Breastfed baby at 7 months - still feeding 4 times during the night! Help!

[pacinofan]

Dd2 is fully breastfed, apart from a bottle of formula which I have only recently introduced, partly because of the problem mentioned above, i.e she is still waking during the night 3-4 times and wanting to breastfeed, all night if I let her. I had hoped a 210ml bottle of formula before bed might help (couldn't express this much in a million years).

Weaning is going well and she is enjoying 3 meals a day and I know she should be having 500-600ml milk as well. She just doesn't seem interested in her milk during the day and I am at a loss to know what to do. A friend suggested upping her solids, but tbh she is eating well as it is and it's the milk during the day I want to increase. Or is this entirely normal? My brain has gone to mush, I can't quite remember dd1 waking up this much at 7 months, anyone else in the same boat? Today I feel shattered, as though 7 months of nighttime feeding has really caught up with me.

Thanks in advance,

Yes, I am- dd is now 8 months and wakes every 2 hours or so. This is my fault as she was fine till I went on holiday for a month in the summer, then she had to sleep with me and I fed her every time she woke so she didn't wake anyone else. Now she's in a feed-every-time-she wakes pattern. I decided I had to do something about it, so last night and the night before I fed her at 10:30pm or so, then just didn't feed her through the night. Friday night was difficult, she cried for about 2 hours in the wee hours (I was holding her in bed, didn't leave her on her own) but eventually she slept till 7:00. Last night she didn't feed well at 10:30pm so I knew she'd be hungry. She woke and cried for a while at 1am, I held her and shushed her to sleep again. Then woke at 3am, I fed her at 3:30am because I knew she was probably genuinely hungry, then she slept till morning. My aim is to not feed her before 4am and then to push it to 5 am and eventually 6am.

She takes enough milk during the day but is a fussy eater and doesn't eat as much as her brother did at this age. I am also trying to get her used to a bottle of formula as I did this with DS and when he could hold the bottle himself, I gave him formula at night instead of breast, which I found much easier. He still breastfed during the day till 13 months.

Have read the No Cry Sleep Solution and there's a thread running about that method at the moment, but I find I'm too tired to follow these 'plans' in the middle of the night; 'Just don't feed her' is an easier one for me. If they're eating well during the day then it shouldn't be hunger.

I had the feeling with DS that he wasn't getting much milk from me by this age, which is why I started him on a bottle of formula at night (same as you)but now I don't think so; I think the way your breasts feel when you're bf just changes over time, and they don't feel so 'full' any more after the first few months, even though you're still pruducing plenty. You can also use formula milk in cooking (white sauce made with formula milk, ad cheese or tomato or mushrooms or whatever to make sauce; in porridges etc) which all counts towards their daily requirement. (It's awkward not knowing how much they're drinking when you're bf isn't it?)
You'll get a load more replies soon I'm sure, so hopefully you'll find something of use amongst them.

you poor thing. ds was exactly like this and the experience is etched on my memory.

how does she sleep in the day? ds's daytime naps were short and I am convinced that was at least part of the problem. But there again with ds his night waking was so ingrained that it continued even after sorting the daytime sleep (made the days easier though!).

Anyway I resorted to controlled crying at 9 months after trying lots of things, but I think that what i was doing wrong was that I wasn't consistent enough. Before trying cc I did things like pick up/put down and staying in the room but coaxing back to sleep - they didn't work but knowing what I know now i think one of them may have worked if i'd stuck to exactly the same procedure each time (even down to saying the same thing). It didn't help that ds wouldn't take a bottle or I'd have tried a bottle of water at night.

good luck.

Pacinofan, you might find kellymom's info on sleep helpful - I think it could be that she is filling up on solids during the day but still needs to get her milk in somewhere and there aren't enough hours in the day! Can you co-sleep to make the night-waking a bit easier on you? I can really sympathise with the tiredness. My ds is 18mo and still feeds through the night regardless of how much solid food he's eaten during the day. We've never been successful at gently discouraging it so we've just had to gracefully accept the situation. You don't hear about it much but I think it is totally normal for babies of this age to still need night feeds.

Hi ... and another one in a similar boat - my dd is nearly 76 months - we're down to two feeds from three. Currently, one at 10.30 ... (should be feeding now!!) and then another one 4ish ... but last night decided to crack down & didn't feed until 6:30. SHe wasn't a happy bunny!! Blame ours on the fact that I had to try and get her on bottle for the daytime, as I now work 2 days a week -which she's not impressed by so she's just been stocking up at night. We've decided that she should really be able to manage with less feeds now - I actually don't think she was getting much milk in the night feeds - more comfort. Which is fine in some ways, but I want to move her into her room sometime soon, and would like to lessen nightfeeds before then.

I'm planning to play hardball again tonight (although I should point out that my hardball isn't crying down for any length of time - just bringing her into bed - hummm, am I improving things?!)

My ds wsn't this bad either ... & I thought he was a nightmare sleeper!!

Good luck - & tell us if you find a magic soln!!

ummm, 7 months, not 76...

You could try giving her half her mild feed, then her solids and then the rest of the milk. That's meant to help ensure they get enough milk. It's easier with formula because you know how much they're getting, but if you time how long a full b/f takes, you can just take her off after half the time.

Watching this thread with great interest. Absolutely shattered with nightime waking so have decided tonight is the night ....

She has just woken, I've offered ebm and water and put her down again. Now going back every 5 minutes to settle her.

Please keep posting pacinofan and let me know how succesful you are.

Not read whole tread so sorry if already said.

Ds is now 6 moths and we have just started weaning. He had got into the habbit of feeding every 2 hours in the night and cutting down on the feeds in the day.

After a number of weeks of little sleep we moved his cot away from our bed, although still in our room.

Now nights go somthing like this

Fed in bed by 7
we wake him at 11
we allow 1 feed between 11 and 7
If he wakes and has only been fed an hour before dh goes to him as i think it is more upsetting for him me holding back somthing he wants.

I want to cut out any feeds between 11 and 7 in a month or so, but a week ago we were up every 2 hours, so i dont mind once.

We never leave him to cry, dh sits on the floor with his hand in the cot, he does not pick him up or talk to him, he just lets him know that he is there but its time to sleep.