6 months old - need schedule advice!

[Smellz714]

This is a big post, I've attempted to make it digestible!

Ds is 6 months in a few days, he feeds a lot through the night, I've suspected reverse cycling and so have been offering him more feeds during the day - he gets very distracted and often only takes v.short feeds - this seems to be improving a little last few days, not affected his night wakings though.

I've just started to offer solids too plus a dream feed of formula. He's a big lad and very active, already close to crawling - commando crawls for now.

I think sometimes he wakes for comfort rather than food but he can self soothe and gets himself to sleep with very little intervention (hands on his back), when I do offer a feed, he'll take it.

There's a very loose schedule that looks like this:

6am - feed on one side
7:30 - small feed
8:20am - nap 35mins
9am - feed on one side
11am - offer solids (very new to this, not taking much) + feed one side
11.20- sleep 2 hours
1:20- wake and feed both sides - first decent feed of the day
3pm- feed one side small (I think trying to feed to sleep)
3:30pm - power nap
4:30pm - solids offer boob, usually rejected
6pm - feed both sides
6:30pm - bed
9pm - feed one side
10pm - dream feed 6-8 oz formula
2am - feed both sides
4am - try and limit feed to a small amount

I'm exhausted just writing this out. Well done if you've taken it in.

Goodness knows how much he's actually consuming. I have a very fast let down and get full very quickly (although recently the fullness has eased a little). When I express I can get 5oz in 2-3mins.

He was cluster feeding on evenings until he was 5 months.

I offer both boobs for every feed.

Willing to withhold feeds through the night but haven't yet as he'll wake the house, and the neighbours who have a newborn.

I have a couple of months left of mat leave but when I return I'll be doing late shifts as well as earlies so could do with getting the nights sorted, if it's even possible.

Help please!

Feed less often but longer. Step up food. Express so gets used to that too. Don't feed at night or wake for feed.

Thanks @JDob increasing solids it's no issue, he's loving them. You reckon removing the odd feed will encourage him to stay on longer? The only feed I initiate during the night is the dream feed, the others he wakes up. I try and settle him without a feed for a little while but cave easily. He feeds much better at night. Well aware I'm going to have to bite the bullet and night wean at some point before work starts.

6 months is still very young. Feeding round the clock is pretty normal (although tiring). Are you able to bring him into bed with you for night sleeps to help maximize your sleep time?
Offering lots during the day might help.

Also trying to get late afternoon sunshine can help with sleep. A walk just before dinner or play in the park that sort of thing.

I think the trick here is to massively increase feeds in the day and heavily reduce at night. When he stops getting fed overnight, he will stop waking up! We have had night nannies in to help us crack this with our kids at around 5 months as I go back to work at 6 months. There are a few days of tricky ish nights, and then it was done for us! Night one, we fed half the amount we usually did. The next day the babies were much hungrier and so ate a lot more. The next night, they still woke as usual and we did 50% again. The next night down to 50% for one feed, and the other wake up we didn’t feed at all just rocked (you have to be firm with this!). The next day they eat very well etc etc. same again the next night. And then the 5th night - no overnight feeding. One baby was fine and self settled from that point on. The other baby carried on waking for another few weeks but only once or twice a night and because we knew he wasn’t hungry (as he weighed a lot and was now eating a lot in the day) we felt confident to stick to no feeding and to just settle with rocking and eventually patting. And then he slept! Short term pain for you for a very long term gain. And the baby is still getting all the food they need, you’re just flipping it to the day instead. I would plan a week where you mentally accept you will be tired, plan some help or visits if you can in the days, buy yourself a couple of treats to help you through the week, and give it a go! Good luck if you decide to try it

To be clear, when I said we fed half the amount on night one what I mean is we still did 2 night feeds but gave baby half what they would normally eat at each feed. I was still breastfeeding and they usually did 10 mins at each feed so we cut down to 5 mins!

Around 7 months I night weaned my first boob monster - just one wake at a time - settled without boob (it's long and tiring of course if they want boob and you're settling without) but it did help our nighttime sleep

Thanks all for picking up this thread! To be fair his sleep between feeds is very good, he will get himself to sleep without much fuss too. I tend to bring him in with me from about 4:30-5am onwards, if I feed him to sleep at that point he'll skip all of his morning feeds, bringing him in let's him sleep without boob. I don't feel comfortable doing it for more of the night as I don't think our set up is as safe as it should be. Though it's more like having a 1 yo in bed - he's a boster.

Thank you for the advice @Autumn456 I'll definitely give this a go - it's exactly what we need. Might have to limit it to weekends for now so the rest of the house don't wake loads before work/school. OH has annual leave coming up, will crack on then. He was very unsettled last night but only fed him twice, white noise and a gentle pat did the trick the rest of the time. Still only taking bitty feeds through the day though 🙄