Time for a routine - care to share yours??!

[bumpiesonamission]

I have a 6mnth old who is ebf and wakes every 2hrs at night wanting food. I have decided that we need a routine now in the day with hope it will encourage more daytime feeding and less nighttime boob action (she says with hands full if clutched straws!)

I feel a bit clueless about what to do and when to so what. We are on the small blw meals a day which is going well but he does seem to want much ebm during the day, perhaps because of confusion?!

Please can you share your routines and pearls magic tricks to help guide me?!

TIA

Go with the flow and the night time feeds will drop. Sleep usually worsens at around 6 months coinciding with developmental and growth spurts.

I think my daughter (now 2) would quite happily be waking for night feeds now if we hadn't put a stop to it. Do you feed to sleep? I think -some- night feeds at six months is normal. Every two hours is excessive, although the prevailing view on MN seems to be to martyr yourself and put up with it.

Just to add, my son is nearly seven months and his day goes something like this (led by him):

6.30-7 wake
7.30 breakfast (Weetabix plus milk)
9.30 nap (60 mins usually)
10.00 milk
11.30 lunch (something mashed plus finger food)
12.30 milk and nap (varies 60-90 mins)
14.30 ish milk
16.30 tea (as lunch)
18.00 milk
18.30 bed
22.00 dream feed

This routine is just what he's wanted to do since we weaned him. I was planning to BLW but he was becoming increasingly frustrated at how slowly the food was going in! He used to wake for a feed around 4-5am but he's dropped this on his own since weaning. He's my easy baby!

My daughter was a different kettle of fish all together. Didn't want food and didn't really eat until she was 14/15 months, so she really did need night feeds as she was so hungry.

Do you feed to sleep?
If a normal sleep cycle is 2 hours long may he be just doesn't know another way to drift back off other than suckleing rather than actually being hungry?

He'll often have a short nap around 5pm. 15 mins or so just to see him through to bed time.

5 month old:

Up about 7am with a breastfeed
Breakfast 8am (porridge and fruit puree)
Nap 8.30/9-10am
Bottle at 10.30
Lunch at 11.30 (veg and rice at the moment)
Nap 12-1/1.30pm
Bottle 2pm
Nap 3.30pm-4pm
Breastfeed 4pm
Dinner 5pm - finger food
Bath 6pm
Breastfeed 6.30pm
Bed 7pm
Bottle 11pm

and then currently much breastfeeding between 3am-7am though I am planning to cut out all feeding between 11pm and 5am.

Thanks Becca for answering my plea.

He goes down groggy but chatting after a bf, story then cuddle. He can go 3/4hrs at the beginning and even longer until about a month ago.

Observing him it seems he wakes or stirs every 45/50mins and certainly his naps suggest this is his sleep cycle.

We have tried a dream fees but he will just wake 2hrs after.

We have a plan to address the waking with a combination of pupd and offering water.

I want to address it now as I am on my knees with exhaustion and very low.

I've heard excellent things about pupd.
I think the water would help too, then he can get used to having he's whole calorie intake during the day.

I m worried I'll end up not feeding him when he really needs it

Should I just go cold Turkey with the feeding? I don't know what to do for the best

PUPD and water didn't work for us.

DS went to bed at about 7pm ish at 6mo, and fed A LOT. Co-sleeping worked best (so I didn't have to wake up properly through the night).

Feeding on demand every 2 hours at 6mo if that's what your particular baby needs isn't martyring yourself

Some babies sleep through from week 1, others wake and feed a lot through the night. Both are fine, both are normal.

Have you got DH/OH? Try sending him into settle your baby any way how without a feed. Cutting down on feeds is really hard - I've been there and I know how easy it is to feed because that gets them back to sleep much quicker than actually dealing with the situation. Been there did that with bells on with DD and I remember vividly how exhausting it was.

In fact I didn't feel safe to drive a lot of the time. It's most of the reason I stopped breastfeeding, just so I could hand over the night time reins to someone else and get a bit of sleep! I know that's not an option for everyone of course. You have to do what works for you.

Oh god

DH is good but not that good and doesn't persevere. I may try to slowly reduce feeds instead of cold Turkey?

Probably not what you want to hear but in my experience most stuff like pupd doesn't work. It will probably come down to whether you consider crying acceptable or not. I don't let mine cry so we co sleep and that way night wakings don't bother me, I hardly have to wake up and I never have to get up.

But if some babies are getting their whole calorie intake during the day at weeks old, how can they really vary that much in terms of how much food they need and can hold?
Not picking on anyone, but I just don't properly understand why people are negative to the suggestion made that a baby doesn't need food over night (not just on this thread but alot I've seen on mn).
I don't mean I don't understand why people would get up to a baby in the night, but why hunger should always be the most obvious go to and why the op's in these situations are discouraged from quitting the night snacks.
The range of normal for other physical milestones is usually a few months give or take from child to child so why for being able to have a proper break (8 hours plus) between feeding is the norm a couple of months until well into the second year if these threads are anything to go by?

PUPD worked really well with DS1 to get him to self-settle. To stop night feeds we sent DP in with water/dummy/cuddle - initially I did 4 hourly night feeds 7/11/3/7 and then we pushed the 3am one to 5am and brought the 11pm one earlier and earlier until he fed at 7pm and then 5am. That was by 9 months.

Feeding every 2 hours at night is of course within the normal range and absolutely fine if it works for you. But it doesn't work for me!

Some hood points and thanks hollie.

We had an awful night so I am even more spurred on to get his day time routine sorted to make me feel confident he's having a good calorie intake during the day!

if you do have to do nighttime feeds at least this might make you feel better about it

Give it time bumpie. It won't happen overnight - just start by getting your baby up at roughly the same time each morning. Your DH could stretch to doing one night time resettle I think? Your baby will smell the milk if you go in so it'll be much harder for you not to feed him. Introduce a transition object gradually? A t-shirt that you hold between you and your baby whilst your feeding so they get used to it being there, and it'll smell of you. That might help to comfort your LO back to sleep in time.

P.s I'm with Rabbit on the night feeding situ. Plenty of babies (breastfed ones included) sleep longer stretches at night, so a baby doesn't need to be taking in a large proportion of their calories overnight. Of course it must be nice to be comforted by a warm milky booby drink whenever you want it, but mum's well-being is important too.

Thanks Becca. I like the idea of a T-shirt. He transfers well and always has same as selfsettling after feeds and put downs.

DH is good really. I'm going to see if I can get him to do a pupd if before 11( my usual cut of for feeding) and then move. I've decided to track our usual routine today and work on that and day bf this week and will start sleep next week!

Sounds like a sleep regression - my DS did the same at around 5/6 months. He had been sleeping really well (one feed a night) and had a good but flexible routine but all of a sudden he started waking every 1 and a half hours and needed the boob. We tried settling him without but wasn't having any of it - after a month he went back to normal and a few months later he started sleeping all night.
I found it really tough but was reassured when all my friends were going through the same thing. I read that there is lots of development going on then so they need extra comfort and reassurance.
Baby number 2 is 3 months and I have to say I am not lookimg forward to sleep regression with a hyper 3 year old to deal with too! At least I'm prepared though. xx

Sounds familiar! thank you, gives me hope!