Will I regret this?

[Liziz]

DD is 14 weeks old. I am EBF, but have never nursed her to sleep. Not really by plan, but it just didn't work out that way...I'd nurse her, then we'd get her ready for bed, and then either DH or I would rock her to sleep/semi-sleep.

For the past couple weeks, however, DD has been *desperate* to nurse right before bed. I used to nurse her, then get her swaddled and ready for bed, give her a paci, rock her to semi-sleep, and put her in her crib. Now, I nurse her, get her swaddled and ready for bed, but when I try to give her the paci and rock her, she spits it out right away and absolutely flails for the breast. If I give it to her, she'll actually nurse for a few minutes, then switch to comfort nursing and doze off. If I try to remove the breast when she switches to comfort nursing, she gets very upset and distressed. (This is different than any other time of the day...she doesn't have an issue with it any other time). She's wanting 5-10 minutes of comfort nursing before she's almost all the way asleep, and satisfied enough to not flip out when I remove the breast.

I'm okay with nursing her at bedtime like this. She's recently started daycare, and while she does fine with bottles while she's there, it's been pretty clear she prefers nursing and tries to "stock up" when she's with me. My understanding of why some say it's "bad" to nurse to sleep is that it causes sleep problems later in the night...baby wakes up, and the only way she knows how to go to sleep is to nurse. Currently, DD wakes up a few times at night, but falls asleep again on her own (we hear her wake up and make noises, but within 5 minutes she'll be sleeping again). She only wakes up and needs me once/night, when I nurse her. Given that she's EBF, 14 weeks, and she nurses a full feeding, I figure that this wake-up is because she's legitimately hungry. At this point I'm fine with the night feeding, and am making no effort to eliminate it.

Ok, so I'm finally getting to my question. I am okay with the way things are now (nursing to sleep/almost sleep at bedtime, one nighttime nursing). However, I'm worried that if I start the precedent of allowing her to nurse to sleep at bedtime, she will start needing to nurse at other times she wakes up -- even though right now she's able to put herself back to sleep. Do you think that's a risk? Or do you think that it's okay, since she's already shown she can go back to sleep on her own/without nursing? TIA!!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Whatever works! Both of my boys nursed to sleep till about 8 months then it stopped putting them to sleep (they went to sleep easily by playing in their cribs). I had no problem with something that worked. Day time sleep was usually nurse first but not required.

[waitingforgrace]

I think it's fine I've nursed both of mine to sleep and they are both good sleepers. If she goes back to sleep on her own during the night that's great. Do whatever works for you and don't look back.

[hellokitty]

I've had both. Babies that had to nurse to fall asleep and babies that would nurse, but needed to be rocked to sleep. You just do what you need to do to get the baby to sleep. So, what I guess I'm saying is that there is no, "right" way to do it. If you've figured out how to get her to sleep, stick with it.

[hoodlims]

Go with what is easier. Ferber says nursing to sleep is a bad association, Weissbluth says it isn't.. I nurse my baby to sleep every night (a HUGE nursing session, like an hour or so) and if he wakes up in the middle of the night he can fall back asleep without the boob. They change so much all the time anyway, eventually there will be no nursing and they will learn that then too.

[wellyes]

I do not think nursing to sleep is bad at all, many many babies do it. Mine did, and it's a very fond memory of mine. At 14 weeks they let you know what they need. If it's a challenge to break the habit later (definitely an 'if'), it's still worth it for now.

Only getting up once per night is great!

[Liziz]

Ok, thanks everyone for the encouragement to keep nursing to sleep! I think that before I posted this, I'd actually already decided that I'd keep doing it -- it just seemed right....but it always helps to have other mamas say they think it's okay, too!