Should I give water overnight?

[Ieattoomuchcake]

DD is 9 1/2 months (but was nine weeks early so I tend to take that into account re her feeding patterns).
She is BF and BLW.

I need to go back to work in a couple of months.

DD has slept through the night three times in her entire life. Currently she gets up 2-3 times a night. Sometimes she takes a feed and goes straight back to sleep. Other times she cries in her cot then takes a feed and goes back in her cot and harrumphs, chats, occasionally cries again, and is awake for up to 90 mins. I suspect it's a sleep regression and I think there's one at about 8-9 months.

Anyway, mine and DHs family are all telling me that I should give her water in the night and she'll learn that's not worth waking up for and will sleep better.

I have been ignoring all advice so far and just going my own way. But it doesn't seem to be working well so far (!!) and I wonder whether I should do something to sort her sleep before I go back to work...

Any experiences or advice gratefully received.

Hi,
At this age your DD shouldn't be waking in the night and should be getting all of her nutrition during the day via your milk and 3 meals a day. So I'm guessing its just a habit that shes got into which is going to be a lot easier if you break it now.

You could try giving water but then your still giving her the attention she's waking up for. Does she settle herself to sleep when you first put her down or do you feed her to sleep?

i wouldn't give water

she is actually closer to 7 months corrected

If you want to night wean then reduce the time of night feeds every other night

this is a very gentle way of doing this - takes time but IME it works and there are not too many tears as it is a slow process

nights feeds aren't unsual at 7 or 9 months or older - however, it is hard especaully with work on the horizon (which is why i night weaned my DD)

This is what I did from7-8 months onwards and actually dd did then start to sleep through, so for us it worked.

Obviously if she was pooorly or really unsettled would sometimes resort to a bf but did try and avoid it tbh as also went with the 'she should be getting all she needs during the day' theory!!

Also I had a friend who had a dd who used to wake up once or twice a night and was always given a bottle of milk and she was still waking up for her bottle aged 4!!!

Thanks everybody for your replies.
She is capable of settling herself. Just doesn't always choose to do it.
At bedtime she sometimes goes to sleep on the breast but I always wake her before I put her down. About 50% of the time she doesn't fall asleep at her bedtime feed and goes into her cot awake, has a little chat to herself and takes herself off to sleep. If she falls asleep during the feed then she goes into her cot half asleep and just turns over and falls asleep.

One reason why I'm so unsure about stopping night feeds is because we are doing BLW and I'm not convinced she's actually eating that much. I've tried spoon feeding but she refuses to be fed.

Hmm lots to think about. I am a bit if a wuss and it just seems so easy to feed her. Plus I've always gone by the thinking that if she needs comfort in any form I want to give it to her. But I'd prefer she drop the night feeds before age 4 like girliefriend 's friend!!

milk should still be a major source of nutrition for a baby below a year

there is a huge difference between night feeding a 4 year old than a less than 1 year old

i gave my DD a dream feed until she was 10.5 months old as she still needed it

we also did BLW and some days she ate very little

Just thinking this through, I wonder whether it would work if I decided I wouldn't feed her before a certain time. For example, last night was a fairly extreme example but she woke for her first 'night feed' at 11pm (we don't do dream feed as she doesn't wake up enough to take a feed). Then she was up at 4.30 and 5.30.

I'm thinking maybe I will set a rule that unless she is too upset, poorly etc I won't feed her before 2am, and then not again till at least three hours have passed.

So that way I'm only feeding her when she's genuinely hungry not just when she fancies a cuddle??

But even that feels 'wrong' to me. She's never had a dummy and I've always been her comforter, and enjoyed being it. I feel like I'm forcing her to give up her source of comfort...

Oh dear I am in a bit of a pickle...

if it feels wrong to YOU and FOR baby, then don't do it

nowt wrong with that!

I night weaned i was going back to work FT with a 2 hour round commute and DD was waking 3 hourly and i couldn't cope (also have an older child)

The reducing the night feed really worked for us

but i was comfortable and ready to do it

am still breastfeeding so it didn't mean the end of feeding either (just not at night)!