I posted earlier this week on the sleep thread as we're having major problems settling our 7 month old in the evenings. But having tried to step back and assess what's going on, I think part of the problem is a feeding one.
She sleeps from about 7.30 but semi-wakes every half an hour (sometimes a bit more sometimes a bit less). She feeds for anything from half and hour to an hour. She's also feeding alot more during the night than a couple or so months ago. We co-sleep so I can't say exactly how much as I do manage to roughly doze through, but at least three times between 12 and 6am.
Meanwhile during the day she only grabs tiny breastfeeding snacks and I haven't found a way to encourage her to feed for longer periods.
She's always cluster fed in the evenings but I guess I thought things would calm down when she started solids (a month ago now - we're doing BLW and it's going well.)
I have always bf on demand but am now wondering about trying to introduce more of a routine and gradually encourage her out of the nighttime habit. But how? Water in place of milk at night to make her hungrier in the day?
I'd like to continue breastfeeding for some time yet and need to find a way of doing this without getting burnt out.
I think there's a sleep issue too - she can't self settle at all and breast only comfort so perhaps that's encouraged the relationship between sleep and feeding. At least some of it is genuine hunger but perhaps some is comfort sucking. I'm going to take her to a cranial osteopath just in case that will help her to stay asleep if she's not hungry. But I also think it would help if she ate more by day.
Be great to hear from anyone who has had experience of this.
TIA
PS: Sorry this is a bit long...