6mo waking at 3am for a feed every night, been like this for weeks, help!

[AnybodyHomeMcFly]

I think I have got DD who is 6.5mo into a bad routine in which she expects to wake at 3am for a feed. She is not comfort sucking, she's having a big old meal.

She has a feed when we go to bed at 12ish and was sleeping through from 12-6 at about four months and then holiday/a cold/teething etc happened and since then we haven't had a full night's sleep. It also means she co-sleeps the second half of the night.

I would really like this to stop but I don't know how.

She has been fully bf up until three weeks ago at which point she started having some solids but it's going quite slowly on that front. Good weight gain and normal feeding pattern during the day so you woudl think she would be getting enough to see her through.

She's my second DC but DS was never like this.

Help!

I'd feel sorry for you if my 15 month old wasn't the same.

Is she waking exactly at the same time? If so you need to wake her 15 minutes earlier than this for three nights and settle her back to sleep to unlearn this internal alarm clock trick.

If it's not exact, fix a time and cuddle her till then and then feed her. Move that time every few days by ten minutes. After a month you will be at 5am which isn't so bad and work from there. Takes ages but works and doesn't involve a lot of screaming on either of your parts.

Personally I'm just ignoring the problem till he grows out of it.

Thanks WMMC, I hadn't thought of waking her earlier but I had thought of trying to move back the feed little by little - I don't want to put either of us through night after night of crying which is what would happen if I just tried to cut it out, I'm sure.

And yikes, still at it at 15mo! If I find some magic answer, I'll be sure to let you know!!

Ha ha ha ha ha [hollow laugh] I'll swap you my 6mo old - she only sleeps for an hour at 3 am...

Eek!

11 month old just the same!

HV just told us to give her water at that time instead of bf but I wouldn't suggest that for your DD.

I have a very cosy dressing gown and slippers

I am not brave enough to do the water thing yet!

DD was just the same - gave her a feed when I went to bed, then she would want one extra during the night - around 3 a.m. - can't remember exactly how long that went on for but it was way beyond 6months.
Sleeping through at 3months? meh....certain it's a myth........

yup same here, slept through from 8 weeks until 5 months and then awake every night since - now 9 months. I did manage to drop the dream feed at 10pm by sending in my husband with a bottle of EBM. The first night ds cried for 15 mins and refused bottle completely. Second night he cried for 10 mins then took bottle. Third night he took one look at my husband and turned over and went back to sleep - I swear if he could have said "oh god not you again" he would have!
The 3 am waking is probably now just a habit. But it's hard to break as you don't want babies screaming at 3am.
I'm hoping it's a phase and I'll be brave enough to tackle it soon...

My 6mth DS sleeps 7pm til 2ish, quick feed then back down til 5ish quick feed up at half7-8ish.. If i play with timings makes no difference...

My twins are almost 6 months. Like you we had a period of good sleeping until 4 months and then weeks of very erratic feeding and non-sleeping and now we've settled into a routine of one feed a night, usually at around 3am, but it can vary enormously, sometimes with one twin waking at e.g. 1.30 and the other at 4am. Personally, I think that at this age, with solids only being taste and texture rather than really adding any calorific value, one feed at night is probably to be expected. I do try not to do two (if they wake before 1am I try to get them back to sleep without feeding or at least to wait because I know they won't sleep till morning if they feed that early). Try to think of it as normal instead of something to fight against. I find that makes it a bit easier!