4 month old up 2-3 times for bf, normal? any way to make her go longer between feeds?

[yummytummy]

hiya. wondering if anyone had any advice as am really getting exhausted and struggling with breastfeeding. its been going ok, dd has been feeding well going few hours between feeds. its just nighttimes i am struggling with.

dd gets sleepy at 8-9ish so i do last feed then. then she is up at 3-4am then at 6am or sometimes 7am. just wondered if any way to get her to drop the 3am feed? have tried dream feeding at 11pm both with bf and ff. made no difference still up at 3am. also tried bath last thing, cluster feeding in evening no difference.

will she just drop feed herself or is there anything i can do?

am just so exhausted as also have ds who is 3 and he is up every morning at 6am without fail even if sleeps late.

any tips?

Hi I think that's not unusual. I have a 4 month old and she goes to bed at 7 and then is up for a feed (I'm only brestfeeding) at around 1 or 2 am and then again every 3 hours or so after that. So she feeds at 1, 4 and 6 or 7 am.
I'm hoping that once she starts solids she'll sleep longer. There's hoping :)
If anyone has any tips please tell me :)

Sorry - sounds pretty normal to me, at least it was for my two.... Neither of them slept through until 9-10 months but everyone is different - maybe yours will start much sooner than that. My sister's (EBF) DS slept through 7-6 from about 8 weeks on!

Fingers crossed for you

Normal sorry. 4 month growth spurt.

Perfectly normal, my 5 month twins feed 6pm, 11ish, 2/3ish and 6/7ish. They still have tiny little tummies. I would never expect them to go longer than your dd until at least six months and possibly later.
Is it possible to get DH to give her a bottle in the early hours to give you a break?
People often wonder whether ff or weaning helps, and they generally find that it doesn't, I certainly did with dd1.
Good luck, and hang on in there, you have done brilliantly to get this far.

Mine fed twice in the night until he was well established on solids.

Co-sleeping and feeding lying down helped me.

hi thanks for all replies, guess it is normal just really tough! gd idea for dh to do bottle for one feed, trouble is usually wake up anyway due to full boobs. will just persevere i guess. am just no good without sleep and its getting to me a bit. just so relentless.

DS2 fed 2 or 3 times in the night, every night, until he was 10 months old, when I was happy he was eating enough solids. We then did cuddling / patting back to sleep for a few nights (and no night feeds), when he then started sleeping through.

I wouldn't have done it any earlier though, definitely not at 4 months.

Ditto with above, co-sleeping and feeding lying down and just trying to rest when you can.

It's so hard though, hopefully you can rest at other times?

I was advised by a health visitor to give a bottle of water during the night to break the cycle. I didn't sleep for a week but by the end of it she slept 8 hours every night. she's now 11 years old. not sure if it would be recommended now. my newest addition is 8 weeks old and exclusivley bf. We'll see what happens!

jokaren - Water isn't recommended until at least solids have been introduced (somewhere around the 6m mark depending on baby's development) and even then it isn't strictly necessary as bm is around 88% water. Some don't recommend introducing water until after 1y due to the risks of water intoxication from accidentally giving a baby too much water.

Just plain water isn't good for babies as it can mess with the electrolyte balance in the blood which can lead to quite serious effects if too much is given.

BM (or formula) has the right balance of water to solutes so doesn't cause any problems.

yummytummy - Your baby is only having 1 night feed (6am/7am are technically day feeds as is the 8/9pm feeds) and by the medical definition is already sleeping through the night (stretch of sleep lasting 5 or more hours).

So congratulations all round - your daughter is actually a great sleeper!

Could you go to sleep after her evening feed for a few nights to catch up on sleep so you are better rested? It doesn't have to be forever just until you catch your breath

OP - you are doing really well, as others have said. Echo the sentiments about trying to get more rest when you can and consider co-sleeping. They are the things I found helped the most (had 3 dc, did this with each of them, continued to bf when I went back to work parttime nights but that was when they were 6 plus months).

Generally introducing other things like bottles/dummies/early solids are not a great idea and don't come with any guarantee that the desired effect will be achieved anyway - but are likely to interfere with the established breastfeeding and not helpful long term.

Hang on in there. There's nothing like it and it makes life so much easier when you want to go out and about!!

hi, thanks for all the tips. will try some of things suggested like sleeping earlier. its just so tempting to stay up and chill with tv etc as after 9pm when both kids asleep is the rare time to relax! but hopefully this stage wont be for long!

am just fed up of being on mat leave, theres no break, going to work at least gives some time away from kids. but i know dd still tiny and i am pleased have been able to bf till now so really want to carry on if possible.

thanks for reassurances gd to know am not alone!