9 months - sleep/milk query

[Sweetnessandfight]

Hoping to get some advice here... forgive the long post - don't want to dripfeed. Dd2 is nearly 9 months and on a good routine during the daytime, awake 7-7 and doing decent two naps. The nights for the past 4 months have been awful though. Waking every 90 minutes to 3 hours if we are lucky. Since increasing solids and making sure she has plenty of protein and tweaking the naps and timings of feeds I have now managed to get her to do up to 5 hrs at night, usually between 1/2am and 7am. She often wakes twice though after going down at 7pm - usually around 11 and then 1ish. It's as though she still needs to 'tank up' during the first bit of the night. She breastfeeds first thing in the morning, mid afternoon and then before bed. I am concerned though that these feeds are quite short, especially the last one of the day, which is when I want her to take a really big one! She pulls off after 5-6 minutes and can't be persuaded to go back on. I'm not sure whether she really does need the extra milk in the night but my suspicion is that she is not getting enough in the day. She has airways been an efficient breastfeed we and she is good at drinking water from her cup and has maybe 150ml towards the end of her meals. Of course it's hard to know how much breastmilk she is getting! They are supposed to get about 500ml at this age aren't they? By the way, she always settles herself to sleep in the day/evening with minimal fuss.

At this age, it's totally normal for her to wake in the night to feed, plus at 9 months, they're usually going through a huge sleep regression.

It sounds like you are doing everything right

I think you are looking at this from the wrong angle. By 9 months there is no nutritional need for milk during the night. By 8 months you should be aiming for three family meals a day and sometimes a supper in the evening (eg porridge) plus finger foods with each meal and water from a cup. Breast feeds offered after each meal and they will naturally decrease as the food gets more established, Give calcium rich foods as the breast decreases such as youghurt and cheese, Also green veg plus a vit rich food such as oranges in the same meal. Take care not to use breast feeding as a pacifier to get to sleep as this encourages night feeds. There is no "required amount of milk" at this age. You can also introduce full ream cows milk as an extra as long as its not her main milk. By a year breast feeding will be about once a day

By a year breast feeding will be about once a day
Ahahahahahahahaga except when they're teething or poorly or hurt themselves or in a developmental leap or anxious or after a separation or if they're a BF addict.

Going against the grain of previous posters I know, but I don't really believe in 'by this age they should be eating x number of meals a day, by this age they should be doing y' - every baby is different. A baby at 8 months might be eating much more or less than another of the same age and this is ok and normal.

Obviously do as u please as u know baby best but with my baby I just offered the breast whenever - including night - and he naturally lost interest over time.

Hope everything works out.

By a year breast feeding will be about once a day. Neither of mine seemed to ever have received that memo

I'd say night feeds are normal. Baby's are distracted easily and often feed better at night in the dark. 5 hours straight sleep seems good. Maybe feed in a dark room in the evening if you want them to take more milk before bed?

Thanks all. As usual, a dose of reality from mumsnet immediately brings you to your senses and encourages you hurl various 'experts'' tomes into the charity shop bag. They are all different aren't they, and of course they haven't read the manual either .