If someone doesnt help.............

[Helenemjay]

Im just short of cracking up, dd keeps waking me every hour ALL night for a feed! she getting better in the day now, going a good couple of hours between feeds, but she has been doing this hourly feeding at night for about 4 nights and im just about to curl up and die! she was sleeping well at night - sleeping from 10pm til about 4am - what am i doing wrong?? im sooooo tired!!!!

I think this is pretty common - how old is your dd? We've just gone through this with our ds - he had started to use sucking as his sleep cue and needed to be left a bit to settle himself instead of me jumping out of bed at the first whimper. Is she feeding really vigorously every time to go to her? If not might be the same as us....

How old is DD? Could be that she is going through a growth spurt and will settle down in a few days.

My DD (now 7 months) used to be good in the day and terrible at night. I used to express in the day and stockpile it to make a biggish bottle. I'd then go to bed early leaving my DH in charge of baby and bottle. this gave me the chance to get a few hours in before the all night extravaganza. It only lasted for a few weeks, and I got through it by eating copious amounts of chocolate biscuits as I fed, listening to the radio and reading trashy novels/ magazines! Do try to do as little as possible in the daytime to conserve your energy for the evening.

Take care and keep in touch

X

They do this quite often in the first year - my 6mth old has just gone through a 2 week one of regular waking. Try and squeeze more feeds in during the day if you are b/f or up the quantity of milk if you are bottle feeding.

Sorry had to dash out quick! DD is only 7 weeks so i know i shouldnt expect too much, but seriously - every hour!!!?? she isnt feeding vigourously - i dont know why but i kinda get the feeling she is just thirsty - does that make sense? i mean could that be all it is? i have a 5 year old who is quite a light sleeper and a 2.5 year old who is up and jumping on his bed at a mere cough so im terrified at the thought of letting her make any noise! - im not far short of rocking in a corner somewhere

With my DD, felt like constant feeding! I used to read in books about babies feeding every 2 hours and feel cross as mine would feed for about 1h 45m then give me 10 mins off before starting again.... very frustrating.

Even if she is thirsty, I would stick with the BF rather than introduce water or your supply will go to pot and the problem will get worse. Your milk is the best for her, whether hungry or thirsty. If you suspect it's the comfort thing she is after (which I thought mine was after), then there is the dreaded dummy but that starts another debate. Agree with QueenV that if you can feed more in the day, this may buy you a bit of time in the night.

Hang on in there - I despaired of ever establishing a routine or having more than a few minutes sleep, but it will happen!!

If you're comfortable with it, sharing a bed with your DD will mean less noise to wake the bigger kids, and more sleep for you - I often would fall asleep while nursing, lying down, with DS1 or DS2.

This does pass, but that doesn't mean you're any less tired now

like NQC, I used to lie on my side with DS2 sucking away next to me and just fall asleep like that. Probably wuite a lot of the time he was just using me as a big dummy but I didn't really care - just needed the sleep!

Baby uses the dummy as a boob not the boob as a dummy!

Helen,if you're confident that she's had enough (and I'm sure with three kids you are) then put her down.
That's what I did.

DS did this at about 7 weeks (and again at 12 and again at 16). Think it was a growth spurt/developmental leap each time. Nightmare while it lasts.

Well, had a slightly better night last night - dd fed every 2 hours instead of every 1!ds2 got up at 6am and proceeded to start his jumping up and down on his bed and singing bob the builder LOUDLY! ggrrrrr dp wonders why i got up in a grumpy mood! sorry im not a moody mare usually - but between him and 3 kids...... grrrr