[happyhousewife06]

I am starting school very soon and I am taking night classes 4 nights a week by the time that I will get home 5mo DS would have been in bed for atleast 1.5 to 2 hours... but I can not get him to fall asleep for anyone but me. DH has tried every night and he just cries and wiggles around...and eventually I nurse him and he passes right out. What can I do to help this? Is this something to worry about when school starts? hes very picky about when he goes to bed he starts getting really fussy and just wants to go to bed...so I dont think just keeping him up will help. is it normal for breastfed babies to have to be nursed to sleep?

 

[KD's Momma]

I don't know if it's "normal" it just depends on what your routine has been. We all have our routines for how we get comfy and go to sleep. I HAVE to have my pillow, body pillow and soft sheets - I carry them where ever I go. My 5yo still needs his lovies, my 3 yo goes to sleep fast and longer if he has his bottle of water

:, and my 9 mo just wants to be rocked. So your LO has been use to going to sleep with you nursing. So it will be an adjustment for him to start a new routine. If you keep up the new routine he will eventually go to sleep but it may take awhile for the new routine to become the routine.

 

[twinsplusone1]

My kids always had to fuss a bit to go to sleep...its just how they went to sleep now this new LO who is 4mos old fusses a bit too he fusses a bit and wiggles a bit to let me know its time to go to sleep be it for naps or bedtime which is by 7pm so I put him down and he'll make noise for about 1-5minutes and then he's out for 12 hours. No bashes please hes a very happy healthy baby.

Try reading my favorite sleep book that helped my kids sleep 12-13 hours at night from 3mos on...Healthy Sleep Habit Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth

Its not IMO such a bad thing to let your kids put themselves to sleep and fussing is a way of settling themselves down, in fact its a very useful thing they need to self soothe or they will always have sleep issues and be overtired kids. DD would fuss a bit and then let out the loudest wail and immediately go to sleep all night at first I thought she must be in pain and I ran to her but as I walked in she was sound asleep...so don't fret.

I have friends who enjoy rocking thier children to sleep everynight and that is great IMO but since I started out having twins that just wasn't an option for me, which sounds like you have an obstacle to nursing to sleep too. These same friend too can't go out to dinner and have a sitter put the kids to sleep even as toddlers and they have to play the try to put the sleeping baby in bed without waking them game and if the baby wakes its the same thing all over again nurse to sleep try to put the sleeping baby to bed without waking LOL

 

[Llyra]

I wouldn't worry too much ahead of time. Babies are smart, and they figure out pretty quickly if mama isn't there that the routine needs to be different. I started working part-time in the evenings when the twins were 4 months old. They were both used to nursing to sleep, and DS in particular was very dependent on me to get to sleep. The first night was hard-- DH had to hold and walk DS a LOT before he slept. But after a night or two more, they'd hammered out their own little routine that worked for them. When I was home, we stuck to the old routine. When I was at work, they had their new "Daddy" way to sleep. They seemed to understand and accept that just fine.

So if it were me, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[ssh]

It is normal for babies to nurse to sleep. My DD even nursed to sleep for naps. If I wasn't home and my DH was caring for her at nap time, she just fell asleep on DH. So when I'm home she has to nurse to sleep, but if she needs to sleep and I'm not home she can be cuddled to sleep by daddy.
Your DS will probably wake up enough to nurse when you go to bed. Don't worry about it, things could work out just fine on their own.

 

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

You would be surprised how well babies adapt when Mama isnt around. When you are there and someone else is trying to get them settled, they KNOW you are there, but can't understand why it isn't YOU holding them. If you are taken out of the equation, they adapt pretty well.