u/the_grey_organism

I am mom to 5 months old. She is going through some sort of sleep regression- may be a growth spurt, may be teething, may be separation anxiety.

Anyway, she used to sleep through the night and sleep in her crib next to me. Typically I nurse her to get her sleepy or sometimes sleeping. Then I transfer her to crib with a little rocking. But lately, it’s been very difficult to transfer her to crib without waking her up. Even if we do manage to, she has been waking up very frequently. She falls asleep without too much effort in my arms, a little rocking, patting but no dice on the transfer. I tried settling her in her crib, but that is just leading to thrashing and crying. I have been very sleep deprived lately and need a break.

So I have just been bringing her into bed with us, nursing her and leaving her there. She is still waking up often but not a full wake up if I just give her boob. She settles back to sleep nursing.

My question is how to switch boobs without having to move her. How do all the co sleeping mamas go about this? Do you just leave baby on one boob? Is that okay? Lean forward and give her “top boob”? Please give me options!

Any other tips to improve the overall situation are welcome too!

I am not sure what I am looking for. I just needed a space to let it out. I have just had a crazy week.

Baby is 5 months. She is very sweet and curious. Wants to check out everything. Every sound, every sigh, will stop nursing and look at it. Shy to anyone but mom and dad but loves to give us big smiles.

Husband comes from a biiig family. Mother in law is a very nice lady but is old and forgetful. From week 1 of postpartum, I have always asked her to not touch baby while feeding but she just won’t stop. She was visiting last weekend and proceeded to lie down next to baby and I and starts brushing baby’s hair or just talking real loud. She is just a very noisy person. Baby turns to check out, sees her face, freaks out and proceeds to cry. I feel worse than I already have been about her intruding on nursing. I don’t really want to tell her off because who wants to say anything rude to a nice old lady. Husband and I did have a chat about this and he said he will talk to his mom if this happens again. But idk, after all the times I asked her and she forgot, I am not sure.

Anyway, baby never had a full feed for the whole time mother in law was here. On top of it, husband is also very noisy, plays a lot of music and baby is super nosy. Easter Sunday we had brother in law and fiancé over for some board games - this was planned before mother in law’s visit. We ended up inviting husband’s other brother because he is the only family who isn’t with everyone on a holiday.

Mother in law was supposed to leave Sunday late afternoon but she just stayed back till later in the evening because “family time is her favorite time”. Again can’t blame her.

For me, it was just supposed to be a quiet couple of hours of games with another couple and I was supposed to move on with my day. The other brother and husband kept playing piano till 10 pm basically. It ended up being a very very long day for me. Did I mention all of these people in a one bedroom apartment?

Baby was sooo disturbed, again never really fed that much. Woke up a whole bunch of times for both milk and cuddles with mommy. (We nursed, she still couldn’t stay asleep)

Tuesday - husband asked if we could go to this baseball game with another couple friends who we haven’t seen since before baby. So I said yes. This was like a month ago. The game was at 6 45 PM. I majorly messed up and never looked up what would entail taking a baby to a game. I had never been to one myself, or any other sporting event in my life. I didn’t know how loud they could be. The ball park was very close to us, baby typically wakes up from her nap around 6 30. So I thought we will go for an hour, come back before 8 30, feed baby and put baby to bed in time.

But husband decides to bake a snack for the game. Which won’t come out of the oven till 7 or something. I say I want to wear baby husband says he needs stroller. He loads up a bunch of snacks in stroller, and baby too. Brother in law bolts off with stroller. Oh btw, did I mention husband again invited brother in law and fiancé to the game too? Yeah, baby looks freaked out, trying to make eye contact with me. But my postpartum body isn’t exactly gym trained to catch up. I asked him to stay close but he just ran off with baby. Husband says he said to slow down too. Kept saying “baby is being soo chill”. I did message them that later that they shouldn’t take off with baby.

We get to game and it was loud. And I was like duh, I am dumb. Baby starts crying when people start cheering. I try to feed her but she can’t handle it. I nuzzle her into me and she just falls asleep. I said we are leaving and husband packs up and we get home.

She wouldn’t leave mommy in the night, won’t sleep, not even next to me, only on me as I kept patting her. Nursing helped but this time but she just could not stay asleep.

This is a baby who till last week slept through the night except for 0-2 wakes. Didn’t sleep train, she is just gentle tempered. And I offer her boob a lot in the day hoping she won’t need to nurse a ton in the night. When a ton of stuff is happening, I can’t really do that.

Wednesday night she mostly slept, woke only once, I caught up on a ton of sleep. Today again, we had to take her to a thing and there were a few wake ups and it all came back to me, I am so stressed. Husband tries to resettle her, she will only typically want me in the night. She just cries till I come get her if she wants me and hubby is trying to soothe her. We sometimes nurse, sometimes she starts to pass out in my arms in a few minutes before I even pull out the boob. Won’t stay asleep if I put her down though, so I am kinda stuck holding her for a while before putting her in her crib.

I don’t know what I am saying. I am too tired and too exhausted to sleep. I feel like no one in husband’s family seems to understand basics of what a baby needs. They all mean well but I am tired of having to advocate for her. I don’t know am I being too unreasonable?? I have no clue. I just want some peace and quiet, just want to cuddle with my baby for a couple of days. Or maybe baby needs stimulus. I doubt it.

Sorry for long post, I just had to let it out.