Nearly 7months still bf every 1.5/2hrs in day, im shattered!

[Hannah7]

DD is nearly 7 months old and still bf every 1.5/2hrs in day and normally twice a night. She has solids 2-3 times a day, not giant amount yet but this makes no difference.

Ive got to the point of exhaustion as got DS who is 3yrs 9months to look after too, have read posts from people saying their 1yrs olds still do this and don't think I could cope doing this for another 6months!

Don't get me wrong I enjoy bf and am happy to continue, but I need some time to look after ME and the rest of the family someone please tell me she will start spacing out soon as starting to consider trying bottles and formula again?! Thanks x

My ds used my boob as a comforoter. Could your wee one be doing that? I just stopped offering it to him and he soon forgot about it. Might be an idea to express and offer a bottle at set times. This ensures yiyr baby gets your breast milk but also gives you a break at night as your partner can take their turn and during the day as your ds will soon get the hang of holding her bottle very quickly!

Obviously i meant dd! Doing this from phone whilst my 10mnth ds climbing all over me.

Could you try spacing feeds out a bit more? I know generally people prefer to demand feed, but if it's a choice between scheduling feeds or moving to formula I'd think about trying to schedule.

Hiya - major sympathy. It's a tough time. My DS fed very frequently during the day at the same age (about every two hours) but he did space it out at around 8mo. He would start to show less interest in a particular feed (take less time/more easily distracted) and when I had the courage to actually try to drop it I found he didn't need it.It was easiest if we were out and there was something for him to do/look at etc - if we were at home he'd be much more likely to continue to demand it. IIRC the first one he dropped was a mid-morning one probably because we were at baby groups and then the mid afternoon one went.

I found making it through this period really tough but having made it through it settled down. We had another blip around a year when he started moving his morning feed back to about 4am (not very welcome when I was working full time and he'd been genuinely sleeping through for a while) but again that settled quite quickly and now he's self weaning at 2.3yrs (never meant to fed this long but it's kind of worked).

It's really important for you to get some you time. Do you have anyone who could take your DCs even for an hour while you go to the gym/have a bath/sit and read a magazine/paint your nails? Our local sports centre has a very reasonable creche - I'd like to say I'd taken advantage but -I'm- -a- -lazy- -cow- the times didn't suit me.

I always find this with my breastfed babies, and am feelig it too, mine is 8 months, feeds a lot and in th enight too and has about 8 teeth so feeding is a bit sore, but waht keeps me going is knowing it won't be forever and that the alternative formual feeidng would make me feel guilty, and I woudl miss the special feelign of breastfeeding, I find if I get my baby to have a litte bit of baby food say 2, 4 month jars, he feeds less, obviuously according to the hv leaflets they are supposed ot eat tons more, but I never get to that stage until they are over 2 and have 3 kids. sorry about the typos need new glasses baby broke mine

I think by 7 months you can up the amount of solids a bit and restrict the amount of BFing if its getting too much for you - the following routine would mean a feed every 1.2-2 hours but take some pressure off you.

7am BF
8.30am breakfast - fruit puree, readybrek/baby rice plus milk and beaker water
9am-10am sleep
10am BF
11.30am lunch - eg meat & veggies & water
11.45-1.45pm sleep
2pm BM
4pm tea - veggie puree, plus fruit puree and yoghurt, beaker water
6pm BF - could give pot yoghurt after this feed instead of at tea.
10pm BF

Thanks for the replies! Am hoping when she starts crawling etc it might distract her a bit as she will be more busy playing and also when she starts having things like ricecakes etc to snack on!!

Hubby is very helpful when at home and in night he changes her whilst I get ready to feed.

I have tried pumping quite a few times but don't get much out even with massaging, looking at pics of her etc at same time. She did take a small amount of formula up to 10weeks old when she then decided boobs were much nicer and bottles were blergh!

Am going to try and cook some more filling proper meals this week and introduce meat, pasta etc so maybe that will help :-)

DS was ff so I expect at this stage he would have been doing the 7, 11, 3, 7!!

Posted this twice as so tired so now to reply to other one!

hannah my ds3 is almost 8 months and has really gone off daytine feeds this last week. still feeds lots at night though, every hour! i'm desperately trying to get him to feed MORE in the day to try to reduce the night ones.

he is very active, crawling and standing and far more interested in everything else going on than in having milk, unless it's dark and quiet. so perhaps your dd will drop feeds when more active.

he has also started eating more solids this week. no meat yet, but lentils, fish and his fave is humous and toast. i think that has also spaced the daytime feeds out so that might help you too. today he was looking to grab ds1 and ds2's snacks, not sure when to introduce snacks.

i haven't bothered changng nappies at night since about 2 weeks old, could you consider dropping that?

i think it proabbaly will get better quite soon for you! hang on in there

weasle - every hour at night, OMG you poor thing! We only change her nappy if it's used, sometimes she won't have used it between feeds if woken often. She is up for her first feed of the night, not that hungry so think just wanted cuddle and boob :-)

hannah 7 - we also give DS2 the organix snack things to distract him in the afternoon - they are from 7 months and he really enjoys feeding himself, could also do with lightly cooked apple chunks or mini rice cakes.