Constant wake-ups / night feeding. At wits' end.

[nearlytherenow]

I have posted before.... DS2 is 6 months. He was a good sleeper until 4 months, and has become progressively worse ever since (stopped sleeping through, woke once a night for a few weeks, then twice, then three times, and now it's just constant, I couldn't even count).

We have worked through a gradual retreat programme to teach him to self settle (again - he did this from birth - 5ish months, then briefly "forgot"). All quite painless, he now settles himself happily at bedtime and for naps.

His daytime routine is OK - naps reasonably well, now that he is settling himself (maybe 3 - 3.5 hours' total nap time, split over 2 / 3 naps).

The problem is night wakings. He will not go back to sleep when he wakes without a feed. I do not feed him to sleep, I just feed him, put him down awake, and he goes to sleep happily. If I don't feed him, he gets frantic and hysterical. Even if he has only fed an hour before. Last night we tried having DH settle / cuddle him, and he just cried himself silly until I backed down.

We've been weaning for a couple of week (BLW, pretty much, anyway, so not quite sure how much is eaten).

Any advice at all? I need to stop feeding him every time he wakes, don't I? But how to do this? Let DH settle, even if it takes hours? Or something close to cc? (Really not sure I can....). He's still in our room (in cot) - we could move him out, but I didn't really want to yet.

Nobody is getting any sleep. He is waking my toddler, who is starting to look exhausted, and I am a rubbish mum all day as I'm just so tired. We went through all of this with DS1, but the minute he learned to self settle the night waking stopped, so this is new territory.

[Changing2011]

He will learn, you need to persevere with your DH going in to him, and definitely stagger feeds before bed time. What time is bedtime? I would try and move it on an hour or so, feeding or offering feed along the way. Bottle or breast. Sorry you are feeling so knackered x

[Whiteybaby]

nearly sorry to hear you are having a tricky time. Have you tried offering water thru the night? A friend of mine has a rampant night feeder and she has quickly gone from feeding very regularly to not at all and her ds is also starting to settle himself. It maybe that he is waking as he loves mummy's milk so much but assuming he is a good weight he prob doesn't need so much.

Also I blw dd wbut did used to spoon feed one meal (usually lunch) so that I knew she had taken on some food. Again it might help the sleep thing. I never did purree with dd just used to mash it up a bit and offer spoon.

It's rotten when the baby keeps everyone up. Sending you lots of sleepy vibes.

[Whiteybaby]

Yikes sorry for spelling / grammar am on DH iPad and fingers obviously too fat!

[nearlytherenow]

Thanks for your replies. Read these, and Whitey's other post (well done!! sounds like things are heading in the right direction for you) yesterday tea time but was too knackered to reply.

Much better night. Spoon fed (with difficulty) a little bit of tea - just a few teaspoons. Bed at 7.30 (1/2 hour later than usual). Dreamfeed at 10.15 (without waking), then he slept until..... 3.15! So I suppose this confirms that some of the waking up has genuinely been due to hunger. He went back in the cot awake, but woke again at 5.30, at which point we had a 45 minute stand off with me trying to shush and pat him back to sleep, and him having none of it. I did end up feeding him at 6.15 (he seemed starving), then he slept for another 1.5 hours.

So only really 2 night wakings, and a 5 hour stretch of sleep (or almost 8 hours not counting the dreamfeed). Massive improvement. Don't mind one or two night wakings if he really does need fed. Hope it lasts!