6 month old's sleep (day and night) gone to pot! Help!

[StarlingBirdsong]

DD has been sleeping through since 4 months and on a regular 4 hour schedule through the day (7, 11, 3 7) for bottles (FF).

a couple of weeks back she started demanding more milk during the day and at least one wake up in the night - i assumed it was just a growth spurt but it isn't settling down.

Now she is not taking full bottles (7oz) anymore but wanting about 4-5oz every 2-3 hours ish, plus meals (BLW but she is taking food in already). She also stopped napping properly (1.5-2hrs) and now only does 45 mins.

She has always wanted a dummy and any wake ups just used to need the dummy put in and she'd go back to sleep but she is now refusing the dummy and wanting milk!

So i have now ended up not knowing which way is up! and i dont know how to fix it. She's acting like a newborn again and i dont know why (none of my others did this!)

today she woke at 3.30am, took 4 oz, back to sleep til 7.30am. had breakfast (half a pear and some yoghurt and she did eat most of the pear flesh) then down for a nap at 10am with 5oz bottle. 45 mins later she is wide awake, refuses the dummy and after half an hour i've had to give up trying to settle her and got her up. she is now grousing like mad so i'm going to have to give her another bottle - but she will only take about 5oz as she only fed a couple of hours ago!

What do i do? how do i get back to decent sleeps (possibly without the aid of the dummy which i never liked anyway!) and eating at more sensible intervals and better amounts?

any advice appreciated! (although for clarity i am generally a very routine based parent, i do not co-sleep, i do not sling and I'm not an 'attachment' parent in anyway. i'm much more gina ford ish by nature! which has worked well for my older 3 which is why i'm now stumped!! i need good routine as the older 3 have school/clubs etc to work around)

Help!!!

[FATEdestiny]

Early weaning often feels like going back to the newborn days where all baby does is eat and sleep. Its because baby still needs the same amount of milk. Early weaning foods are not high calorie, neither are they given in large portions.

So milk stays at the same level as before weaning, in fact sometimes baby needs even more milk than before. But you have to fit 3 meals around all the daytime naps and also loads of milk feeds. It does settle but I would say expect the "Newborn Revisted" phase to last until around 9 ish months.

I would do something like a repeated pattern routine. Forgetting (for now) baby having meals at actual meal times. So, for example:

Wake
Solids meal
Awake/Happy time
Milk
Nap

Repeat throughout the daytime. If nap times are short (40 minutes) then keep awake times short too - 90 minutes only awake and in that time you need to fit in a solids meal and also a milk feed. Hence it feeling like baby is either eating or sleeping all of the time.

I suspect sleep going to pot is entirely down to calorific need not being met. Things will settle once baby is eating a more varied diet in larger amounts, so milk volumes reduce, don't worry.

[StarlingBirdsong]

thanks for replying. i think i'll reintroduce the dreamfeed when DH comes to bed (about 11pm) to try and get her back through the night (i cant handle lack of sleep!!)

i guess for now i just have to accept her rhythm of nap times and go with the flow a bit. (i am ignoring what you said about this lasting 3 months!!) Its just rather complicated with older ones - i cant exactly change the school times because the baby would prefer to sleep/eat etc! hence my hankering for routine.

she is BLW though so having all foods rather than the 'traditional' early weaning veg purees so hopefully once she gets better at it she will find a better rhythm.

interesting about balancing the awake time with teh length of nap, will try that and see if it helps.

Thanks