waking up twice a night for feeds at six months old!

[feemcgee]

My baby has been on solids for about five weeks, but has been getting up once a night, and now twice a night! I have to feed her then. I was wondering if she is not getting enough during the day. My mum in law suggested giving her supper after her thrid meal at night. Does anyone have any tips, I am knackered and getting pretty stressed out :(

[PiccadillyCircus]

Not really any tips but sympathy (I have an 8 month old DD and am looking forward to having a full night's sleep again one day).

She is getting better now than she was though.

[studentmum1]

i had this with my dd. is it formula milk shes having? mine was having 6 oz a night so i cut the powder down slowly, one spoon less each night until she was just having water. she soon learnt and within two weeks she was going through the night. she was just waking coz she knew if she did then she'd get milk.

[Bigsmile]

Again, just sympathy really. My 5 month old was getting me up every hour but has had cranial osteopathy & this has improved to every 2 hours (after 2 sessions). His head is perfectly shaped so I wasn't aware that CO could help with sleep (thought it was just for traumatic births or flat head etc). The therapist thinks that i won't need more than 3-4 sessions in total so am keeping my fingers crossed. Will let you know if it helps.

[bumbleweed]

feemcgee, sending loads of sympathy too - I have a 7 mo who still feeds twice a night too - you must be soooo tired and yes, it does get me down too.
I have read recently that sleeping through the night is nothing to do with intro of solids but is just a developmental phase that babies reach in their own time.
So sorry no tips, as my own tactic is just to ride it out ...

[lazycow]

This is pretty normal really. Ds fed 1-2 times a night until he was 11 months old. As long as he fed quickly and went back to sleep afterwards I could cope but he had phases of waking many more times than that and being very difficult to settle.

You could try a snack a night before bed but that never workd with ds. I honestly believe it is developmental. Luck of the draw I'm afraid - sorry no advice other than try and not feed more than twice a night. I do think that babies who wake a lot more than that have got into a bad habit (ds did this). However it is unrealistic to expect all babies under a year old to sleep 7pm-7am withoput feeding one or two times, some might but a whole lot can't.

[nothercules]

I agree with other posters. Your baby is still very young and it's one of those things I'm afraid. It's a myth that solids help.

[bumbleweed]

There is a really good book called 'The No-Cry Sleep Solution' by Elizabeth Pantley which is really good at giving loads of different ideas for settling them back to sleep without 'leaving to cry'.

[schneebly]

Hello feemcgee! Just wanted to sneak onto your thread and say hello! You know who I am! I can't believe I actually know a Mnetter in real life now! How strange!

[morningpaper]

feemsgee It is tiring I know, but the problem is really that your expectations are too high

Little babies are NOT MEANT to sleep through the night

Waking up for feeds during the night is quite, quite normal

If you accept this rather than thinking that there is something 'wrong' with your baby, you might find it easier to cope with the night feeding. Remember there are millions of women getting up in the night to feed their babies, at just the same time as you.

I have a 7 month old who wakes several times a night - I just go to bed embarassingly early. I hope to claim back my nights to myself at around 12-18 months. :)

[emkana]

I'm with morningpaper on this.

I think it's totally normal for a baby this small to wake up in the night.
But things will get better at some point!
What helped me personally was co-sleeping and not looking at the time when baby woke up, because otherwise you get into a state of "OMG! It's five o'clock, I need some more sleep now before I need to get up at 6.30" or whatever.

[ChaCha]

My DS is almost 6mths.
He is on 2 small meals a day and still has the same amount of milk that he had pre-introduction of solids. He sleeps anywhere between 8 and 11pm, and might wake up between 3 and 5 for a small feed depending on what time he slept. I have stopped looking at the clock. I used to beat myself up when b/f about what time it was, how long he'd been feeding, how much sleep I was getting etc.. He falls asleep on the sofa if we are working on the PC or watching something and we then put him in our bed when it's time for us to sleep. I feel so much more relaxed now without routines and worrying about time etc.
HTH

[Broadie]

The solids you introduce should be on top of normal milk qty, check to make sure you have not dropped milk qty when you introduced solids.

You could offer a feed every 2 hours leading up to bedtime this will tank up baby.

I am sure that you could cope with the once a night - and would be happy to get back to that - so make sure that baby is getting all the food it needs in the day and then you could look at a gradual withdrawel of the new night feed. You know your baby is perfectly capable of sleeping without it.

We did gradual withdrawel with our LO on the 3am feed, it was one that had become habit. After a couple of nights she slept through that feed and then a couple of nights after that she dropped the 11pm feed on her own accord.

Babies don't always wake up because they are hungry - consider the temp of the room, illness, dirty nappy, lonely, scared etc.

hope that helps.