5 month old still 'waking' every 2 hours at night

[cracker82]

Hi ladies, I wonder if any of you have experienced anything similar to my situation. My DS is now 5 months and still 'wakes' every 2 hours to feed. He is EBF and feeds every 2 hours in the day too. At night when he wakes he never actually opens his eyes, he starts with grunts and gradually works up to a full blown screaming session (all the time with his eyes firmly shut) so its almost like he isn't actually awake. When I get him up he feeds for 5-10 mins (gulping it down) and then is deeply asleep again (he is an efficient feeder and feeds for no more than 10 mins in the day also). Just wondering if you think he is actually hungry or just using me as a comfort to get himself back off to sleep and if so, is there anything I can do to break the habit - I'm exhausted beyond belief and would do anything for even 4 hours undisturbed sleep. Any advice gratefully received.

Sorry no advice but thought I'd just let you know that you're not alone! DS is almost 5 months and also feeds every two hours (also EBF). He never quite makes it to full blown crying at night though as I scoop him up quick to feed as I don't want him to wake up DD.
A few people have mentioned that I should wean him but I'm not keen to do that yet. Just trying to ride it out.
Hope you get a bit more sleep soon.

To be honest I thought all breast fed babies did this but a recent thread i started told me I was wrong but most seem too. I found co sleeping really helped, latch him on and straight back to sleep. He is 15 months now and i am back to work and he still feeds a lot at night but co sleeping gets me plenty of sleep.

Does he have a dummy? Or perhaps take a bottle? There are a couple of very similar threads on the bottle/breastfeeding board posted in the last few of days so maybe check those out. Are you able to stretch the amount of time from when he cries to when you feed him a little every few days? It's what worked for me. So for example when he woke up for a feed at 12, I picked him up, cuddled etc. but didn't feed til 12:30 for a few days, then pushed til 1, and so on til it merged with the next feed. Then I worked on moving the next feed back.
My DS did have a dummy, which I think helped.

My ds was very similar and hate to tell you it lasted for some Time, he's now 21 months and still stirs for milk during the night, although only once or twice now. It does get easier, usually when you start to introduce solids. At such a young age I would say its perfectly normal for a baby to still be hungry in the night but also there's the comfort element too.
Guess you've got a couple of options really and it will depend in which camp you feel you sit. I'm in the attachment parenting camp and believe that it's totally normal to be breastfeeding on demand day and night, right into toddlerhood. I've got round the disrupted sleep by co sleeping and its worked fab for us. On the other hand, you might be in the breast is for food only camp which may mean you chose to wean overnight. I think there's a few methods of doing it, ive heard the no Cry sleep solution is very good if you don't fancy controlled crying.
Good luck with whatever you chose!

Sorry, this sounds completely normal to me.
If you're happy to give it a try, co-sleeping is fantastic, and you may find he will feed quietly without you having to fully wake up.