She won't go to sleep unless breastfeeding

[emmwa]

Bethany has always gone to sleep whilst breast feeding and now I'm starting to have problems as she won't go to sleep unless on my breast Please can anyone offer advice on how I can change this so she will settle in her cot herself. I really don't want to do controlled crying and have tried a musical mobile but this just stimulates her and she cries for it when it finishes. She has started teething but this doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. She wakes once or twice in the night for feeds but I can't get her back in her cot unless she's totally asleep. Bethany is now 4 mths old. Please help, Emma

 

[budge]

just let her go to sleep on the breast! she likes it and if she likes it shes happy and if shes happy surely you are!

in time she will learn to settle on her own.
Right now she needs to feel secure and breastfeeding is so nice for her

 

[emmwa]

Its great and I really don't mind but I'm worried about how her sleeping habits in the future and all my friend's babies who are breast feeding can go to sleep on their own. Also when I get her to sleep at night, she usually wakes an hour later due to the REM sleep cycle and cannot settle herself so I end up feeding again. She won't go to sleep during the day unless after a feed or out in the pram or car and I have to go back to work in just over a month.

 

[h33]

Hiya

i would do controlled crying hun i know it's horrid when your doing it but it's only a couple of nights and then they learn to get themselves to sleep, i never breast fed but with WIllow i just used to bring her in with us to sleep and then she would never go to ed alone so at 12 weeks i dtarted putting her to bed alone it only took 2 nights and the third she went off to sleep brilliant. Never brought Conal in our bed had my fingers burnt once so he slept in his own bed straight away.

Heather

 

[Tasha20]

just let her go to sleep on the breast! she likes it and if she likes it shes happy and if shes happy surely you are!

in time she will learn to settle on her own.
Right now she needs to feel secure and breastfeeding is so nice for her

I agree with Budge, I let Olivia fall asleep on the breast and she then will go in the cot and stay there until she come into bed with me in the early hours, it wont always be like that, I have noticed tht Olivia was just snacking thru the night so I would dream feed her around 10/11 and she will sleep thru until about 2/3 in the morning give that ago hun and she may go longer, it has taken a week but shes got it in the end.

In your situation I dont personaly feel controlled crying is the right thing to do at all

 

[Lyndsey]

Can you try taking her off when she goes a bit dopey ( half asleep)? and then put her down. If she falls asleep on your breast when she wakes up thats what she will look for.

With Logan I take him off the breast when he starts getting dopey and put him on my shoulder to wind him, then I walk to the cot and put him down.

 

[Fiona]

hi, I do exactly the same as Lyndsey -

I feed Grace until she looks like she is just about to go to sleep, wind her on my shoulder - sometimes she has a grumble but doesn't really seem too bothered - then put her in her moses basket - if she seems to have another grumble I just pat her for a few minutes and then she is fast asleep...
good luck