Help... 7mths DD feeding every 2hrs at night...

[cocolina]

Maybe someone has experienced this and can give advice. My 7.5months old dd is bf every 2 hrs at night. I have gone back to work fulltime 2 months ago and my dp looks after her during the day. She didn't like the bottle and formula milk but has finally gotten used to it a bit more.
I can't get myself to wean her completely as I think she still needs to be bf'd but EVERY 2HRS is a bit much seen as I have to get up at 6am. Is there hope that she will gradually drink less often or wean herself or will I have to tackle the problem at some point anyway? I think she still needs the breastmilk, too or is it not necessary anymore after 6 months of age?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

wow you must be exhausted. ds was co-sleeping and feeding every two hours until about 7 months, but i was still on mat leave! i found he had less at night as he took more solids. moved into a cot at 9 months and got dp to settle ds back to sleep, this crucial i think.

do continue bf if you want to, i'm still feeding twice a day at 19 months, find it really nice after being at work all day.

Yes, it is very nice but it means you can never go out or even going on biz trips not possible and I might have to at some point next year.
Dd has never slept in her cot and screams when I put her in it asleep. She is used to space and obviously gets stuck when she tries moving...
She has solids (veggie and potato at lunch and millet flakes and apple in the evening) but has no impact on feeding at night.....

i was really despairing at that stage too it just feels unending. we took the side off the cot and tied it (cot) to the side of the bed, it worked really well. it is quite a big sturdy cot though.

hopefully she won't want feeding quite so often for long though. if she's taking a bottle you should be able to go out? also i found that after about 9 months that missing feeds didn't matter (i mean physically for me)

It sounds to me like she is doing it from habit and may struggle getting back to sleep on her own without a feed when she wakes during the night. Does she self-settle? if not, there is a good book 'Solving your child's sleep problems' by Dr Richard Ferber, which I found v useful.

if you don't like ferber's methods, ie controlled crying, there is another book called 'the no cry sleep solution'. it's very gentle, there are threads about it on here.

my dd was doing exactly the same, i tried controlled crying but it made her worse, in the end I continued to feed her on demand, she eventually started eating more solids and now wakes up once a night for a feed, she was well over 8 and a half months at this stage.there is light at the end of the tunnel

Hi cocolina,
My ds was same as wostercaroline. He was always a good sleeper and then about 6.5 months started waking 3/4 times a night, it continued and I tried giving water and not bf etc but didn't work he has since gained 3 teeth and is now only waking once a night at 8 months. I haven't had the guts to try controlled crying yet, but I have come to the conclusion he was missing me when I started working and he teeth were also bothering him. I enjoy bf and I don't see any reason to stop yet, but every 2 hours would kill me and I only work 2 days per week.
Good luck
XXX