Not sure whether to post this, so will post in Breast and Bottle Feeding and Weaning. Bit of a mammoth post, but really really appreciate any advice from anyone who can be bothered to get through it!
DS is 23.5 weeks and exclusively bf, and from about 13 weeks has been sleeping through the night, after a dreamfeed as a bottle of EBM at about 10.30pm. In the first couple of weeks he would sleep through until 8am ish (wow), and then through to around 6.30, when he would wake for a feed and then go back to sleep for a couple of hours. have been feeding on demand during the day, and dont really have a daytime routine as such for him - he just fits in around whatever DD (aged 22 months) is up to. that said, he has always (from about 3 weeks) settled to sleep around 7pm and has always had to be woken for a dreamfeed.
That is, until the last week. about 10 days ago, he started waking about 5am, and then over the next few days that gradually slipped earlier and earlier, until the last couple of nights, when he has woken at 1.30/2 for a feed, at 4/4.30 and then slept until 7.30. So suddenly he has gone from not waking between 11am and 6.30am to waking twice. And as well as that, he has been waking before his dreamfeed - this evening it was at 9.20, so about 2.5hours after he last fed he was awake.
I am beginning to feel a bit desperate, partly because I just dont know why and therefore what to do, and partly because I am getting increaingly exhausted (with a wakeful toddler as well) and feel like I am back to newborn stage with an unpredicatable baby feeding every couple of hours.
Can anyone offer any advice? Is my milk not satisfying him anymore? Should I start to wean him? or should I just top up with formula and wait another couple of weeks to wean him?
Could it be a growth spurt that lasts this long and I should just put up with it? I just feel a bit lost with it all, and dont know why it suddnely feels we are going so far backwards and that bf-ing isnt working anymore - but maybe he has ust reached an age/weight where he is reading for weaning (he was born on 50th percentile and has basically stayed there).
Thanks for any advice...sorry for mammoth post.