Bf in the night, can I cut down or not?

[iggypiggy]

Not sure what the answer is but, my 6 month old DD Is currently waking for night feeds every one or two hours through the night, and has been for 6 weeks now... I am v tired..

My question is, can I try to stop some of the night feeds, or should I still be feeding on demand? She is exclusively BF and I have just started weaning onto solids the last couple of days.

She has never slept well, in that she has often had frequent night wakings, but it wasn't always for food, and until 6 weeks ago, she used to have a few bad nights, then a few good ones (eg. Waking every four hours). So I used to catch up on sleep on the good nights, but now am just v tired and just want her to sleep for a three or four hour stretch in the night!

Any advice? Do you think she needs the food or maybe it's just for comfort?

If you've got a room to move her to you should try it iggy , we never had a peep out of dc1 and dc2 when we moved them out of our room , both at about 8m as we just didn't get round to it. Unfortunately dc3 doesn't have a room yet and putting dc1 and 2 in together will cause early rising which is the last thing I need at the moment.

Dc3 is a fab napper. 40mins at about 9.30am and then about 1.5 hours at lunchtime. If she doesn't get a decent lunchtime nap she cries in the night , otherwise I feed her and she goes straight back to sleep.

Gonna try own room tonight loo

If I only get 30 mins more is worth it

Iggy - I would up the ante with the solids as you have only just started and she is now 6 months (they say to move through the stages quickly if you delay weaning until 6 months) so it may be geniune hunger for lack of calories during the day..

But babies also get very used to sleep props too and if she gets fed/cuddled back to sleep then that becomes ingrained.

So I would speed up the solids and once on three meals a day if still waking you know its not for calories and you can tackle it as a pure sleep issue.

Good Luck x

Thanks blue!

I had a small moment o clarity last night an realises if I fed her on both sides (ie woke her up for second side) she actually slept for 3 hrs! Am so stupid....