Night weaning 7 month old?

[3ormorecharacters]

My 7 (nearly 8) month old has always been a bad sleeper, waking at worst 8+ times a night and at best (very rarely) 3 times. I always settle her with the boob and think this has become a habit now. She self settles for naps and at the start of the night but then wakes every 1-3 hours and will only settle with boob. She is doing really well with weaning and eats 3 big meals during the day plus around 3-4 breast feeds and a bottle of formula before bed. So I don't think she needs the calories! The only way I can think to improve her (and my) night sleep now is to try and night wean her. I'm doubting myself a little bit though as she's still quite little. Is she old enough? How should I do it? Go cold turkey? Offer water in a bottle?

[BerthaYoung]

No advice for you OP but I’m interested to know what others have to say! We’re a couple of months further along and in a very similar position. I am raging that after all the effort we put in to help DD learn to go to sleep in the cot instead of feeding to sleep, nights still aren’t any better. The internet lied!

[Bobbybobbins]

I slept trained both of mine to but fall asleep on the boob at around 7 months and this helped a bit with fewer night wakings. But they both still woke in the night til 18 months. I figured they needed the comfort or whatnot but it was hard! I feel your pain!

[Bobbybobbins]

*NOT fall asleep on the boob

[EmbarrassingMama]

I admire you for having a plan! I think I got to 9.5 months before deciding one night that I was no longer going to feed at night. My husband’s face! He did all night time wake ups for about 3-4 days, then after that he didn’t really fuss for the boob through the night. Still woke mind you, but would be happy with a cuddle and kiss and would go back down.

Good luck!

[Tickly]

In theory if normal birth weight and gestation then yes at that age they can go without food overnight but (and it's a big but) it is not the case that night weaning will necessarily equal better sleep. Instead you may end up needing to comfort a baby without the easy feeding option. Not at all trying to put you off but that's what happened with my DS. Subsequently I've just carried on doing night feeds on demand and found the younger DC just got there in their own time but I only had to be up for 15 mins to resettle with a quick boob. It definitely improvised markedly at 8m then regressed to about 10-11m then improved lots again for each of them.

[MaverickDanger]

DS is 7 months and ebf, we’ve managed to reduce his feeds at night over the past couple of weeks.

I basically had a couple of days where I wasn’t going anywhere so fed him every 1.5-2 hours in the day and gave him two big meals to get his calories up. I fed him before bed and then again before I went to bed & then went and slept in the spare room (we still have him in our room).

DH then took over for the next couple of hours if he woke and settled him back to sleep. If he was crying for 10-15 mins without settling, I went in and fed him quickly and then left. The first night he did 11-4, and the second he did 11-7.

Typically he does 11-7 without needing to be fed but does need to be settled. I think I’ve had one night where he wasn’t well so I fed him again at 3.

We just need to work on him settling and sleeping in his own cot now and not just in our bed!

[3ormorecharacters]

@BerthaYoung

No advice for you OP but I’m interested to know what others have to say! We’re a couple of months further along and in a very similar position. I am raging that after all the effort we put in to help DD learn to go to sleep in the cot instead of feeding to sleep, nights still aren’t any better. The internet lied!

I know right?! I'm glad I'm not the only one who has been cheated by the whole self-settling thing.

Thanks for the advice everyone! She's just started teething so that adds an extra layer of complexity 😬

[footprintsintheslow]

Glad to have found this thread as we have a 7 month old and they wake everyone 2 hours and will only be settled by feeding. We have no spare room and a tiny house with a three year old in the other room so definitely don't want to wake the kraken!

My idea was to double boob each feed but that seems to be the opposite way to go as the internet says make the feeds shorter.

How you getting on everyone?

[3ormorecharacters]

We seemed to be getting somewhere without any kind of night weaning - for a couple of weeks we had just 3 or so wakes a night with lovely 3-4 hour stretches of sleep, even a luxurious 5.5hr stint once! But the last few nights have been a massive regression back to waking every 1.5-2 hours. 🙁 We're on holiday next week so doesn't seem worth starting anything new now but after that DH is on shared parental leave, so I think I'll get him doing the night wakes and see if she settles any better when boob isn't an option.

[footprintsintheslow]

My health visitor has just been and she said to offer water in a supply cup at night to stop the feeding cycle. I'm going to try it tonight and will report back.

[Justgettingbye]

I didn't bf but my friend who did said they got to their wits end at 10 months and the partner had to go into settle with water so baby didn't smell the milk and it seemed to work

[footprintsintheslow]

Water is not being received well here. Lots of screaming which if we only had one child we'd let the screaming go on but I can't wake my three year old up as life is hell when she doesn't get enough sleep.

I was so hopeful for water working!
I have bought this though to see if it tells. It's a Zed by Rockit
I'll let you know how it goes.

[Skyla01]

I found the Lucy Wolfe baby sleep book had a good structure for reducing night feeds or weaning completely. And has techniques for settling without boob. Really helped me go from co-sleeping with all night boob to baby now sleeping in cot with x 2 feeds per night. She does still wake up anywhere between 5 and 10 times per night :( Fairly quick to settle in cot if it's not a feeding time. She is almost 7 months old. We're exhausted but at least I feel the book has given us a solid foundation, and when LO is ready to sleep better we'll be all set! Sometimes the night waking is just a phase we have to go through I think. But agree your LO does not need the milk! If you stop some of the feeds your partner can help more with nights too.

[3ormorecharacters]

@footprintsintheslow water not going down well here either! How is the Zed going? (PS I think I remember you from the Jan 2021 group...)

I'll try and get hold of the Lucy Woolfe book. I suspect I'm just going to have to grip up and get used to a bit more crying...

[BerthaYoung]

Ha, I just ordered the Lucy Wolfe book this morning after another busy night...!

I’m back and forth on this night-weaning thing. HV seemed to think you can’t do much before 1, and I do worry DD doesn’t get enough milk in the day as she’s so distracted. She’s dropped centipede since birth so I don’t want to risk anything. How can you be sure that milk isn’t needed overnight?

[BerthaYoung]

Centiles, obviously, not centipede 🐛🙄