He won't nurse to sleep!

[DevaMajka]

I know this may seem like a positive thing to some (it would have sounded good to me when ds1 was a baby!) but OMG! I wish my 6 month old would just nurse to sleep!!!

Ds2 will nurse to sleep about 1/4 of the time, so out of 3 naps and bedtime, he'll nurse to sleep once a day. The rest of the time? Who knows what will work. Maybe walking him, maybe not. Maybe rocking him, maybe not. Maybe laying beside him in bed, maybe not. And it takes forever. There have been days that it has taken hours to get him to sleep, after he's obviously tired. Walking to sleep works better for dp. It's about 50/50 for me. Then he's tired and cranky and he fusses. He wants to sleep, but just can't.
If he doesn't fall asleep within 5-10 minutes of nursing, he WILL. NOT. nurse to sleep. If I try again before an hour has passed, he either cries or bites me (it's kinda funny- it seems like an intentional bite. Like "hmmm...I don't want to nurse, what else can I do with it? Oh I know!!" {{chomp}}

He wakes up in the middle of the night to eat, and if he can't get back to sleep while he's nursing, he totally wakes up. He wakes up happy at least, but he's awake for at least an hour! I can tell he's tired and he wants to sleep, but nothing works. These middle of the night playtimes are NOT good for me.

Ds1 had to nurse to sleep every time, and woke up multiple times a night to nurse, but at least he'd go to sleep when he was tired! And he NEVER had middle of the night play times!

Anyways, this is mostly to vent, but if anyone is in the same boat or has any ideas, I'm all ears!

[LynnS6]

Ds was like that. He stopped nursing to sleep at 4 mos. Dd stopped at 9 months. For dd, I never did find the magic bullet. Even today at 5 1/2 it's hard to get her to settle for sleep. If I can get her to hold her body still for 15 minutes, she'll drop off. But she'd rather be up reading, drawing, singing, dancing. As an infant, I think swaddling more would have helped. Music helps her too.

Ds had different issues. He didn't want to deal with the milk when he was tired. So, when my milk let down, he unlatched and screamed. It only took me a week or two to figure this out, and my saving grace was a pacifier. He wanted to suck, but he didn't want to have to deal with actually swallowing.

So, my recs would be: Go back to swaddling, try white noise and music, and possibly a pacifier.

[gbutterflykissesm]

My baby went through this stage too. This is when we bought the Arm's Reach Cocoon. If he nurses but is still not asleep, but is sleepy, I swaddle him and rock/bounce him in the cocoon until he falls asleep. It has been a LIFESAVER, especially now that he's older. If I rock him in my arms he just gets too stimulated and won't drift off. Rocking him in here while shhhing or singing him a lullaby works wonders.

I would also suggest trying different nursing positions. My DS won't usually fall asleep while nursing and just laying next to me in bed, but for some reason falls asleep much better if we sit up and he is in my arms.

[beebalmmama]

One thing worked for us - pacifier. With my abundant milk supply and strong letdown ds 1 would sometimes fall asleep nursing. But other times he would get very upset when the milk kept coming and he didn't want it. I never really wanted to use one, but it turned out fine (We had a nursing relationship for 3 yrs 10 months).
Now I've got a similar issue with ds 2, frustrated by my letdown even more than ds 1 - although he'll usually let go of the pacifier before he's fully asleep.

[LianneM]

Yep, pretty much why DD gets a pacifier :sigh She just got mad if I offered the breast after she didn't want milk anymore, but she definitely wanted to suck.

[DevaMajka]

Last night I laid down next to him in bed, and he fussed a tiny bit. I handed him a pacifier, and he played with it/sucked on it, and eventually went to sleep without another peep! It would be nice if it's always that easy!

But... really early this morning, he woke up and nursed and was *almost* asleep. He was done nursing, and just couldn't settle himself, so he was awake WAYYYY early. He slept 7.5 hours last night. sigh.