We’ve been co-sleepers since Squeak was born and until the 4 month sleep regression hit, it served us all beautifully. At 4 months, Squeak went from waking once or twice a night to waking between 4 and 12 times a night. As I’ve said before, most of the time I can be zen about it, and given that I only have to stick a boob in Squeaks mouth and he’s back to sleep with ease, I feel as though it’s not the worst thing in the world… but the zen is fading, Ducks moved into the spare room months ago and my back is a mess from sleeping in bizarro twisty breastfeeding poses. It’s time for a change. I want Ducks back in our bed, more sleep and less trips to the osteopath.
So how do we make change when we’re not big fans of sleep training and will absolutely not leave Squeak to cry? I don’t think there’s an easy answer but we’re hoping that moving him onto a mattress beside our bed will help. We have no expectation of him to sleep through – co sleeping babies rarely do. But perhaps with a bit of distance from my boobs, he’ll be better able to sooth himself back to sleep, more often, during the night.
And if this doesn’t work, then I don’t know what next? Ducks may have to get involved in the night time parenting and some sleep training may be in order.
What are the experiences of others? Any suggestions?
PLUMP 
No advice, sorry, as we didn’t co-sleep beyond those first few weeks, but I hope you manage to find a solution that works for you all soon.
Nice to see you back, btw!
We put Jo in between me and T. Without the presence of the boob right next to him, he didn’t want to nurse and fell back to sleep. Soon he got out of the habit of waking up.
That being said, he still crawls in at night to cuddle with an adult (usually Jo). Because she isn’t woken up by this, she sleeps in his room and I sleep in our bedroom with E. We are really looking forward to this changing somehow.
It’s a hard commitment, being gentle with your child as they learn to sleep on their own, and hard to strike the balance between your needs for sleep in order to be a good parent and your child’s need for nighttime parenting. Wishing you all the best as you work out what’s needed for everyone!
Thanks Jen – that gives me hope. How old was T when you did that? Also, what did you do for naps? It’s getting harder and harder to nurse Squeak down and I am getting more and more frustrated. The only time he sleeps with ease now is when we’re in the car which is absolutely unsustainable.
T was really good at falling asleep for naps when I nursed him down. I had to move him in the brief window between being asleep and hitting dreamland, otherwise I would trigger his “tip-o-meter” – he would notice that he was being laid down flat – and he would wake up. I guess I got good at it. He was a good napper (and for that a lousy night sleeper until he got all of his teeth).
Between him weaning and me getting pregnant, I was able to rock him to sleep in the rocker. When I got pregnant (a whopping 4 months later!), the weight of him on my uterus got to be too much and we shifted to “quiet time” which was T sitting and watching Mr. Rogers on TV while I dozed…
nice to know i’m not the only one going through this!
so good to see you back….
trying to update now 🙂
xoxo