consultants have told me that if I breastfed him to go to sleep then he won’t be able to get back to sleep on his own. But he can’t seem to get back to sleep on his own when I don’t nurse him, so what does it matter?
I dunno. I’m just so over it. I’m exhausted. And I feel like there’s so much I’m doing wrong. I can’t get him to sleep, take in enough milk, or kick milk at night.
Please send me your secrets to sleeping.
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i think you should just breastfeed to sleep if thats what youve found makes him sleep best. first of all, sleep consultants are just trying to sell you a program/ product or keep you as a consumer of their content of course they are going to tell you the most natural soothing mechanism is wrong and detrimental for your sons sleep health. some babies are just naturally not “good” sleepers throughout infancy and toddlerhood so i would really encourage you to embrace his temperament and remember that this is only a season. one day you will look back fondly on the extra breastfeeding time between just you and him and know you supported him throughout the nights. you wont even remember the long nights/ struggles you feel now. it is so temporary so do what feels right (which sounds to me like breastfeeding before bed) and dont allow anyones agenda make you feel like you are doing your child a disservice by simply responding to their needs
I feel you. I'm trying to ween at 19 months. I do however try to only nurse at bed and his single wake up in the night. During the day I'm trying to push almond milk (dairy allergy) to get him used to something else. Right now we are just fighting to sleep in general he does not want to nap and it's taking me 3+ hours to get him to sleep at night. The past two months have been rough. I feel like nothing I've done is right because everyone else kids just nap where ever and can eat and drink anything, while we are over here constantly all day long fighting to get through the day. From the minute I wake to the minute I go to sleep I am momming and I'm lucky if I get to use the restroom without being screamed at, let alone take a shower on those rare occasions he will nap. Idk perhaps I need to go back to a pitch black room and accept my boob monster isn't going anywhere for a while for my own sanity. 😅
Super active, has been since birth. He doesn't know how to sit and relax. Lol my step daughter was apparently the same way and she's extremely bright, so I am hoping that is why.
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