Time to wean....?

[SarahJinx]

I've been super lucky with my ds, he's 17 weeks old and is breast fed - he's fallen into a three to four hourly routine pretty much on his own terms - with the exception of a formula feed at 8pm. We've been doing this since week 2 and he's been sleeping through till 6am ish four about the last two months. He's gaining weight on average of 6 - 8 oz per week and is a smiling, happy content little boy (as long as he's occupied/held/etc) , except that he very rarely naps during the day which is tough but up until now I've thought I'm bloody lucky to get such great nights so get on with it.

For the last week or so he's been waking after midnight, and then hourly for his dummy, just grizzling and goes back off once it's replaced (this is pretty knackering) but for the last three nights he's got up at between 4 and 5am, and not gone back down at all so I'm really feeling the pinch, I can't cope with not having nights as well as days and wondered if anyone had any opinions on whats going on. M mum thinks it's time to start weaning, (his last feed now is 8.5 oz btw so no more volume to be added) so I did think i could try the hungry baby stuff but other than that I don't know what to do except adding a feed through the night.

Grateful for anny advice/thoughts at all.

[Iggly]

Honestly? I'd give a night feed. There's a massif growth spurt and regression around now so he'll need extra milk. Once he's over the spurt you can gradually reduce the feed. It doesn't make sense to try and stuff him full of food/milk - the spurt is such that his stomach doesn't increase in size so you need to increase the number of feeds. Also solids will be less filing (you'll only be giving fruit and veg plus baby rice) than milk - the risk is that you fill him up on empty calories in the day and he'll get even more hungry in the day.

Babies' sleep doesn't progressive in linear fashion with continuous improvement. It gets better, worse, better worse etc etc. So be prepared for blips.

[Iggly]

Honestly? I'd give a night feed. There's a massif growth spurt and regression around now so he'll need extra milk. Once he's over the spurt you can gradually reduce the feed. It doesn't make sense to try and stuff him full of food/milk - the spurt is such that his stomach doesn't increase in size so you need to increase the number of feeds. Also solids will be less filing (you'll only be giving fruit and veg plus baby rice) than milk - the risk is that you fill him up on empty calories in the day and he'll get even more hungry in the night.

Babies' sleep doesn't progressive in linear fashion with continuous improvement. It gets better, worse, better worse etc etc. So be prepared for blips.