Sleep

She’s not staying asleep as she is associating being on the boob with sleep so when she realises it’s not there she demands it again. I think have a look into boob sleep associations but I think one of the first things to do would be to move the feed earlier into bedtime routine (half an hour before sleep) and then get her to fall asleep differently eg rocking to sleep. Then slowly over time you can see if she requires less assistance from you. We went from rocking to sleep to then lying in crib and us patting her butt to sleep

How does she feed during the daytime? Is she getting enough during the day or could you be in a 'reverse cycling's situation?

@Sarah she eats well, 3 solid meals and bf on demand, usually around 4-5 times during the day! I'm not sure. Maybe that is the issue

@Sara I will have a look at that. It's so hard to change, she cries and cries until she gets boob 😩 I'll maybe have to do it over a period of time. Brutal! I don't mind the feeding to sleep at all but I just need longer stretches. If I could even get 3 hours in a row I would feel like a new woman!

Have you tried co-sleeping? Could help!

@Stephanie yeah, she just wants to latch pretty much all night. I would try anything apart from letting her cry 🫠

I’m not sure there is any solution that doesn’t involve sleep training of some sort because, as someone already said, she probably associates sleep with boob and might therefore not connect sleep cycles, because every 45min-1h she wakes up and the means by which she fell asleep isn’t there anymore. Have you looked into gentle sleep training methods, I think some are even called “no cry” sleep training?

@Marioana I have looked into some. I just hate the thought of her being upset. I know there's responsive training but honestly she is just so upset if she isn't given boob that it feels like a huge mountain to climb. I would just love a simple solution lol eg she needs more food during the day or something but I'd say that's not likely!

It might feel like you are being mean not giving her the boob however you could try switching to water for the first couple of feeds. We did this with my first and he soon stopped asking for water and started to sleep well. Then feed her milk about 3 hours in just in case she is actually hungry. It is literally that association. @Sara is right. I would also try feeding the last feed, then story and clean teeth, then settle to sleep so then she doesn't fall asleep on the boob. It would be like you having a comfy pillow which has disappeared when you briefly wake up or turn over. You wouldn't go back to sleep, you would look for the pillow!! Xx