Mom flavored binky

[myboyjoe]

Joe has this thing when he's trying to go to sleep he takes a binky. only when he's going to sleep. well recently he's wanted the boob at nap times, he sucks and nothing comes out cause he doesn't swallow. when i try to take him off to put him down, he sucks harder. if i do detach him, he cries. i'm starting to feel like a mom flavored binky. what gives ?

[nowinteknicolor]

yep, that's exactly what you are, the mommy-binky. Try to take it as a compliment, you're his pacifier, you are the one thing in the world that makes him calm and satisfied and secure. And really there's nothing wrong with a little mommy-binky, especially at nap-time or bedtime IF you're ok with it. (I use mommy-binky to get a little quiet time at night to watch tv, lol).
That being said, you may eventually want to detach baby so you can get something done around the house (not that it's impossible to make lunch, do the laundry, or take a shower while breastfeeding, I certainly have, but still, a little keeping your nipples to yourself time is nice). I wish they actually would make mommy flavored pacifiers, make my life sooo much easier.

[RedheadbyChoice]

The mom flavored binky is called a nipple. :) And there's nothing wrong with that, at all. After all, the nipple is the original model. It sounds like he just has a very strong need to suck. Perfectly normal.

Take a read: mom as a pacifier (http://www.breastfeeding.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270)

[myboyjoe]

At least I put him on the side that doesn't make very much. maybe it will help.

[oomaumau04]

how do youtake a shower while bf???

[RedheadbyChoice]

I don't shower while *actively* nursing, but all my kids have bathed with me (showering or in the tub). And I've nursed in the tub, too. Actually, I *have* been showering with babe and babe decides 'oooooh! there's a nipple and I know that there's milk in that nipple!' :D

So yeah, I guess I have. LOL But it's not like I'm soaping while nursing.

[nowinteknicolor]

My daughter showers with me (she's terrified of the tub, even the babytub or the sink) but usually I lay her on a towel in the bathroom while I do all the actual soaping shaving stuff, THEN she gets in with me. So I don't like, wash my hair while breastfeeding, but it's hard to be naked with a baby held up against your chest without them being like, "hey look a nipple! don't mind if I do.". This is also how my husband ended up with my daughter latched on to HIS nipple, he's just chillin in the shower getting Gracie all clean and I hear from behind the shower curtain, "NO NO NO NO NO!! Sh*t that hurts!", my hubby has new respect for me breastfeeding now, lol.
Breastfeeding in the tub is also really relaxing for mommy and baby, if you haven't done it yet, try it next time your both having a cranky day.

[threefunboys]

teknicolor--thanks for the good laugh! That's just too funny!

myboyjoe--I totally feel your pain. I have had 3 kids, and the first two would take a pacifier, the new baby (almost 8 months) won't. I am glad in some ways (I don't have to worry about losing it, dropping it on the ground, etc.) but it makes it hard sometimes when I just don't want to or have the time to sit and nurse him all day.

With my first two, I would nurse them, and they would often fall asleep, but cry when unlatched, like you described. That's when I would pop in the binky and off to bed they went. Well, it's not like that this time because he won't take one at all.

It took me a while to accept being a mommy-binky. I guess it was because I was not used to that--my first two nursed to be nourished, not to be comforted (I had to laugh at the "I nurse to have some quiet to watch TV" comment--that is so me! and I'm the one who always said to not nurse your baby every time they whimper...that's pretty much gone out the window! it's funny how your experience changes your perspective and ideas and opinions. anyway, enough about me...).

If you don't love being a human pacifier, I think there are things you can do. I will nurse my baby to sleep, or almost sleep, then put him in his bed, trying to wake him ever so little on the way to bed so he knows where he is, and let him fuss. If I can tell he won't put himself to sleep, I will go get him. But sometimes his favorite blankie is enough to put him to sleep. Then, as time goes by, I put him down a little more and more awake, until I can lay him in his bed (when I know he's tired enough but not too tired) and he'll just go to sleep, with fussing a max of like 2 or 3 minutes. Now, this doesn't always work, and it's pretty much a constant process for me because I "relapse" into nursing him to sleep, so I can't put him to bed awake anymore.

But, if you don't mind being a human pacifier, there's nothing wrong with it, but if you don't want to be one, you have to be willing to do what it takes to "wean" him from nursing to sleep, and usually that means trying out a few things to see what works.

[CaptHeather]

I was a human pacifier for Johanna and just dealt with it. For the twins though, I don't often have the luxury of just cuddling with one because often their sibling is demanding quite firmly to get their turn. If you don't care for it, you'll pretty much have to probably hand off the baby. With Kenneth and Sarah, they won't take a pacifier from me because they KNOW I have what they really want. They take one willingly when cuddling with their daddy.