u/Anon_again_forever

My ebf 10 month old baby is a nightmare when it comes to night time sleep. We co-sleep on a floor bed but she has never fallen asleep without a lot of help (and often wakes just seconds after being put down).

Her schedule is
7am wake up, then 3 to 3.5 hour wake window (she shows very obvious sleepy cues) then around 1.5-2 hour nap (very grumpy if she doesn’t get this) then around another 3 to 3.5 hour wake window and then a short nap (30 mins to 1 hour max) and then wind down around 7pm with a book, dimmed lights/darkness in the bed with soft music/sound machine.

Usually I will try to feed her to sleep which works probably 50% of the time and sometimes we do a combo of feeding and bouncing on the gym ball.

Some nights this will work in terms of getting her to fall asleep but other times she will literally be snoring on our shoulder but the moment we stop bouncing she is awake and crying.

She also wakes at least 3 times per night, distressed and has to be fed or bounced back to sleep.

Leaving her ‘drowsy but awake ‘ doesn’t work. She also hates being patted and cuddled and will actively push us away and scream.

Her naps however are much easier, she will generally just feed or we give her a quick bounce and she’s asleep.

I don’t need her to sleep through the night but I’m exhausted with the 2 - 3 hours it sometimes takes us to get her to sleep.

After a rough introduction to breastfeeding, I settled into a really good routine with my ebf baby. She’s just turned 10 months and all of a sudden she is clamping down SUPER hard on my breasts when she feeds. So hard that I literally have to bite something and mentally force myself to think about something else while she feeds. After she feeds my breasts feel so painful like they’re bruised and I feel like I’m back at the beginning of breastfeeding where I’m scared for anything to slightly graze my chest area (including clothing) because it’s so painful.

She has two little teeth that have just come through but she’s not biting me - the only way I can describe it is like a suction clamp. Also it doesn’t seem to matter if I take her off, it’s that hard every single time no matter what.

As I feed her to sleep and for naps it’s becoming something that I dread every day. I was hoping to get to a year but I now don’t know if I can do that.

Does anyone know if it’s a phase or if there is a way I can get her to stop?

I’m looking to get my 1 year old a play couch but am not sure which to buy!

It seems that the zonky and possum are the most popular but they are so expensive! Are they worth the cost? I’ve seen a few ‘dupes’ around but not sure if they are any good.

Any recommendations?