Please help me, my baby won't settle when she wakes in the night without breastfeeding...

[lolalotta]

... which I didn't have a problem with until it turned into an hourly habbit! Now I'm not sure what to do... She is 5 1/2 months, she was ebf but we started solids last weekend. I'm finding it hard to cope with such disrupted nights, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sleep deprivation is making me feel

I always fed mine to sleep at night too. DD2's waking really improved when I stopped feeding her to sleep when I put her down. I sat with her and sang and rubbed her tummy etc. instead after her last feed. Almost immediately the night waking improved. But she was a good bit older - maybe about 9 months. And DD1 was a nightmare and much worse, but might be worth a try.

I think I read somewhere that babies can wake more often once they start solids. Could this be the case?

Have you tried co-sleeping? My 7 mo old still wakes alot at night and I'd rather feed him lying down in a dozing state rather than spend ages trying to get him back to sleep in his nursery.

HTH

Ouch, sounds rough ...

Well usually when older babies start waking loads to feed in the night, it means that they are hungry - often because of a growth spurt. If you can cope with feeding on demand for a few days and nights, your milk supply will increase to meet her extra needs and with any luck things should go back to normal. The reason why they annoyingly do this at nighttime is physiological: your levels of prolactin (a hormone which governs milk supply) are highest at night.

But also, I wonder if it could it be related to introducing solids. Did you know that breastmilk is much more calorific than solids? So if you are dropping breastfeeds and replacing them with solids (as Annabel Karmel wrongly advises) then that may be a backwards step in terms of satisfying her hunger and could explain why she is trying to make up for it at night!

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your replies! Boobmeister, she has been doing it for about 2 weeks now and we only introduced a tbsp of baby rice etc for brekkie last sunday, I feed on demand in the day and haven't dropped any feeds... though she has been getting very distracted lately when breastfeeding out and about during the day, maybe this is it? Growth spurt and not taking enough calories on in the day- if this is the case i'm not sure what to do, I can't stay in everyday i'd go potty!
Crikeybadger, I think I might love to co-sleep, but our bed is only a double and there just isn't the room for all three of us plus I wouldn't sleep for fear of squashing her!!!

Lolalotta - Sounds like you're going through a tough time. WRT cosleeping. A double bed isn't necessarily a barrier to cosleeping. We have a double and recently not only have we had DD, 15mo, in with us (she's never moved out) but DS2 has been appearing at 4/5am too. It is a squeeze though and if you aren't used to it could be uncomfortable I suppose.
Another option to consider is could your DH sleep in a spare bed/sofabed for a little while until this passes? This is how we manage multiple night wakings by multiple children. It means DH gets a decent night sleep and I do too.
She may be teething/feeling unwell/growthspurting/something else I can't think of at the moment.
But really 5 1/2 months is still very very little and a classic time to suddenly start waking more.
I hope that helps a little.

I think she's having a growth spurt. Most do around 5-6 months. It's temporary. Ride the wave, it will soon be over.

Breastfeed as much as possible during the day, and know that this stage is experienced by most BFing mothers and is short lived.

You certainly don't have to stay in! Do you worry about BFing in public?

Well done for carrying on. You can do this, the benefits are enormous for you both.

Have you considered a bedside cot?

Give a formula bottle in the night, she will sleep through.

Wouldn't advise giving a bottle unless you want to move from breastfeeding onto formula feeding. And it certainly isn't likely to make her sleep through.

Agree that growth spurt is most likely and if you can feed, feed, feed (try her when she's tired and she might be less distractable) it will pass, honestly!

I give DS a bottle of formula at night and he doesn't sleep through I was advised that he would, but nah, he didn't.

My latest DD did this - we are just coming out the other side of it at 10 months and if I remember correctly I think she started doing it about 8 months.

I do/did sleep training and always took a fairly hard line of religious self settling however many times it takes but totally haven't followed my own advice with baby 4 so am rethinking this.

I co-sleep. I have recommended the bottle of water idea to clients but have never actually used that technique when sleep teaching others' babies in their homes so can't comment further on that really.

I think now I'd say feed as necessary and make lifestyle changes to accommodate such as put partner or self in another bed or whatever so you CAN feed to sleep or feed in bed and put baby down when settled as often as necessary through the night then devise ways of obtaining catch up sleep during the day/evening/weekend when other help is around.

Without having to do any 'training' my DD has stopped doing it and it was a case if sufferance but it has meant she is back to resettling herself with little effort, just tiredness on my part, but not unmanageable tiredness due to the co-sleeping.

My 6 1/2mo little un went through a few nights of constant nursing recently... then a tooth appeared. Possible teething?

Jemjabella, Her first tooth appeared this week!!! I just didn't didn't link it as it has been going on for a few weeks now... Myabe the lead-up to the tooth has caused the constant nursing???

Slouchingtowardswaitrose, no probs with breastfeeding in public, baby just gets really distracted when out and about and doesn't feed aswell as at home when we are in her blacked-out nursery, haha!

Can you convert your cot to a 3-sided one to enable you to co-sleep? We never would have had room to do so in a double bed and also because it's like a little separate area I could scoot DS over into the cot when he was in a deep sleep and not worry about rolling on him (though I got to realise quite quickly that my instincts protected him anyway, it was useful to have that option if I ever drank alcohol on rare occasions)

Was the best thing we ever did!

Hobbgoblin, no spare beds in the house that DP could sleep in while we ride this out and sofa not comfy enough! Plus as much as I like the idea of co-sleeping I am sure it would stress me out panicking about her saftey. Nothing against co-sleeping or anything but I am stress-head and a worrier and would convince myself I would harm her in some way by mistake!!! When she was first born and the first few months following I used to wake in a cold-sweat worrying I had fallen asleep with her in bed when she would be tucked up in her cot! I do like the idea of a bedside cot however, no idea how they cost though!

bertie, like that idea... but it is just a cot not a cot-bed so it's not designed to be 3-sided at any point, not sure if the structure would be stable if we took a side off???

Breast milk has pain relieving properties, and is comforting, so could definitely be the tooth/teeth

Ooo, ooo, oo, I wasn't going to reply as everyone else has already said what I was thinking, but wrt to the cost of bedside cots, Mothercare have got their bedside cot on sale at the moment, half price I'm half tempted myself even though we already have a cot

I don't know - try taking the side off and see. The one i converted wasn't meant to be a 3-sided one at all but it's perfectly sturdy.

Taking the side off should be fine. Just give it a shake to see. Strap the bottom slats to the frame of your bed, tightly, under the mattresses. Be sure to cut off excess lengths of strap/rope/whatever. If there is a gap, fill it with a rolled up towel etc. Having her a bit lower than you is better than a bit higher.

Have you tried a nursing shawl or cover? At this age, they can be 'drink a little, look a little' which is difficult and not discreet. I don't like nursing covers but think they are useful during this phase.

Good luck.