My first daughter sometimes nursed all night, but it wasn't a big deal as she didn't really wake. My second daughter coslept and nursed as well but started sleeping through the night at an early age, and I thought she was awesome. My third daughter, Julianna, though, was born 8 weeks prematurely (so she is 13 mos now but 11 mos developmentally), and we have struggled with breastfeeding from the start--she nurses, but her primary nutrition has been (very unhappily for me) from formula. She started sleeping through the night on her own at around the same age as my second daughter (6 mos developmental age, I think?), BUT, then she stopped wanting to nurse during the day. I could only get her to nurse when she was half-asleep, so I started cosleeping closer to her and waking her a bit during the nights to get her to nurse. I knew I might regret this later on, but I did NOT want her to wean so young.Â
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Well, fast-forward to now... There's not really room in the bed every night as sometimes my 3-yr-old sleeps there, too, so Julianna has been graduated to a toddler bed next to our bed; when she wakes, I lay in the toddler bed with her to nurse her back to sleep. Often, I fall asleep while waiting and wake up sore all over. That little bed sucks! But the real problem is...sometimes Julianna WILL sleep through the night, or sometimes she will nurse all night, or sometimes she will nurse a little and let me go back to my bed, or sometimes, like tonight and last night, she will decide that nursing isn't enough at around 4am and need a bottle, which for some reason means I am up for two hours. Ugh, I'm tired of it! I don't have patience with this third baby after my second baby spoiled me so! All day today I looked forward to bedtime; I was SOOO sleepy today. I didn't get to go to bed until midnight, and then Julianna woke at 3am, nursed forever, then wanted a bottle, and now it's 5:30am and she's just gone back to sleep.
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When she wakes, I don't make eye contact, I leave the lights and all noisy things turned off... Tonight I made her a bottle, nursed her, rocked her, changed a sopping wet diaper soundlessly in the dark, and then rocked her some more and some more until FINALLY she went back to sleep. I know she'll "get it" eventually, but I feel pretty sure she could sleep through the night NOW and I'm getting quite impatient. Very impatient.
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I guess I could use some words of advice on getting my patience back? She also will only take 40-minute naps during the day if I don't stand-by to nurse her before she fully wakes. I'm pretty sick of it. Just being honest. I'm pretty patient with my babies, but it is becoming a stretch.
