advice please on EBF and co-sleeping with 6 month old

[FelicityElectricity]

Hi all
In need of some advice/tips please!
My DD is just coming up to 6 months and she is EBF on demand and we co-sleep. Her feeds during the day are roughly 2-3 hours (I avoid clock watching generally) but overnight she kind of snacks for hours. By that I mean she wakes a bit and feeds from one side for about 5 mins or so then falls asleep and basically this repeats for what feels like every half hour or so. I haven't actually looked at the clock but it feels like it goes on most of the night. I am not sure if she is feeding so much because it settles her back to sleep or because she needs it or purely because of proximity to me.
I have noticed that if she feeds less during the day the nightfeeds increase. I read Deborah Jackson's book on co-sleeping which said that babies will BF more at night if you co-sleep so maybe this is why.
I have had limited success with getting her to sleep in a cot that adjoins our bed. She is ok for daytime naps most of the time but night time doesn't really work!
So I am not sure if this is just something to ride out and things will change by themselves as we progress with weaning or whether I need to change something.

I was intending to stop co-sleeping and BF at some point - originally I was aiming for six months but I am feeling like I could continue BF if I could sort out the night time a bit more.
Any advice/tips welcome!

Ride it out if you can. At around this time you hit a horrible growth spurt, my previously good sleeper started waking for a feed every hour. All perfectly normal but a shock to the system!

thanks world
I guess there are a lot of changes going on - trying to sit up etc as well as ones that are less visible. Because I am doing things a bit differently with DC2 I feel like a bit of a novice. DS used to step up the feeds in the day when having a growth spurt whereas DD seems to be doing the opposite and increasing nightfeeds.

I'd stick with both for now if you can. You've done all of the hard work of bfing in the first few weeks so now its time to enjoy things like not having to worry if your've got enought formula and making up bottles and having the freedom to stay out all day with DD on a whim if you choose .

As for the co-sleeping, 6 months is a growth spurt and a developmental change so there is alot going on. There are some things you can do though, Dr Sears has some good tips here and if she is feeding more at night than in the day have a read of reverse cycling on Kellymom.

Thankyou jilted will have a look at those links. So glad I am missing out the faff with bottles and expressing etc this time round!

felicity I could have written that post, I am in the same position, I am exhausted and wake in the morning totally parched. Same experience too with DD2 (5 moths) , DDI just upped dayfeeds during growth spurts. I think it may be about attention and feeling close as she just doesn't get that 1:1 that DD1 did.
DD2 doesn't like the cot either. I feed her to sleep on our bed and leave her there and if we try and move her she wakes. At some stage we will sleep train, PUPD maybe.
I'm saying to myself ride it out as these few months are a drop in the ocean over my lifetime. People are telling me that she is using me as a human dummy and to just giver her one but we've gone five months without so am reluctant to give her one now!

helpful links jilted, all makes sense! hope you get on ok felicity

Thanks cereal. Completely agree - the time goes so fast with two so it is only a short time relatively. I also think it may have something to do with having less one to one time when DS is around.

I could have written this post too! We're 6 months today and have had this on and off for a month or so. She seems to have a week or so of nights like this,(cluster feeding from about 2am to 7am!) and then just as I'm getting to the end of my tether she sleeps well for a few nights in the cosleeper crib and then it begins again with the feeding every hour and needing to be touching me at all times. I'm hoping it's a phase- I've read that sleep goes all to pot when they're mastering a new skill, or making a developmental leap, and then they sleep well once they've mastered it, which would fit with what my dd is doing. I guess I'm in for a few more months if this is the case.

I don't know how comfortable you'd feel about it, but the only way my dd will sleep at night in her cosleeper is on her tummy, or side propped with a rolled up towel. Now she's not so tiny and can roll herself over, letting her sleep on her tummy for now, so at least we both get a few hours uninterrupted sleep. She's less restless and settles herself much more easily.

Thanks sound. DD dpes tend to sleep on her side and sometimes on her front. She can roll well now so I should be able to try her in that position and see if it helps. Might stop her kicking me as much too

Definitely developmental stuff going on - have a look at The Wonder Weeks which tells you abou all the predictable developmenal leaps.

DS wasn't too bad at night at that age, but naps went haywire in a way which was always related to a developmental leap.

I co slept until 2 years, but think DS would have been ready to move out at around a year if we hadn't moved (which unsettled him).