BF'ing 7.5 month & night feeding

[GodisaDj]

After a bit of advice or a slap and to tell me to stop being silly and ride it out! I have searched previous threads but similar ones are quite old so made sense to start a new one.

DD is 7.5 month, EBF until we started BLW at 6 months. BF on demand, no routine really, just a rough idea when she might be hungry and sleepy basically making it up as I go along!

Obviously never slept through but didn't have this expectation and threw Gina Ford's book in the bin after reading 2 pages of it when dd was 6 weeks old!

DD is very good and a pleasure to look after in that she cries when something is seriously bothering her, other than that, I can read her cues and more or less know if she needs feeding, a nap or a cuddle.

Night time: she's goes off on her own after bath, milk and story (sometimes falls asleep on boob but mostly i can put her down awake and she drops off with no issues).

I don't have a strict bed "time" just when she's tired we start the bath/milk/story routine, so this could be at 6pm or 8pm (depending on how much sleep she's had during the day) and it works for us as a family.

She'll have a feed around 10.30/11 when we come to bed.

After then she feeds anything up to 6 times a night though. A 'good' night will be 2 feeds which I believe are hunger ones (every 3 hours from 11pm) but the rest are to get her back to sleep/comfort (especially this last week as she's teething). Perhaps once a week would be a good night.

She sleeps in her cotbed next to us and I literally roll her over to me to feed and fall back to sleep put her back. She does have a dummy for naps/sleeping and I always put this back in a night and sometimes can ward off a feed.

I think I know the answer, but is there anything I can do to reduce the night feeds from 6 to just the hunger ones?

Would moving her to her room help and limiting milk between say 12-6? I've heard of daddy going into comfort instead of mummy has worked for some - anyone got a success story doing this?

Hopefully my post shows I'm kind of an attachment parent so CC and CIO isn't an option for me; neither is introducing formula at night.

DP said this morning "we need to sort this nightfeeding out..." :o Quickly followed by "I don't know what the answer is..." when he saw the look on my face!

I think I'm just tired and need some reassurance that it will get better at some point praying by the time dd is 1 year old!

Sorry for long post but any tips that you do as a family would be greatly appreciated :)

Strikeout fail! It worked on some but not others! boo

7m is a bit young for night weaning (which is what not feeding her between 12-6am is). It's not rec. until about 18m though lots of babies decide on their own that they don't need food or comfort at night before then.

The only thing is if you move her into her own room, you may end up sitting on a chair awake feeding her 6 times a night rather than lying in your bed dozing while she feeds (DD1 did this and it certainly didn't make life an easier - she went into her own room at 7m).

We did night wean DD1 at 12m (so I could get pg but I was already pg when we did it unbeknown to me) and DH went in with a beaker of water which did work within about 3 nights but she wasn't too pleased. Much less traumatic though than the CC the HV insisted we do, that me in my severe PND-OCD state felt unable to disobey . Have never done CC/CIO on my other children and would give anything to turn back time and have a 'do-over'.

With DD2 we moved her into her own room when she dropped night feeds which was at about 16m. No CC/CIO or daddy with beakers either.

DD3 was moved still having a couple of night feeds (well one was the 10.30/11pm feed so not a night feed really as we were up then anyway) in to her sisters' room. She still wakes a lot but she has bad eczema and asthma so mostly wakes for creaming or inhaler (she is 2.5y) but sometimes needs a bf (DH and I take turns so even on her worst nights we only get up 4 times each). She does have good night though - last night slept 6.30pm-7.15am with no wakings (DD1 came down for painkillers as she had an ear ache though!)

All of the DDs have a no spill beaker in bed with water in so there is no requests for drinks in the night (this starts at about 12m) and there is a potty for night time wees if anyone wakes up too desperate to get to the toilet in time. Not had any wet beds in about a year (DD3 is still in nappies so that's something to look forward too!).

You could try cuddling her instead of feeding her to see if that settles her but if you are awake and holding her it's not too much more trouble to feed her (and then you both get a hit of the 'back to sleep' hormones too).

Thank you so much for your reply truthsweet I think I know in my heart it is way too early to limit milk at night but the DP just pissed me off this morning with his comment about sorting it out. I know he only says it because he's worried about me and what it'll be like when I'm back at work - but sometimes he thinks I have all the answers and I don't!

I'm quite happy with her coming in to bed, feeding and then going back to sleep but I must admit the last 2 weeks has been hard as it seems to be getting more frequent not less and I'm putting this down to teething.

I like the idea of having a beaker in bed (when she is ready to move in her room).

Will try cuddling too. I've been reluctant to let her cry as it will wake DP up but if he wants me to do something then think I may go down this route.

I think she is still very young to be night weaned, have you come across DrSears at all (read his website). He has lots of useful info on night time parenting and how normal it is for little one's to still wake a lot a night.

Not what you really want to hear but upto 50% of preschool's still wake up during the night, so night weaning is never a garnetie that they will sleep through anyway.

Good luck.

Elizabeth Pantley's book 'The no-cry sleep solution' has loads of good and gentle ideas. I liked it because she was (is) an attachment parent with a 12-times a night boobmonster for a baby - like mine!

Thanks mig will have a read, I have heard of him and may have read something of his ages ago pre-baby.

Have brought that book zoob thanks for the suggestion. Got it off eBay too for only £4! Bargain

Had a reasonable good night last night (12.30, 3.30 & 6.30am feeds, awake for 20 min at 6.30 then went back to sleep until 8.30am).

Today is a new day and I still need concealer!