[OHmidwife]

My co-sleeping 13 mo. old still wakes to nurse about 3-6 times a night and it's making me batty. I know he doesn't need to eat that much, but no amount of shushing, back patting, singing, etc. will get him back to sleep. And yes, I've read the NCSS and tried some of the tips to no avail.
I just spoke with a friend who put baby in his own bed (and own room!) at 11 mos.- (did NOT do it by CIO) and said he was fine with that and slept much better. She just kept the monitor in with him and now gets up one or twice to nurse him back to sleep. Anyone else try this? I'm afraid I'll just end up in there 6 times a night and be twice as tired. I thought of putting him on another mattress in my room, but I'm pretty sure he would just crawl over and find me. He seems to be a pretty light sleeper, as am I, and he wakes whenever he hears me turn over or get up to pee and when he wakes, he wants so nurse. BTW, he recently went from 2 to one nap a day, but that hasn't changed anything.

Ideas?

 

[mom2owen1]

i think i would try him in a different space in your room. if he is waking when you stir, maybe getting him some space would reduce the wakings and therefore the nursings. when we tried this i had my king mattress on the box springs (but not the frame). i put a crib mattress on the floor next to it. basically, still one big bed but part of it was lower. this way you could nurse on either bed, and if you went down to nurse him you could just move back up after he was asleep.

all kids are different though, and honestly 3-6 times a night to wake seems very normal for a 13 month old.

 

[majikfaerie]

Yeah, I think this level of waking can be very normal for a 13mo.
and while he might not need to eat that much, he might. especially at this age, babies can get pretty active during the day and dont always have time to get all the nursing in that they would like, night time can be a way of catching up.
and if he doesnt need the food, he DOES need the comfort and closeness it affords.
I went through the same feelings of "going batty" and any attempts at getting dd out of my bed only resulted in LESS sleep for me (and more stress), and dd, now 3 yo, is still in my bed, and sleeping through the night.

 

[aja-belly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mom2owen1 when we tried this i had my king mattress on the box springs (but not the frame). i put a crib mattress on the floor next to it. basically, still one big bed but part of it was lower. this way you could nurse on either bed, and if you went down to nurse him you could just move back up after he was asleep.

this is hat we did about 2 months ago, except we had a little toddler bed instead of just a crib mattress. that way he was almost level with our bed so we could go to sleep together and we could be right next to eachother, but if i rolled over or scooched around it wouldn't move him and he wouldn't stir.

 

[OHmidwife]

Thanks for all the replies. I don't really want to move him out, I enjoy having him in the bed with me and he seems too little to sleep alone. But it's been over a year since I had more than 4 hours of sleep in a row (and 4 hours is rare, it's usually no more than 3 hours) so I'm getting a little crazy from sleep deprivation at times.
Sometimes he nurses for a looong time and sometimes he wakes at 4am wanting to play. I guess some day I'll look back with longing for my sweet baby nursing all night. Maybe I'll try putting another mattress in our room- if I can get one that fits- it's a pretty small room.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz......

 

[4Marmalade]

My dd is almost 15 months and about 1 month ago we switched things up a bit. She nurses a lot at night and needs to maintain contact with my breasts to sleep. One night I crawled into bed with ds and slept there. Dd stayed in bed with dh. She slept from 7pm to 4am!!!!!! She did wake up a few times but dh just shushed her back to sleep and there was no crying at all. At 4am I went back into bed with her and nursed her. So, now I tend to sleep with ds a lot more and dh cuddles up with dd. Many nights, dh swears that she doesn't even wake up. It seems to work great. I miss dd but I get to snuggle ds so we all seem to be winning here. I did sleep with both ds and dd last night as dh was out of town and dd resorted to her old ways and was a nursing machine so she really must be able to sense the milk nearby

 

[OHmidwife]

Well, we tried having my husband sleep with Eliot and me in another room...no good. He woke up just as often, Paul couldn't get him back to sleep, and I ended up with even LESS sleep, going back and forth between rooms. Plus I missed the little bugger. Even though he wakes me all the time, I like hearing him breathe beside me and the way he squiggles over to me when he wants to nurse.

I'd still like to try putting another mattress in the room, but at the moment we can't afford to buy a decent one (and I don't want him to sleep on a crappy one- I want one w/o flame retardants, etc.), so it will have to wait for now.
But thanks for all your ideas!

Still sleepy....alas....

 

[rzberrymom]

I would try the DH approach again in another few months. It never worked for us until DD was 18 months, and then he could finally get her back to sleep.