If you are breastfeeding on demand at night and are exhausted but don’t feel like weaning your baby from the breast, here are our tips for sleeping better without weaning that might be useful. Some babies are very demanding during the night, but there comes a time when you feel that you need to do something to get more sleep. How? Here are a few ideas.

How to get better sleep when you are breastfeeding

Don’t let it come to your baby crying uncontrollably; then you end up breastfeeding your baby anyway. Babies will fall asleep quickly, but your stress levels will not allow you to fall asleep right away, and then you will be losing minutes of precious sleep; if you breastfeed at the baby’s first signs of needing to suckle, within a few minutes, you will get both back to sleep. Here is a study about the three phases of putting a baby to sleep in their crib.

Do not change your baby’s diaper during the night unless their skin is irritated or very sensitive; they can sleep peacefully with a wet diaper and a little poop unless they really “ask for it” because you see that they are uncomfortable.

Breastfeed lying down in bed and allow yourself to fall asleep with your baby; it’s okay, you’ll get more rest (see safe co-sleeping guidelines). If you really don’t want to co-sleep, simply remove this option from your list.

If your baby wakes up and breastfeeding no longer calms your baby down, one option is to nudge and lovingly wake up your partner, if you have one and can, and pass your baby on. If the crying doesn’t let you sleep, go to sleep on the sofa for a while (but never take your baby to sleep with you).

If you are thinking of the option of breaking the breastfeeding-to-sleep link, take into account that your baby will create another link that is probably less bearable, practical, and comfortable. But in that case, you can initiate total or partial night weaning (for more information, click here).

Think positive; this stage will end someday, a day that is more or less far away.

And finally, if all of this sounds like the same thing you’ve read so many times, but it’s not for you because it just doesn’t work in your case:

Here is what we think:

Not everything is black or white.

There aren’t only nights from hell or babies who sleep 12 hours in a row.

There is not only giving immediately what your baby demands or abandoning them with the cry-it-out method in a dark room.

But there is everything in between and what you want it to be. Babies need a calm, rested, and reassured mother. We all know that for the first few months, that is an impossible dream, but when the clock is ticking, you don’t see the light, and your peace of mind and health are disrupted. Feel free and happy to accompany your baby the way you want to. There are many resources and a huge color scale of options for raising your baby.

In summary

Sleep is developmental, and like any development, it takes time. Only each mother and father are ultimately responsible for the upbringing of their children; all others, resources or people, are mere allies; always be aware that making decisions from the heart, calmness, and respect is our role.

Do you need more help?

If you need help or want support at any stage of your breastfeeding or motherhood journey, you can find the LactApp experts in our free breastfeeding and motherhood app, LactApp, which you can download for iPhone and Android.