waking for feeds

[thorathora]

I am new here, so please bear with me, I'm not sure if this should go in the feeding, sleeping or weaning sections. I?d love to hear anyone?s thoughts...

My DS1 is 17 weeks old today. At the start BFing was a bit of a struggle, he found it hard to latch on so I expressed for the first week or so and kept trying. After 2-3 weeks we were successfully BFing, gaining weight and I was very chuffed. At 9 weeks he started sleeping from his late feed (10-11pm) til about 7ish. Over the subsequent 8 weeks he has slept through about 12 times, but less and less recently. Last night he woke at 230 and 6, and was inconsolable, appearing to be hungry so I eventually fed him after giving him a chance to settle (he does suck his thumb so is quite good at self settling). He does seem to want to feed more often in the day so I am doing that.
I?m struggling to cope with the night feeds, and am getting tearful sometimes during the day. If he has slept through before should I not feed him? (seems impossible as he is so desperate, takes a good feed and then settles back to sleep immediately). Should I start weaning (Like my Mum and MiL suggest?) His growth is OK, was 25-50th centile initially but slowing, he?s now on the 9th gained 9oz in the last 2 wks.
I just want to do what?s best for him, but find it hard being so tired (probably because last night I waited and waited before feeding him so was up for much longer that if I had fed him initially).

Thanks for reading!

[moondog]

Could be a bit of a growth spurt?
The increased sucking at night will boost your supply so things may settle down.

I must say,I didn't expect my b/fed babies to sleep through until they were about 9-10 months.
Their tummies are tiny and breastmilk is easily digestible so they need plenty and often.

One solution may be to express so that your dh/p can give him a bottle of EBM (if he will take it) and let you have some interrupted sleep.

The other option is to catch up on some slepp in the day.

Weaning is a waste of time this early-milk is far more calorie dense than stuff like baby rice and fruit puree.The reason baby rice appears to satisfy them is that it sits heavily on the stomach,like wallpaper glue.

[thorathora]

Thank you Moondog for your thoughts.

At the moment he's feeding so much I'm not sure when in the day to express (mornings are when I used to do that).

I will try and hope that things will improve. I don't mind night feeds if that's what he needs, but I had enjoyed a few nights of sleep and got a taste for them.

I understand your comments on weaning, but it's a case of mixed messages I think from all the different people I speak to.

Thanks again

[PinkTinsel]

thora, what moondog said about the weaning is very true, it really is best to wait.besides it providing less calories there really is no guarentee that he'll sleep through. i weaned my dd far too earlyin an attempt to help her reflux and help her sleep through and it did neither.

it really is quite unusal for a bf baby of tht age to sleep through at all, never mind every night. i find if you feed as soon as they wake up they'll settle back down much quicker and it's far less disruption to your sleep.

[taylormama]

hi - my LO dropped his final night feed at 21 weeks ... i tried two days of weaning at about your DS's age and it was a disaster ... so held off until 2 weeks ago. I would feed your LO as often as you can and he will naturally drop his feeds when he is ready. sorry if that isn't what you wanted to hear but stick with it - they have a growth spurt at this time too so it may all settle down.

[thorathora]

Thank you TaylorMama and Pinktinsel, I think I am comparing him too much with my friend's daughter who is BF and slept through from 11 weeks.....very silly to keep comparing them I know.

I think I'll just keep going with lots of feeds and feeding him asap in the night.

Thanks again for replying so quickly it really helps to hear from others.

XXXX

[katyjo]

Hi Thorathora,
I think your little one is doing really well with the sleeping, I thought that once they started sleeping through that was it but my ds is now nearly 8 months and although he sleeps well most of the time he has a week or so every so often where he doesn't (last night woke 3/4 times).

Don't worry too much about other peoples babies, you can't really know what's going on, a lot of people believe what they want to believe. I'm sure in a few years I'll be telling some poor mother how my ds slept 12 hours a night from day one!

I started weaning ds at about 17 weeks, because I was desperate to get him to start sleeping through the night again (started at about 11 weeks 11-7pm) but it didn't work he started sleeping though again at about 19 weeks but I don't think the food had anything to do with it and I which I had waited a few more weeks.

I hope everything goes well for you!
XXX