Will the night feeds get any better?

[whimsicalquark]

my dd will be 5 months next week and is breastfed, she has always slept at night really well (naps are a different issue !) from around 5 weeks she has slept from 7/8pm to 6/7am waking only to feed. the night feeds had dropped right down from 3 or 4 in the early days to only 1 feed and i was very happy.
however once she hit 4 months the feeds almost overnight went right back up, we are currently feeding every 1.5 - 2 hours at night every night. this has been going on for almost 4 weeks. At first I convinced myself it was 4 month sleep regression, then teething then a growth spurt but now it has been going on for so long im losing hope. Will the sleep get any better again? When she wakes she is just hungry and will feed and go straight back to sleep, I feed on demand throughout day and she normally feeds at least 5 times in day. I have tried upping daytime feeds but it hasnt made a difference. Is there any hope this will get better ? why is she so hungry at night ? i thought by 6 months babies should be capable of sleeping through with no feeds, I dont think we have any chance of this happening

my DD did the same..... a few weeks ago i could have written that post

at 3.5 months she was down to 1 feed a night
around 4 / 5 months she was feeding more than when she was a week old... and i never got more than a 2 hour block of sleep

it was hellish, i though i was going mad. One night she drank 8 breasts of milk ... she was having between 11 / 13 feeds in 24 hours, and fed very well in the day.
I couldnt work out how she "needed" so much

it lasted about 6 / 7 weeks.
I decided to go against all theorys and increase time between feeds in the day (i had also began weaning so she was having small amounts of fruit / veg / GF cereals)

She is now 6months and 2 weeks old and for the past 2 weeks she has slept through.

Good luck.

Thankyou, you have given me hope !!! I think I will try that and increase time between daytime feeds. I have been trying previously to increase frequency of daytime feeds and although she will feed whenever it is offered she doesnt always take a full feed and has more of a light snack so I dont think this is helping the situation as then when it is her normal feed times she isnt really that hungry and again doesnt have full feed.
i have begun weaning in the last week (only a bit of fruit puree etc once a day) maybe it will make a difference maybe it wont

Ok I don't want to upset you but it can be looooong time past 6 months before they sleep through. Not for everyone but you don't know til it happens.

She is probably about to do something really exciting btw.

I think the key is to concentrate on getting yourself through this stage, however long it will be. I found I could cope better when I read that its easier to change your habits than a baby's! So prioritise sleep for yourself, let non-essential stuff slide, eat well and get out in the fresh air.

I asked the same question myself about 2 months ago. Same sitch, good sleeping baby turned monster nocturnal snacker almost overnight! He's been on solids for a month now and it's not made a jot of difference! Sorry!

I can say it's now slightly better but still nowhere near sleeping through at 6.5 months. I have, however, learned to accept it more. A lot of misinformation is pedalled about 'sleeping through', but yes, some babies do and this is normal. Some babies, however, don't - this is normal too! A friend has a DS born exactly the same day as mine, both EBF, both in parent's room, hers has slept 7-7 since 3 months old, mine's a night time boob fiend!

If I consider my DH and I; he can sleep with barely a stir for 8 hours straight whereas I wake several times a night, swig a load of water then go back to sleep. I've accepted that DS is a thirsty boy at night and have adjusted accordingly. I go to bed ridiculously early, cosleep if necessary. I do still get utterly exhausted with it, of course. It also helps me to bear in mind that BF is much more than 'food' - its thirst quenching, warm & cosy, has lovely sleepy hormones in it at night etc. don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE more than 3 hours sleep at a stretch though!

ds is almost 6 months old and doing exactly the same as your dd, and has been since 4 and a bit months. in fact, he's feeding so often at night, we now co-sleep for most of the night - he manages about 2 hrs in his cot from 7.30/8pm then comes in with us when he wakes for a feed (usually just after we've settled ourselves into bed!). i never wanted to co-sleep, but we've found its the only way for us all to get some sleep until things change again!
for what its worth, a few of my friends who had the same happen with their dc's said things improved when they weaned. we can only hope!