A bit all at sea...what do i do ?

[mamazee]

Not really sure what advice I'm looking for, or what I'm asking really so please excuse vagueness or rambling...

My 6mth old DS has been breastfed exclusively since birth. He has always woken up every 2-3 hours during the night, and about 2 weeks ago we decided to try him on solids (using baby lead weaning), after a couple of particularly difficult nights where he woke almost every hour.
He's quite a big boy and I thought he would wolf it down, but no, no interest. After a couple more nights of waking a lot, we decided to try baby rice mixed with breast milk. Again, no interest really.
As a result I've decided to leave the solids until he is actually 6mnths (only 1 more week).

BUT, we are still left with the problem of him waking virtually hourly. He fidgets a lot, wakes, then will eventually cry.i feed him back to sleep and have tried recently to pat him and rock him to sleep which occasionally works but he is still waking 1 1/2 hours later. Overall he is a really happy baby during the day, and doesn't seem to be in any particular distress. But I am getting increasingly exhausted with the constant waking at night.My partner is sleeping on the sofabed so he can get some sleep so that when me and DS wake at 7am I can get to sleep for 2 hours before he goes to work.

Is there anything we might be overlooking?

He sleeps on his front.

He sleeps in bed with us.

He doesn't have a routine..he sleeps when he is tired but naps are only ever 2 hours long and max of 2 a day.

He seems almost ready to crawl.

I feel a bit rubbish even putting up this post as I have read others who are having TERRIBLE times and by comparison we are very lucky but I am really knackered and want to enjoy my lil boy

I have been told to try formula and really don't want to. What about expressing a bottle of breast milk and giving it to him before bed ? Is it the lack of routine ? Is he overtired ? sleeping too much ?

Any advice gratefully received

What shall I do ?

Many thanks
zillah

Sorry you're having a tough time at the mo!
Solids will not make any difference i promise! Have you seen www.babyledweaning.com ? worth looking at. Don't expect babies to do much other than play with the food for a while anyway. But i assure you even if you were spoonfeeding it wouldn't help with nighttimes.

My dd1 co-slept and breastfed frequently through the night, so i don't have much advice i'm afraid! My sleep didn't get too disturbed because she pretty much fed herself whilst i slept. This carried on until she was 2! and i accepted it as part and parcel of co-sleeping.

Sorry not the news you wanted to hear!

mamazee, in the same boat as you. dd is 5 months now and wakes every 2 hours during the night. I just resigned myself to the fact that thats what is meant to happen..and chose to ignore all the other mums in my b/f support group (all their babies sleep through) Have had some advice to start solids but am very keen to try BLW. So everytime my HV asks if i gave in and gave solids I just smile at her.

thanks for the advice.
i just realised that the reason i HAVE to wake up (as opposed to sleeping whilst he feeds) is that he is on his front so i have to turn him over. blimey now i have to teach him to sleep on his back as well

I used to sleep with mine in the crook of my arm so that all I had to do was lift my pyjama top and they could latch themselves on. I could do it in my sleep after a while!

I am also ignoring all the mums who's babies are sleeping for hundreds of hours at a time (most of them do controlled crying or routine type method though and I cannot do that to my DS..it feels totally wrong.)
maybe you are right and we have to accept that this is how it is for now...a full nights sleep feels like nirvana right now though !

Just wanted to add that my co-sleeping ds (also six months, also starting BLW) also wakes frequently through the night.

One thing I found helped - I know this sounds silly but - was to get rid of the clock so I wasn't obsessing about how often he'd woken.

Also I have the radio on now so that when he does feed in the middle of the night (sometimes I wake, sometimes not) I at least have something interesting to listen to.

Although last night Radio Four at four in the morning was playing some very "challenging" world music good grief that wasn't for sleeping to!

(He has no daytime routine but does go to bed at the same time every night; I feed him to sleep on our bed with bolsters either side so he can't roll off. Whether the routine has helped or not I can't say but it's certainly allowed me some much needed Mossy time!)

i know how you feel - my DS did the same at the same stage (started waking for a feed at 11, and built up to every 2 hours or so). it went on for a couple of months and the summer is all a bit of a blur. it got better at about 7.5 months when he got teeth through (that might be another factor - which means giving formula might not make a difference), got more mobile and started actually eating some of the solids i was giving him.

no advice really but it will get better soon!

if you haven't got any other children i strongly recommend a daytime nap. i lived on toast and hummus and the house got very dusty but i kept my sanity.

wow mossy you seem to be mirroring my life !
i also chucked away the clock and am guessing at waking times !
he sleeps for the longest time between 7 pm and 11pm which does my head in because people keep telling me that's when i need to sleep too but if i do i have NO time to read, talk , bath, shave me legs. i am a much better mama when i have had me time anyways.
i feel much better now. if you took my breastfeeding group as representative you would think i was one in 10 million who's baby is still waking !

hmm, could it be that he's teething?

Could you try a dummy (don't fret, most babies actually don't need them for long - my DD had hers a month or so then pitched it out of the cot and never asked for it back.

Or he could be going through a growth spurt and just be hungry.

Incidentally DD is nearly a year and has never slept through the night - don't tell everyone but SOME BABIES ARE JUST LITTLE BUGGERS WHO DO THAT!

Mamazee is ds your first? Are you on maternity leave?

If so you could do what I do... for one of the long feeds during the day, take him upstairs and feed lying down and before you know it ... zzzzzz! No need to go to bed early (I used to do this too - maybe I am mirroring you!) as you have caught up on some sleep during the day!

hiya
Ds is my first and i am at home all the time so will try and get some kip during the day.
he has only ever fed for 5 mins at a time and only on one side...i wonder if he is getting enough ? he stops feeding though so wot to do ?

agree with mossy, go to bed when he naps and bugger the housework !

we're in the same boat now at 7 months, but went through something smilar at 6 months. He'd JUST started sleeping through after his big 6 month growth spurt when he caught a cold and it's all gone out the window ! so i really can sympathise.

our mitigating factors -

1. growth spurt
2. starting weaning = digestion working overtime = more wakeful time
3. teething for sure
4. eczema playing up and scratching himself awake
5. drinking more = weeing more and waking up when wetting the bed !

it's fab isn't it !

Mamazee, is he gaining weight? Producing lots of soaking wet (heavy if disposable) nappies? (Dirty nappies are harder to go by as some babies can go a long time between poos after the first month or two). If so he's getting enough. He might just be a really efficient feeder.

Does he never go to sleep at the breast / comfort nurse? I used to drive myself mad about his comfort nursing in the early days but now I like it it gives me chance to watch some serious telly !

DD2 was like this, weaning made absolutely no difference to her sleep even when she was on 3 meals a day plus snacks. Sorry.

We coslept as well I fed her in the night too half asleep sometimes I would half wake to find her helping herself.

At 13 months (usually up 5 times in the night) I decided enough was enough and I would stop feeding her at night, we put the bar on her bedside cot and when she woke the first time DP got up to her, patted and rocked her, she cried for about 50 minutes the first night even though she was never left alone, second night 10 minutes and has been sleeping through ever since. But at 13 months I knew she didn't need the milk and it was for comfort, at 6 months I think a lot of babies need the milk.

I just accepted that was the way she was, co slept and knew we would do something about it eventually, wouldn't have done it before 12 months though. As he's your only would second the take him to bed with you in the afternoon for a feed and snooze.

wow same here dd only ever fed for 5 min, used to freak me out. I have also started doing an afternoon lie down feed. we both get a wee nap at least.