I'd really like a full night's sleep before I go back to work: any ideas?

[WilfSell]

My 8.5 mo feeds through the night. He's very clingy at the moment and I'm trying to settle him in very slowly to his nursery.

I am reluctant to cut the night feeds for this reason. We're mostly co-sleeping though I tend to take him into bed about 1am (he feeds roughly 6.30pm, 10pm, 1am, 4am, 6.30am)

He is eating 3 meals a day of finger foods and mashed stuff, plus 3-4 feeds in the day also.

I have not had a proper night's sleep for 9 months plus and am back to work in a few weeks. Have two other kids and generally exhausted and not coping with household particularly well.

He's been prone to nursing strikes and is generally a pretty sensitive baby. don't want to upset his balance any more than necessary but at some point, am thinking I need to function well too to cope with all the demands of the next few months.

any one got a magic wand? or ideas for cutting down a few of the night feeds gently?

bump: anyone?

Are you bf??

I went back to work 2 months ago so I know that it is knackering and I understand why you want a nights sleep!!

do you have a dp who can take him + settle him for one of the feeds (instead of feeding i mean)? 1 am would be a good one I think - would give you (potentially ) 6 hours sleep which is copable.

what about knocking him out with medesed? i used to use this as a last resort when i was at the end of the line and was so shattered that my children were at risk of being at the receiving end of my irritability.it worked pretty well and after a good nights sleep i would be good to go for another few months.i know my suggestion may not go down well with some but this is what worked for me .

Here's what we did: DH started trying to settle DD when she woke. If she just wanted a cuddle she would happily accept it from DH. If she needed a feed we could tell immediately from the quality of the howls and I would feed her. After a few nights of DH going in when she woke, she stopped waking just for cuddles and only woke if she was hungry. We went from the all-night milk bar to 1 or 2 wakings a night.

The problem with this is that every time something happened to upset the routine (illness or travel) we were back to the beginning again.

We found 'The No Cry Sleep Solution' by Elizabeth Pantley to be helpful and also used the pick up/put down method a la the Baby Whisperer.

Good luck with it all, I found this age to be very hard sleepwise, all the changes they're going through seem to make them need you even more at night. Good for you for giving him what he needs!