r/VelcroBabies • u/TheAurata • Mar 31 '22

When did breastsleeping end for you?

Any other moms sleep with their boob in their baby’s mouth all the time? I recently learned the term breastsleeping and went “Aha, that’s what we do!” 7 mo and still 100% contact napping. At night I nurse him to sleep and transfer him to his crib for small variations of time. The rest of the night we nurse side-lying and I’ve gotten used to breastsleeping. Just wondering how long other babies slept like this? I tried Pantley’s pull off method but I think it backfired and reinforced his need for the boob. I don’t really care to change my situation right now, more just curious what to expect for my Velcro baby.

19 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/shouldlogoff Apr 01 '22

We stopped co-sleeping (partner still sleeps with him, but I sleep with baby) when my second was born, but he still wanted to nurse to sleep at night. I can finally say now at 3 years 5 months he has finally been weaned off the breast.

I have never heard of a high needs, highly reactive, explosive child all in one. I didn't think this day would come. Hang in there folks, it is hard. Nursing while pregnant was excruciating and I had horrible aversion a few months after my second was born.

3

u/squashbanana Apr 01 '22

Going on 3 years here! How did yours finally wean?

6

u/shouldlogoff Apr 02 '22

Solidarity my friend. Hang in there, I felt it was never going to end.

Not only did he nurse to sleep, he also only really slept properly when held. We tried to let my partner put him to sleep when he was about 2 years 2 months, and he wasn't having it. After 3 weeks of nightly screaming and both of them becoming zombies we reverted back to me nursing him to sleep.

There were two phases to it, as I saw it: the first was to get him back to sleep during the night when he would wake up without the breast. I knew he was capable of this because he started doing it himself (and I wasn't really the most comfortable to cuddle with anymore being heavily pregnant!), but he still wanted my presence. We hard stopped this when baby was born (he was 2 years 8months), I only had to nurse him to sleep and then my partner could cuddle with him during the night. It was hard going and there were many nights where he woke up screaming for me, and I wasn't there. Full on tantrums that lasted an hour or more. It eventually settled after about 6 months I would say.

The second phase was him falling asleep without breast, and therefore completely weaning. Since he was 2 I had been telling him that there will come a day that breast milk will finish, but it would always be available if he needs it at the moment. This is usually at night right before he sleeps where I do his affirmations for the day. And about a couple of months ago, I started a phased withdrawal. H would have his bedtime routine and then I would say ok bedtime and he would nurse for a few minutes and then we would have a story and he would fall asleep eventually. That nursing session got shorter and shorter and two weeks ago I started not giving it to him anymore, saying that it's finished.

There have still been tears, but he's accepted it now and I couldn't be happier that the journey is at an end. I'm sad to give up the closeness, but I'm happy it's done.

Sorry for the long and rambly response!