How many times does you 6 mo wake/feed in the night?

[monstergoose]

We've just started putting my 6 mo dd in her own room over the last week as we had been co sleeping up til then and the night feeding had been gradually increasing to every 90 mins or so. She was using me as a snack bar/ dummy and it was breaking me!

So the going in the cot has worked surprisingly well but we do have some issues. Sometimes she absolutely won't settle for my DH and will scream blue murder but as soon as I go in she'll settle very quickly (without a feed). At other times she won't settle for me either until i feed her, then she has a really short feed before falling asleep on me.

Currently her feeding in the night is still very random, she occasionally wakes herself for a dream feed about 10 but this doesn't make much difference to when she wakes in the night. She will then have a good feed at 1-2ish but will wake at 4.30 again. At this time she won't settle for anything but the boob, we've tried water in a cup ( she won't take a bottle) white noise, rocking erc but nothing works. But when I do give in and feed her she only sucks properly for a minute before falling asleep.

I don't mind feeding her whenever but I'm back to work in October and I work nights so she HAS to learn to sleep without me as a dummy soon. Am I asking too much for her to only have 1 feed a night at this age? Should I persist with trying to settle without boob? She's pretty stubborn and will screamed for 30 mins with my DH this morning before I caved and gave her the boob dummy!

Any help gratefully received, really don't want to leave my DH ( and her) with a nightmare situation when I go back to work !

I think you need to take the hard line with her I'm afraid, when I was going back to work we decided to night wean so DP took a few days off work and everytime DS woke up he went in with water it took a night of screaming but the second and third nights were better then he slept through til 5 on the 4th night.

DS was 11mo at the time with your DD being younger I'd maybe offer some milk at some point prob about 1-2ish. Its much easier if ur partner goes in even though it is harder at the time you smelling all milky will just make it worse. Google night weaning and tweek it to suit you.

We started by giving ds a dream feed at abut 11 and he then slept through to about 6. We have just dropped the dream feed as we are weaning now and touch wood he is sleeping through...only needed one feed in 2 weeks. Every bubs is different tho and it is maybe worth thinking about giving a full feed at some point in the night perhaps at 1ish as previous poster suggested. Hope is gets better soon xx

So much changes in a couple of months! Don't worry that by October it'll be the same because it likely won't!

At 6mo our baby was waking twice a night for a feed. Now at 9mo we don't feed her at night. She has lots of food and milk feeds in the day so I know when she wakes up she's not hungry. She needs comfort so we just cuddle or pat to sleep. We started this at 8.5mo and now she sleeps through or occasionally wakes once.

Have you read 12 alternatives? The Isis sleep website is a good place to start too and have you read this on normal infant sleep?

If you think at least one waking is hunger, and it does sound like it, could you express a little in the day and send DH in armed with a bottle? Could you fit in an extra feed in the daytime?

You might like Sound Sleep by Sarah Woodhouse

Thanks for your advice, it's so hard to hear her cry for DH when I know I can settle her with the boob- I'm really not keen on CC but it feels a bit like we're inadvertently doing that . Must be strong and resistant to the shouting!

I'll keep BF at the 1-2 am feed as she's def hungry then and concentrate on the 4-5 wakening to start with

One or two wakings at 6 months is pretty normal. I always just fed mine rather than put up with the crying but can understand you wanting to minimise those wakings

Do you think you could fit in another daytime feed? This might help. Have you read this too?

Thanks for the links JJJ . We feed on demand in the day and that's usually about 2-3 hrs between feeds so not much chance to fit in another as I'm also starting to introduce solids and get her to have decent lengthy naps! I've started trying to get her to cluster feed again in the evening though to try to tank her up, it's hard though as at the moment if she doesn't want to feed she just messes around, eats a let down going then decides she's not bothered!

Maybe try what we did I slept in the spare room down stairs and my partner was in the room next door to the nursery with the monitor on, he was much tougher than me as I was reacting to every mutter or murmur she made and was leaping out of bed to feed her.
We did this for a week or so and now my 6 month old sleeps wonderfully 7.30 til she wakes about 8am for a feed and a nappy change and then she'll go back down to sleep until 9 or 10am. We are a lazy family who like our sleep.
Sometimes she does cry out but that's normally because she has managed to flip herself face down and got stuck.

Well last night was rubbish, woke at 12 for a feed and went back ok ish. Woke at 4 so fed straight away as a decent length after 1st feed, fed well, drowsy but not asleep when put back in cot. Quiet for about 5 mins then grizzling started, left a bit but was escalating so went back in, changed nappy as was heavy, cuddled til drowsy then back in cot, cue shouting that then escalated to screaming, cuddled by me for a good 10 mins but still screaming, swapped with DH who had no success either, still hysterical red face with tears screaming, so I tried again. By this point she'd worked herself into such a tizzy she was hiccuping, coughing etc , despite us being there. So in desperation I got in the cot with her and still she screamed until I put by nipple in her mouth. She then laid there quite happily going to sleep but not actually feeding at all ( not surprising as she'd had a good feed just 30 mins ago.

I'm so cross with myself for giving in to her but she was so hysterical by that point I didn't know what else to do . Does anyone have any ideas because I really don't know what else I can do.

Would she take a dummy? I have to admit that my 6mo still wakes between 1-2 and 4 times in the night - we're cosleeping so I do just tend to feed her to get her back to sleep and though ideally I'd like to get her settled in a cot (I don't sleep that well with her in the bed), I don't think she's ready yet. Not sure I could take the process yet either. Would it be easier to wait a month or so to see if she will be more ready then?

Well, amazingly, I'm lying here wide awake having has a FULL NIGHTS SLEEP !! I can't quite believe it TBH and am slightly peeved that I woke at 5.30 and now can't get back to sleep ( must have been sleep trained by the little darling!). We put her down at 7.30, she grizzled at 8.15 for about 5-10 mins but settled herself and not heard a peep since!

I've even been to listen at the door as was getting worried but heard a few shuffles/snores so she must be ok!! Let's hope this continues!

The only thing i did differently last night was unmade sure she had a really big feed, fed her almost sat up, kept her awake by tickling her chin when she started to doze mid feed then burped her and gave her the other side (which I don't normally do as I have been letting her doze off on me) this was on the advice of my HV (shock horror they gave some sensible advice!!) so long may it continue

That's great