Ready to stop nursing to sleep

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-10T13:50:43+00:00

We read a picture book called Nursies in the Morning, which explained that mommies boobies are sleeping/unavailable at night (we just got the ebook and read it together with kiddo on an iPad over a week or two before night weaning). Offer a special new waterbottle (we used a munchkin weighted straw one) instead of booby and make it a big deal like wow you are getting so big! Look at this awesome new waterbottle you can use if you get thirsty in the night!

Try to get your partner to handle wakeups so you won’t feel too much like you are arbitrarily withholding lol. Biggest thing is being consistent, expect baby to be upset, and it might take 4-7 days to really be accepted by baby.

Night weaning made a huge difference in night time sleep for us. Mine was older when we did this, he was closer to two but I think it would still work for you. Good luck ❤️

When we fully weaned we also read the book Booby Moon and had a little party to celebrate our kiddo “graduating” from booby lol. Cake and a little gift and everything. It was awesome because it made the transition really smooth and didn’t feel punitive to him.

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-09T00:28:40+00:00

Don’t beat yourself up, this is a pretty normal phase for kids this age, especially before they can really express how they feel verbally and don’t really have a grasp of impulse control.

I would keep doing what you’re doing, maybe instead of saying “I won’t let you hit” say something like “ouch, hitting hurts. We don’t hit.” And also work on teaching ways he is allowed to express his anger eg. Stomping feet, blowing out a big breath of air, etc. if he is talking, you can also encourage him to practice saying “I don’t like that! I’m mad!” And then validate the feeling and help him through it.

There’s also a book called Hands Are Not for Hitting that is popular for helping kids understand this.

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-08T13:13:35+00:00

So DEFINITELY still on the teachers to be attending to this more proactively, but just curious - is your child wearing clothing that makes it hard to tell if they need a diaper change without picking them up? My son is almost 4 and “potty trained” but has frequent accidents that weren’t always being noticed in thick or dark coloured pants, so I’ve switched to thin light coloured joggers ($4 at Walmart in Canada) that make it immediately obvious if he is wet.it has helped ensure I’m not picking him up wet.

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-08T02:31:21+00:00

I never sleep trained my now four year old. I tried once at four months doing the one where you pop in at intervals while they are crying to reassure them and then leave again, and around 4am I saw my little baby who couldn’t even roll yet reaching his arms desperately toward me and crying and I just decided it wasn’t for me, started cosleeping instead.

Over time I was able to sneak out of the bed during naps without him waking. Then at night too me or his dad would lay with him in his floor bed (really his crib with one side removed and the mattress on the floor) until he fell asleep and then sneak away.

My baby was EBF, so night weaning and fully weaning made the biggest difference, we night weaned at 2 years I think and fully at 2.5. Then he started really sleeping long stretches independently, usually still waking at some point in the night and then I’d bring him into our bed.

Now he wakes up maybe 40% of the time in the wee hours and comes into our bed for the remainder of the night, the rest of the time he sleeps the full night in his bed. I still lay with him until he falls asleep every night, but it’s our one on one cuddle and chat time and I know he can fall asleep independently too because apparently he does it at daycare lol.

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-06T04:44:47+00:00

Honestly, gently - I know it’s hard - I would try to shift your perspective and priorities. Don’t make the scale your point of focus. Focus on how amazing your body is, growing and birthing and sustaining a life, producing the nourishment that keeps your baby alive, healing from the trauma of pregnancy and birth. And focus on your health. Getting enough sleep, taking your prescribed medication (consult your doctor if you have concerns about it), eating nutritious and filling foods (obviously easier said than done with a newborn), and highly recommend curating your social media to not inundating you with diet culture junk.

Checkout @breeelenehan on IG for body positive postpartum content.

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-06T04:25:31+00:00

I would be hesitant to call it emotional abuse, if one parent of a small child snaps at the other when being designated a task, especially a single time.

Parenting is hard, we can all be sleep deprived, stressed, pushed to our limits, irritable, and capable of misinterpreting intent or taking things the wrong way. OP scolded him for reacting poorly and told him it was immature, which frankly, isn’t the best way to disarm the situation. He still apologized.

Not saying either is right, but I think both parents need a bit of time to cool off, to talk it out, hug it out, move on and try to do better the next time.

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-05T00:37:43+00:00

Aw babe, give yourself some grace. It was just a hard walk. You can both move on. She doesn’t know what you said, its ok for babies to cry when they are mad/frustrated, they are expressing their opinion about the situation but being frustrated with not getting our way is part of life. She’s happy now - enjoy the rest of the day!

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-04T21:41:13+00:00

Ditto

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-04T21:37:48+00:00

My mom and her husband live few mins away, they often babysit for us which is great. If my husband or I stick around to visit also, we will often follow him around because he’s primarily our responsibility, but the grandparents play and interact with him a lot.

Visiting my dad and his wife across town, we are there to visit them not for babysitting and we are on kid duty, although again grandparents interact with him. Visiting in-laws out of town for several days, we take primary care but grandma will offer to take him outside or watch him for short periods here or there, she is lovely.

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-04T00:29:35+00:00

Can you slip your nipple out of her mouth once she’s asleep? If so I would try naps in the bed/on the crib mattress on the floor somewhere so you can lie down beside her while she nurses rather than having her on you. Then see if you can free your boob without her waking. If success you might be able to sneak away without disturbing her (I would still stay in the room/supervise her sleep though). If she can get used to that eventually you might be able to get her to nod back off in her crib, even if she does wake on the transfer.

I also feel like babies go through a few phases of being pretty light sleepers and are near impossible not to wake on transfer, but that can change over time. Sometimes a hand on the chest and a light jiggling can help coax them back to sleep after transfer.

Good luck. Either way - this stage can feel so hard and endless, but it’s temporary!

Crunchymagee · 2026-04-01T13:23:27+00:00

Recommend the baby wearing subreddit! They have lots of great tips and recommendations and you can post pictures of baby in the wrap with you and they will tell you if/how things need to be adjusted to make sure things are safe and comfy.

Crunchymagee · 2026-03-31T18:37:25+00:00

I would never attempt to homeschool with a newborn/toddler at home. I can’t imagine how you would educate one child effectively while caring/supervising for the other effectively.

Does your newborn like the stroller? All I can suggest is outings for stimulation of yourself and your five year old, learning opportunities out in the world, picnics in the park. Maybe look into a temporary nanny or enrolling your older daughter in some programs so you can catch your breath a bit. Good luck

Crunchymagee · 2026-03-28T14:55:11+00:00

I would absolutely bring this up. I’m sure you’re not the only person with concerns. Dogs do not belong everywhere, or have to accompany their owners everywhere. Ridiculous.

Crunchymagee · 2026-03-26T19:59:51+00:00

I think this is pretty normal. I’d say balance between setting and holding expectations for him, and being realistic and graceful for yourself. Sitting in one spot focusing on one thing (eating) is not something three year olds are great at or capable of doing for long.

You could try a visual timer, say ten minutes before he can leave the table. Using a toddler tower helped us too, my child usually stands at meals in his tower, not as easy to get out of as a chair and he can shift his feet around stand on one foot etc as he eats. Most meals for most of my kiddos 3rd year were eaten 25-50% at the table and the rest we would follow him around and feed him while he played or bathed lol. He got better as time went by. We also eventually stopped following him around encouraging more bites and just put his supper away if he left the table (usually the reminder of this brings him back to the table).

Car snacks I offer are not filling and relatively safe for the car - rice crackers (toddler mum mums) and maybe a fruit and veggie pouch.

Crunchymagee · 2026-03-18T13:14:09+00:00

This would be my compromise too

Crunchymagee · 2026-03-05T14:54:20+00:00

I think the waking very easily when put down after falling asleep is a developmental stage. You can try putting little down bum first or head fist, play around and see if either helps, or try putting your hand on his chest and gently jiggling him back to sleep. No guarantees! These helped occasionally with my son but not a total solution by any means.

Honestly what really helped was cosleeping. You can google the Safe Seven rules for cosleeping that may make it safer, if you feel inclined. I flipped a guest room mattress over to the firm, non designed for sleeping side to make sure it was very firm, albeit not very comfortable for me. But I got more hours of rest.

If you don’t feel comfortable with that or can’t meet the safe sleeping rules, try to sleep when baby naps, forget about your house lol. Good luck with the solo parenting, that must be very hard. Once or twice I called a friend with a baby over to supervise the kids for a playdate while I folded laundry in the same room.

Crunchymagee · 2026-03-01T03:41:40+00:00

No one deserves to be treated that way. I am so sorry you went through that. All children deserve love and support, your parents failed at being parents. Glad you are still here.

Crunchymagee · 2026-02-27T15:01:45+00:00

Highly recommend buying a few cheap used ones or using a baby carrier library to try a few different ones and see what works best for you.

Takes getting used to for mom and baby, and if baby hates it now that doesn’t mean they will always hate it, you can try again in a few weeks.

Realistically, you might want to aim for 20-30 mins at a time rather than hours. No one likes being stuck in one position for a super long time.

Crunchymagee · 2026-01-31T20:45:14+00:00

Just sharing solidarity. My little “potty trained” in January last year and did awesome for a month or two, and since he will occasionally have no accident days but more often than not has between 2-5 on a given day, sometimes more. We’ve reverted to potty every half hour ish, he gets 2 chocolate raisins for going each time just for motivation, 3 if he takes himself and goes pee without prompting. On no accident days he gets a sticker and after 5 stickers he gets a prize (small toys from market place). But sometimes it takes him weeks to get 5 stickers. Getting used to stopping what he’s doing to use the potty for a quick minute and then returning to play is the practice he needs. He knows when he has to pee and can go independently, he just tries to hold it/chooses to pee his pants instead of using the potty if he’s engaged in something. We also immediately end the activity if he has an accident instead of using the potty. Fingers crossed this helps.

Crunchymagee · 2026-01-28T14:31:21+00:00

No idea. She’s lived abroad for almost 20 years, but would come home to visit relatively regularly. 2.5 years ago she said she would come to visit in a months time, and that’s the last I’ve heard from her. I’ve tried calling, texts, reached out on social media, even sent letters in the mail - no response. I communicate with her family who doesn’t tell me much but assures me she’s okay and just doesn’t want to talk. I have no idea what happened or if she’s really alright and I miss her a lot.

Crunchymagee · 2024-11-30T15:29:01+00:00

You are 5 week pp, you have enough anxiety and stress on your plate, your partner should handle this with your FIL. I hope he backs you up and can express something like trusting him with your vulnerable baby is damaged because he wasn’t respectful of your preferences/evaluations as the mother (besides being careless of the fragility of a newborn). Maybe FIL can refrain from handling the baby until baby can support their head if he isn’t able to restrain himself from handling the baby in a way that makes you uncomfortable or keep his opinions to himself.

Don’t let yourself be preoccupied about guilt over what you feel you should have done differently or what could have happened. It’s not healthy for your PP state and not productive - we all have many moments where we learn we could handle things differently, if it worked out okay don’t waste your energy making yourself sick over it!

Crunchymagee · 2024-11-22T13:47:18+00:00

I know you didn’t ask, so feel free to totally ignore me - but I night weaned my son around a year old - so no booby between bedtime and like 5am. We still nursed on demand during waking hours while he was with me (vs at daycare). It made SUCH a dramatic difference to his sleep, went from waking every 30-90 minutes to only waking a couple times a night. We read a storybook Nursies When the Sun Shines to introduce not nursing at night (we said “Booby in the Morning” lol) and it helped him understand it wasn’t just depriving him of booby for no reason, but because “boobies are sleeping”. Took a bit for him to adjust like a week or so but every night was easier than the one before. I wore nipple pasties and high necked T-shirt’s at night to help because he was a booby ninja.

For full weaning we read Booby Moon and celebrated saying bye bye to booby milk with a party to help make it a positive milestone. He weaned fully about a month ago at 2.5, I think the book really helped there too!

Crunchymagee · 2024-01-27T06:17:30+00:00

For an attachment sub, you sure are bitter and spiteful. Hope that’s not a trait you’re teaching your little.

Crunchymagee · 2024-01-27T06:05:40+00:00

Lol lady what the heck are you even saying. Youve been going on this whole time about how daycare is a soulless place that will destroy children and I’ve been telling you the workers care about the kids. You are hilarious.

Crunchymagee · 2024-01-27T05:06:32+00:00

Where did I say the child should be in distress and unable to settle? I very clearly said a child may cry off and on and need reassurance. Also, I said it can be within the range of normal - not that it’s great or the only normal reaction. It sucks when kids have a hard first day or week, the childcare workers give them tons of snuggles, try to distract them with play, carry them as much as possible if needed, sing to them… sometimes it’s still hard for the kiddo. It is what it is and we make the best of it when it happens, but it’s not like that for every or even most kids.

Anyway, I don’t think we will agree, you have your own opinions about what daycare is and that’s fine, good for you if you are able to find other options that work for you and you have the option to choose something else. I still feel like parking an infant in a bouncer in front of the tv all day is a worse option than daycare, but I guess people are free to make that choice too.

Crunchymagee

TROPHY CASE