5 month old wants breast all night pls help!!

[shomes]

Hi there,

Have had one or two good nights where ds sleeps for 4 hrs without feed but lately he wants me to feed him to sleep all the time and constantly sucks all night. I have had to give in as we are co sleeping and i need the sleep but i am absolutely exhausted and feeling ill because of this.

I have just ordered a bedside cot so i am hoping i can put him in there after a feed so he will not smell me all night and feed ...( one can hope!)

Any advice from bf veteren before i go insane and try the bottle ( which by th eway he wont take!)

Try Elizabeth Pantley's 'No Cry SLeep Solution' - theonly book I've seen that really discusses co-sleeping. It's got lots of options for different situations which is why I like it. It's not overnight, but it does help. I've got to go and pat dd but I'll write down her 'gradual withdrawal' solution for co-sleeping bfers when I get a moment.

This is to get a constantly sucking baby gently off the breast and to sleep. I'm not quoting exactly but it's something like this.

baby is feeding, sucking slows appears asleep or close to it.

using little finger withdraw the nipple. Baby will root.
Count one thousand two thousand three thousand etc to ten thousand (or when sucking has slowed and you think it's time to tray again)
Withdraw the nipple.

Repeat this until the baby settles to sleep without the nipple in his or her mouth.

It took me 5 or 6 goes at first. Now it often only takes me one or two.

This is one of her ideas. There are others which I also like.

You might also like to have a look at this thread. The babies are a little older, but not much. You're welcome to join us if you want.

shomes, I feel for you. My dd started this at around 5 months as well. It was not so much the feeding to sleep, but the fact that she wanted to sleep latched on . In time, I grew to really hate that nibbly feeding.

My solution was co-sleeping. It did not stop her waking every 2 hours, but at least I did not have to get out of bed.

I never really understood why it started around this time. Could it be that she came out of her sleepy baby phase? Pre-teething? Separation anxiety (it started for her around this time).

Sadly, Elizabeth Pantley did not work - my dd would cry dreadfully. But my ds would a little easier and would allow himself to be unlatched about 50% of the time, tears the other 50%, even now at almost 2 years. I just ride out the tears and he will eventually settle with cuddles (am harder for no.2) - I figure it is either this occasionally or weaning and i think ds would still prefer to be able to co-sleep and bf with limitations.

I don't know what to say except my dcs are atrocious in the sleep department and your ds is different. I am not being very helpful.

You are being helpful, its just nice to know other people are going through the same thing.
Thank god for mumsnet! I'm so glad i can vent on here as no one else seems to understand or just thinks I am overreacting and it will stop on its own.

It takes more work than that, it took me long enough to learn to sleep well imagine a baby!

Thanks guys x

ds has always been a terrible sleeper. but around 5 months things did get really really bad for a couple of weeks. they went pretty much back to normal bad though before he turned 6 months and we only started weaning him after that, so I know it wasn't food made the difference. I don't even keep count, but it could be (another) growth spurt?

Can't say much to help, other than hang in there. ds got over his bad bad phase and your ds will too, but it may be tough to get through (and sleep deprivation is really really tough )

On the good side, although we haven't yet got a baby who sleeps through every night, we do now have one who goes into her cot pretty easily, and sometimes awak and puts herself to sleep. And last night she slept 8-5am. Pantley's ideas made it much easier to put the baby to sleep, made her happier during the day and made the night wakings better.

Our LO also went through the same thing at this age. At 6 months, completely deprived of sleep and beginning to lose all reason, we started stretching out feeds. Instead of just taking the easy route of bringing her into my bed and feeding her when she wanted it, we (DH was very good at this) started settling her in other ways and keeping her in her own bed (dummy, soothing etc). We're now down to feeds twice a night between 7pm-7am at about 1.30am and 5.50am. It is still a lot and not exactly sleeping through, but I feel so much better now.

Have you tried just NOT breasrfeeding her? My dd crunched down on me for about 3o mins one night when I decided i would try not tofeed her- was expecting chaos for wbout a week or so, but it only took the one for her to get the message and she has slep through every night since. Now almost nine months old.

slept

Tried the no breastfeeding thing too but he just screams as he is so used to it i suppose. I really wish I had more energy at night to try other things but the deprivation of sleep seems to be getting too much....thank god he sleeps during the day so i can at least nap too sometimes!

They do go through growth spurts wheere they will be insatiable, but tthings shouldn't settle down soon

Glad you nap when dc does. I give in at night too!

have you started solids? maybe a little bit of something if he is a very hungry baby

could be a growth spurt, give it a few days to settle back to 4 hours

I am cosleeping with my 5 week old and he goes 2 hours then has about 15min feed, he is my second child, they all have ridiculous hungry nights every so often...

try and stay sane!!!!

I must say, with respect to those for whom it has worked, that starting solids (at 6 months) made absolutely no difference to DD. ALthough I'm sure a little bit of something wouldn't hurt dc.

Hi tired Mums!
I'm feeding my 5.5 month old huge babyevery 1.5 to 2 hours.
Sometimes if I just let him niggle a bit he'll go back to sleep for half and hour but I'm usually awake by then anyway.
Its hard going..I have a 2 year old
and 2 teenagers (although thye are good and do their own thing!)
I am determined not to give up B/F before at least a year but feel numb with tiredness and rather ill too.
xx

I'm in exactly the same boat with my 5 month old - except that she doesn't sleep in the day either. I'm vaguely trying no cry sleep solution at the moment but it's not working, the only way I can get her to settle now is by lying down and feeding her then slipping out quietly once she's asleep - but I'd give anything to get her in her cot even just for the start of the night.

Hi Piccalili,
My little Roo doesnt really sleep by day..only naps here and there so I cant get much done (I work from home too!!)
Last night I gave him some baby rice mixed with a fluid ounce of breastmilk(I hand expressed it...easier for this amount)
I did keep him up until about 11pm by which time I felt fluey with tiredness and sooo achey (arms etc)
This was the first night in a long while that I got him to sleep and he only work once at 4am then a half hour feed then up at 7am which is totally bearable.
I wanted to hold off solids until 6 months but decided, as he's soo huge, to just give him some organic baby rice with breastmilk once a day until he's 6 months..a good compromise I think.
My 2 year old didnt sleep until he was a year old ( last b/f at a year) and still wakes in the night.
Do you have other children?
What time do you attempt to get your little one to sleep?
xxx

Hi Fizzylady, just to let you know that my large 5 and bit months boy is also starting to want feeding close to every 2hrs as well, although I'm not sure whether that's because he's so distracted by the world around him he doesn't take a full feed or whether he's trying to up my supply again.
I'm trying to work the extra feeds into our sort of existing pattern, little top ups before putting him down for his naps etc. but it does feel a lot like we've returned to the early days.
DS does sleep during the day though (thank goodness!) - we try to stick to back to bed by 2 hrs pattern, so I just look at the time he woke up and am heading up the stairs within about 1 1/2 hours of that time, feed then walk and pat him on the back until he falls asleep on my shoulder and then down into the cot. If he wakes within 30 minutes I go up, sit him up in case it's wind, then use my little finger for him to suck and pat him slowly on the chest until he goes back to sleep. It can take a little while but it works for us. I feed him again when he wakes up
It's hard to get things done here too, but I often just put him under the playgym on on his tum on the floor next to me and he'll squirm away getting slowly more frustrated about not being able to move properly.
We aim for him to be in bed by 8pm, usually he's asleep closer to 7:30, after a bath around 6, massage, feed, etc

To the OP, my DS would much rather stay latched on nibbling away during the night, but I find it so uncomfortable and I also start feeling a bit ill so when it gets to that stage I normally sit up in bed, swop him to the other side (which sometimes prompts big gulping swallows) to make sure he's fills himself up. He often goes back to the nibbly comfort suck thing and then I gently ease my nipple out of his mouth, transfer the sucking to my finger if I need to, and eventually can take my finger out of his mouth without waking him up and put him back in his bed (he sleeps sidecar in our room). I think we both sleep better if he's not latched on or even right next to me all night.

Its pretty difficult, i know how you are all feeling, My ds is a bit better but i think part of the problem is he has a wind problem and he finds it hard to get it out the bottom way without sucking. I just find it hard as he is really attached to me and will not go to dh at all in the night and rarely during the day. I'm sure it will get better!