Approaching 7mths and worse than a newborn!!!!

[lovecloud]

Any advice would be musch appreciated!

I am at the end of my patience and so so tired!

When dd was born she fed once in the night - she is almost 7mths and will feed up to three times after her bedtime 7pm feed.

Its driving me mad!

She has three meals a day, up to five bf - as many as she wants. She has a bath abd massage and bf at 7pm and goes down nicely by herself.

I use to give her the 10pm dream feed and she would be asleep, now she wakes at 10pm screaming for it (just when i should be dropping it) she then becomes restless after this feed and may find it hard getting back off. She will wake screaming about 1ish and does not always want a feed - her screams are so loud and they only way to stop them is to hold her. Lately I have been too tired to hold her so just put her in my bed and if course she goes straight to sleep coiled around my neck (very sweet)

She will then wake 2.30am - 3.30am screaming the house down for another feed and again finds it hard getting off. Then around 5ish again and I usually refuse this feed which she accepts but goes in out and of sleep until 7.30am. She want to bf then and lately has started to take less breakfast cereal. I think this is because she has filled up in the night.

How can I break this?

We have tried me not sleeping in the roon and dh armed with just a bottle of water. dd went mad and dh did not have the patience for it.

Her screams are so loud and we worry about the neighbours. She cnat be hungry in the night with all she gets in the day. But her screams are so sad. Why does she find it so hard to get off after these night feeds when she goes down so nicely at 7pm.

She has two hours sleep in the day.

I have tried giving her formula at her 10pm feed but it made no difference... she actually demanded more feed 90 mins after!!!!

I am so shattered and its really effecting dh and I, we kept getting ill as we are so run down. I have become a shadow of my former self. Seriously I cant remember the last time I laughed out loud.

How can i change this?

[lovecloud]

anyone????????

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHELP!

[munz]

is she 4 possibly teething? J tends to scream out a lot when he's teething, how about wind possibly?

sounds to me like she's having enough dinner, althou around 7 months I noticed J was unsettled so introduced a breakfast - how big are her dinners? try giving her slightly more food or introduce a mid morning snack or seomthing? (prob bad but I give j 2 snacks as well as his dinners he eat's it all up he typically will have dried fruit, or a bread stick or something of that nature rice cakes type thing)

big (((hugs)) thou after a nightmare night with J I knwo how tiring they can be - ooh also a new theory we're testing currently J's sheet's are cotton and waking him up as they're cotton last night he slept on a nice warm fleecey blanket and was a dream boy could it possibly be that?

[taylormama]

hi - how much food is she having in the day??? Is she having plenty of protein now as she is 7 months. Protein is nice and filling ... what time is her last meal? I feed my LO (who is 25 weeks) at 8.00 am, 11.00 am and 3.00 pm supplemented with bottle feeds ... he has his last bottle between 6.00 and 6.30 pm and is in bed by 7.00 pm. If your LO isn't eating breakfast then she is filling herself up in the night ... could she be teething????? Hmmmmmm - this is tricky .... BTW when i switched from breast to bottle it didn't make any difference to his night wakings ... i think IMHO you need to be consistent each night ... if you know she is feeding enough in the day, then your DH has to offer water if she wakes again (he needs to help!!!!) .... no more going into your bed etc ... HTH a bit. xxxx

[lovecloud]

Hello

She is not a big eater, I feed her until she refuses.

For breakfast, its one weetabix and a small yogurt. She will eat most of both

Lunch, my own cauliflower and cheese with fruit puree for desert like an organix

Dinner, either my own meal like chicken and veg or a hipps organix like chiekn noodle she will about half of a 2nd stage jar and have a custard fruit pot after.

i offer her rice cakes as snacks, bread and non salted butter but she is not really into it.

I feed her about 8.30am (as i think she would not be hungry enough if i fed her too close to her morning bf)

12.30pm and then 5pm

She will have three to five breastfeeds up to 7pm.

I will def give the terry towelling sheets ago - they are def more snug. Never thought about that.

I go through about 15 bibs a day and have been since she was four mths so it feels like she's been teething for a long time.

Im hoping it is though - that means there will be an end to all of this.

her cheeks are not red but she has got nappy rash.

the other thing was the last three days not inc today her poo has been almost black!!! is this because of the forumla milk that i gave her?

[munz]

shouldn't be LC - I think formula poops are greeniesh has she eaten anything 'odd' over the last few days?

with the breakfast thing - I don't know if this is how you're ment to do it, but we have j's breakie at around 7 (depending on when we all get up) he has the ready brek first then milk after (was a BF now bottle), so perhaps try that?

definatly sounds like she's teething as well - J was 3 months ish when he started and didn't cut a tooth till 6 months (exactly) at 9 months he's cut another 2! lol. teething seems to go on forever!

[munz]

(just read your weaning thread) and also J went right off food when he was teething as well, we're giving him more milk, and a banana somedays and that's all as he won't touch anything else

[lovecloud]

I guess i am still in that grey area where you cross over fronm milk feeds being more important than food.

The other thing is I am soooooooooo tired right now that if I think i can carry on lying there and feed her rather than get up.

I will try that - it makes sense!

Thanks Munz

I remember talking to you last year about wanting to fall pregnant and thinking I am etc... you were really sweet about it all.

So how does your little man sleep?

[munz]

lol. next question! lol. we're hit and miss.

last night for example he went 7pm to 7.45am not a peep - well little peep but not worht getting up for. night before however up from 2.30am every hour on the hour till 6.30am, last 2 weeks ish he's been up at 1 or 2 and then 4 screaming till 6 so i've not been v happy! lol.

ooh another thought, my m/w told me that milk doesn't taste any differnt with AF being there, but well J seems to get a lot more unsettled the later half of my cycles jsut before AF and bobs on /off a lot more - might be something might be nothin?? i've just taken to the fact for 2 weeks he's a horror! lol.

can your DH get up a bit more to help you out?

ooh and forget the neighbours! babies cry! lol.

if in doubt with weaning thou talk to your h/v my 2 had totally opposing views but it's always good for a second advice so to speak

[TheDecorator]

Just been reading this and feeling a bit better about the pickle I feel we are heading for with our DD. She is now 6 months and is eating 3 smallish meals a day (although would eat bigger if I would let her!!!) She used to sleep through but is now waking anywhere between 2 and 8 times a night. When it was just a clockwork 3am for a feed it was bearable but now its just getting beyond a joke. I have to go back to work in Jan and cannot be as tired as I am now. DP is firmly against letting her cry but she is nearly over all the weight targets so I cant just keep feeding her 2 or 3 times a night.
The thing is she will just go off after feeding and if I don't feed her she gets totally hysterical, sweaty and out of control (but I don't believe she is hungry). Don't even know where to start to make this right
She is such a joy in the day time and has regular naps, 30 mins 10ish 1 hour 2pmish, 30 mins in the afternoon.

[Scootergirl]

My DS is 7 months and wakes in the night two or three times but I try not to feed him which is normally easier said than done.
Isn't there a school of thought which says after six months they're not actually hungry in the night and the feeding is a comfort thing?
I don't necessarily agree with that but what does everyone else think?
PS: Does your DD have a dummy or anything like that?

[lovecloud]

Hello

Yes she has a dummy and l.o.v.e.s. it! Even sings a song when she gets it. Wish I never gave it to her as she cries if it falls out of her mouth.

My periods have returned and maybe my milk tastes different.

[munz]

dec - please try not to worry about the weight charts - (and i'm a fine one to talk! lol) how do you guys feel about offering water? J's now 9 months (just) and has been sleeping well on and off from 7 months (I might add he started crawling then as well so obv more energetic etc) since then when he wakes up he gets a dummy a soothing and a bit of water then back into bed - even a nappy change at times. some day's it works others it doens't and he's horrid!

if you're BF then get DH's to try the water thing - the idea is eventaully they'll stop waking up for it - althou J still wakes for water - I figureed I wake if i'm thirsty! anyhow not my old h/v suggested a bottle at night cos he was waking for the boob and conmfort not cos he was hungry, (apparently that's a common thing over 6 months as well - not sure if I agree with that or not thou) she basically said reduce the milk scoops to water till eventually it'a only water and just give that.

sorry I can't be of more help, but you're certianly not alone. (think we're in for a baden tonight as he took an hour to go down and has cried out already after 1.5 hours )

[munz]

(ooh also re the size of portions my old h/v said just to feed till he didn't want anymore - was having 2 ice cubes at 5 months - she said ooh i'd give him at least 8 or 9 and see how he goes he didn't eat all of that btw but I was amazed she thought he would!)

[lovecloud]

last night as bad as every night!!!!!

Im dreading tonight - she ate almost a whole jar of 7mth hipps organic today at lunch... so hopefully her belly is full.

Just tried to feed her bottle of formula but she got very cross and just wanted to go back to sleep.

oh dear...........