baby will now only nap when nursing

1

1stimemum

Registered User
baby is now 10wks old and i dont know how we got here but he will now only nap when nursing.. meaning fall asleep after he's fed, diapered, burped and then he gets back to nurse to sleep.

problem is that it means i'm the only one who can help him sleep. (husband, helper) not able to. I"m VERY Tired.... this started i think when he was sick few wks ago and I kept nursing him to stop him crying..

i seem to have created alot of bad habits - at this young age and I dont know want to do. Giving to helper/ husband results in 1hr cry marathons.

exhuasted, pls help!
 
I was in the exact same position as you a little while ago. My 6 month old son has reflux (much better now though) and I was always unsure of whether he had fed enough before going to bed so I would feed him to sleep. Then it became a habit and he couldn't sleep until I fed him to sleep. If I put him in his bed and he woke up as I was putting him down he would scream until I fed him to sleep. THEN he started waking frequently in the night and not being able to go back to sleep unless I fed him to sleep again. He wouldn't take a pacifier, wouldn't be rocked to sleep or patted or anything else. SO I had to let him cry it out. After one week of checking on him every 5 mins after I put him in his bed he now takes naps with no tears at all. He takes much longer naps and only wakes once or twice at night for a feed. Last week I was able to go out and my husband put him to bed. :) He was so excited about it! (but not as much as I was!). I hope this helps! The idea is to teach him to soothe himself to sleep. A lot of people don't like the cry it out idea and I was definitely one of them until I got SO tired that I was getting depressed. I figured that a little baby crying was better than me going off the deep end. I am SO SO glad we did that sleep training. It was effective and not harsh! My baby coped with it a lot better than I thought. Although I'm not sure if you should try it before 3 months old. I can send you the program information that we did if you like, just PM me. :) good luck! I know how exhausted you are!
 
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Yeah, my son was like that too. Somehow I eventually got him to follow an `eat-play-sleep` routine, but I don`t remember how it happened, but it was around your baby`s age it started coming together. Unfortunately, it never worked out for the bedtime boob feed... He ended up waking all the time at night and boob was all I knew, so that`s what we did for months and months. My biggest mistake (well, of many).
I know what you mean by you are the only one who can put your baby to sleep. But if you continue this, you will always be the only one and you will never be free, take it from me.
Try a distraction method. When your baby goes into feed mode(bc he is sleepy) maybe try to do another soothing thing. Have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution? This has a lot of good tips. Luckily your baby is still young and can change. I would start to think about changing habits, slowly slowly. Baby steps. Because, trust me, you will still be exhausted a year from now.(did I mention that I no longer nurse him to bed but I give him a bottle and I am the only one who has ever put him to bed and he is 14 months now.)
 
thanks for the encouragement. I got the email Lisainhk, thanks! I am going to keep trying, no luck as yet.

any more suggestions, more than welcome.

carang, how long did it take to wean off a pacifier?
 
my son HATED the pacifier and my daughter couldn't live without it.

i've never sweated any of the "big" milestones and kind of let things take their own course. my daughter was so hooked on her pacifier that if we forgot one, we'd have to stop and buy a new one! BUT, when she turned 21 months, she suddenly refused it! she pulled it out of her mouth and said, 'no, big girl now, mummy!' and that was it. she never wanted one again! she ONLY used it for sleeping. i NEVER gave it to her otherwise. it does take a few tries for the baby to get used to it and not spit it out, though, so if you try once and they spit it out, don't necessarily give up...give it a little time.

my daughter was lactose intolerant and used sucking as a comfort. after her first night at home, she sucked ALL NIGHT LONG. i sent hubby out to the supermarket as soon as it openned to buy one. i could not handle all the sucking... it was starting to hurt and i was exhausted. she took the pacifier almost immediately and i was finally able to sleep.
 
So great to know I'm not alone!

My little one had a fever a couple weeks ago so to avoid dehydration, I'd feed him almost constantly = feeding every 2 hours sometimes through the night as well. As soon as he started feeling better, he took great naps throughout the day then slept for about 9 hours through the night! Good boy! Unfortunately, that lasted the weekend - I think cuz we were driving around all the time = Baby Ethan's favourite way to fall asleep but now he won't take good naps (usually lasts 30 mins each - 3-4 times a day) and doesn't sleep well through the night! We're starting him on solids (first bite of diluted congee today - unsure about starting infant cereal) so hopefully that'll address the sleeping through the night! Now when he feeds he's fussy too! It's like he's too hungry to sleep and too sleepy to eat!

Sigh...hoping this will get better soon! Will keep you guys posted...
 
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