All Night Nursing Baby

You may well have two things occuring at once that are making her need to nurse so frequently. As others mentioned, she may well still be recovering from the bug herself, particularly since it sounds like it was a pretty intense one, so she's needing extra nutrition and extra comfort since she's likely not feeling 100% yet. This may also be coinciding with a growth spurt. I second the suggestion of co-sleeping while you work through this issue. I know it's difficult and is impacting your own sleep, but this will pass and it really is important for rebuilding and increasing your milk supply to be able to continue to meet all her nutritional demands, as well as giving her immune system the boost she needs to get through the rest of the winter flu season. It may also be that you need to increase daytime nursing to reduce her need to nurse at nite. With two other children, you're likely very busy during the day and perhaps making the time to nurse extra during the day will help. And, yes, I know that's tough too with two other kids as I only had to do it with one other kid and I know the guilt when you have to care for the baby and have to use a video as a babysitter, but again, this is for a very short period of time.

If she is comfort sucking then break her latch and still lay next to her but try turning your back so she gets the idea that the breastaraunt is closed. If she is nursing then maybe she is still recovering from her illness as well. I would say that 30 minutes is enough though.

Hi T.,

First, congratulations for nursing this third beautiful baby! I was able to nurse all three of my sons and really felt the benefits on so many levels for both of us.

I hope the situation with your daughter is improving, but I want to come in from a slightly different angle. When my second son was an infant, I took him into the bed to nurse him at night and we both quickly fell into the habit of nursing and cuddling for what seemed to me to be all night long. At first glance this sounds heavenly, right? Needless to say, he did not need to nurse fully and then sleep because he could stir, nurse a bit, doze, stir.... Every time he nursed a bit, I woke up a bit, then dozed off.... With two sons at the time, I was exhausted each day! I finally realized I needed to sit up and nurse him fully for 20 or 30 minutes when he was hungry to prevent my falling asleep while nursing him. I did not have this issue with the other two boys - it was just something my second son and I "fell into".

By all means, I would recommend you nurse and cuddle your daughter as much as she seems to need at present, but be careful about letting this fall into the habit I described above. Over time, you and your daughter will be able to stretch out the nursing sessions and both of you will sleep better for it!

I would love to hear from you with an update!

Good luck,

J. B
Parent Coach

I slept with my baby until she was 6 months old (I'm a single mom) and would have gone longer, but she too got into the habit of nusing to sleep and not letting go all night long. I was in agony over putting her in her crib - I had really wanted to sleep with her much longer, but I couldn't sleep with her attached like that all night long. I tried everything not to do the "cry it out" method and read many books, but finally I was forced to let her cry and learn to self-soothe. She was 9 months by then and I was shocked at how quickly it worked! One night was pretty bad but the next night she only cried a little.

Here is what I did:
- Took her to bed with soothing language and hugs and said "night night." I left the room and closed the door. I timed her crying for 5 minutes and then went into her room, hugged her while standing in her crib, told her i loved her and again said "night night" and left the room. On the 3rd time I offered her water in a bottle, which surprisingly, she took - my doctor had said that breastmilk can cause a thirst response (which causes infants to crave more and more, which is mostly a good thing) and to be sure to offer water. I repeated the 5-minute thing for 4-5 times, when I then picked her up, nursed her for a short time, then started over again. (my ped said not to cause her to fear that she'll never get to nurse again, but to show her that she'll have to work very hard for it if she wants it during the middle of the night) The first night she was asleep after the 6th 5-minute interval. The second night I think it took 3 times. After that she was asleep before the first 5 minutes of crying was done. It was so much easier than I thought.

She's now a fabuous sleeper!

LD

This happens with my son every time he gets sick. He either want to nurse all night, or won't sleep in his crib after a sick spell because of the way I spoil him when he is ill. I have just learned to re-train him after I know he is all better. Once she is all better, start the training process again and give it a couple of weeks, she will get the hang of things again.

You did the right thing by letting her nurse as much as she wanted to increase your supply. Now is time to fix the habit you two got into during this phase. Before my daughter (9 months) was born, I read Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg. I REALLY suggest you read it but I'll try to give you a synopsis of what she said in the book.
Your baby has now learned that the way to fall asleep is by nursing so it's your job to re-teach her the correct way to fall asleep. When it's naptime or bedtime put her in her crib. She's going to cry and be very confused because you're changing things on her but this will only take a few days at most. Let her cry but NEVER leave the room. Let her cry until it gets to a distressing point where she's not able to console herself, then pick her up, comfort her, and put her back in bed AS SOON AS she calms down. You may have to do this up to a hundred times (no joke) and I know it's exhausting but it's a lot better to break the habit now than have it going on until she's 1 or 2 years old. The point is to teach her to console herself, or self-soothe.
Using this method my daughter slept all night at 10 weeks old. When she'd wake up at night, she was able to put herself back to sleep without nursing or getting a pacifier.
Please let me know if you have anymore questions. Good luck!

You didnt likely have the flu. It was probably the noro virus if it was that shortly lived.

My daughter is also recovering from being ill and for those two months (yes you read that right) that she was sick she got very used to sleeping in bed with me and nursing all night. But now that she is better I put her in her bed and I don't get her up unless she is really crying. It's taken a few days but she is only waking once (she's nine months.)

Good luck and don't feel bad about keeping him in bed with you a little longer, it may take him a while to bounce back. :)

S., mom to four girls ages four and under!

visit www.hearmevent.com you are not alone!

You've gotten some good advice. It could well be that this is just a part of her recovery and will pass soon enough. Kudos for you for sticking through it all. I know how tough it can be when one or both of you gets sick like that.

Hopefully you're co-sleeping so you can at least get some sleep even if she's nursing. Breaking the latch when she falls asleep works. Sometimes they'll wake and you need to do it again, but it will work. If you read Elizabeth Pantley's book, No Cry Sleep Solution, she calls this the Pantley pull off (or something like that). You might check out the book if you have a chance. Most bookstores and libraries carry it. Good luck!