To think about maybe night weaning

[iwannaberipvanwinkle]

[Yawn] DS is 7.5 months old and BF. He has never slept 7-7 although he has slept until 5.30 maybe three times. He eats solids, three big meals a day and 4 BFs...then wakes for 2 more 'feeds' in the night, after 1am. He only really feeds for less than 10 minutes until he is asleep. He was sleeping until 4 or 5 recently but then got a tummy bug so I wanted to make sure he was getting enough so was BFing lots at night and here we are again.

Now, I know that lots of babies don't sleep through for ages and lots of people on MN have it a lot worse. But I also know that many do sleep better than this. I'm so tired all the time, have no sex life as we're too tired and some days can't even be bothered to go out. I burst into tears more days than not.

I don't want to do controlled crying at all but maybe try gradually cutting down the feeds and shushing him back to sleep, if necessary. But then I read MN and feel that I'm expecting too much. Just don't know what to do. Too tired to think for myself anymore.

Know how you feel, I was back at work when DS was 7 months and he was still waking at 2-3amish for another feed despite having 5 milk feeds and 3 meals during the day.
I'm afraid I did the method that you don't want to do, I just spent 2 nights letting him cry (going back in every 5 minutes to reassure). The first night it took an hour of crying, the second it took 15 minutes and the third he slept 10:30pm-5:00am, which is what he still does coming up to 9 months which whilst not ideal I can just about cope with if I go to bed early!
I hope you find a gentler method that works for you.

btw AIBU probably not the best place for this post! for what it's worth YANBU in my opinion.

Thanks Libra. Oh gosh, wrong thread! It's just I sometimes feel so unreasonable. But then I don't. And then I don't know what to do. Please don't savage me, people...

I know how you feel. DS didn't sleep through until nearly 7 months. He'd wake up every couple of hours and I'd bf him. I was at the end of my tether. I did CC and went cold turkey on the night feeds as at that age didn't need them. The first night he only cried for 45 mins, and then started sleeping through - we only had to do it once. We read 'How to Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems' by Dr. Ferber.

I know cc is not for everyone but it helped us out. I think by bf him at nights it made him more wakeful as his tummy was full of milk. He also took sleep cues from being bf. By cc we were teaching him how to get to sleep on his own and it really worked.

Do you bf him to get him to sleep at bedtime and daytime naps? If you do I think stopping that would be the first place to start. I don't mean stop feeding him I just mean make sure he doesn't fall asleep on you. Make sure you put him down awake. It's all about association. We associate sleep with quiet, dark, duvet pillow etc. He might associate falling asleep with the taste of milk and a full tummy.

Floppy - no, he's always gone down wide awake and happy for naps (well since he was tiny anyway) and he goes into his cot awake as we read a little story before bedtime. It's just the middle of the night when he seems to want it.

Have you tried dream feeding at 10/11pm whenever you go to bed? 7-7 is possible at 7 months but mine never did until nearer 1 year tbh. If you want to cut out the feed it's going to be a couple of tough nights.