Breastfed 5 month old

[Kungfupanda67]

Please help! My daughter was going from 7.30 until about 3.30/4am until a few weeks ago. It’s now 3.20am and I’m on my 3rd night feed - I’m exhausted, and it’s making me want to stop breastfeeding. I’m just so tired.
She goes to bed awake and gets to sleep herself. I don’t know what to do 😥

Add in pureed fruit to her diet before bedtime. Or add a bottle before bedtime. She's getting hungrier.

I think it's a "ride it out" thing, if you can bring yourself to. At least, with mine it has always been a case of good sleep and then a burst of hideously frequent waking, then back to the good sleep again. I figure they must be growing or something. But it does always seem to get back to "good" again. If you can bear to get through it! Which is the tricky part when it's at its worst!

The bad spells have ranged from a few nights through to a few weeks...the weeks were tough, but I was still too lazy to bother with bottles and sterilisers, so I kept going with the breastfeeding. I figured I'd rather be up 3-4 times to breastfeed than 1-2 times and have to actually get out of bed to make bottles and wash things and boil kettles.... but that's personal preference :)

5-7 months was the worst stage of breastfeeding for me. DS wasn’t eating much solid food and his demand for breast milk went through the roof.
I gave him formula before bed in a sippy cup
He has gone through stages like this again but as he’s older it’s easier to give him a pouch of beef stew to fill him up, even at 3am.

@NameChangedNoImagination

Forgot to mention some important bits - 3am tiredness!
She has always had a bottle at bedtime from birth, I wanted to option of going out and my husband putting her to bed sometimes.
She’s started solids, she loves it - she had bolognese last night, but it doesn’t seem to be helping

I’m supposed to be leaving her overnight in a few weeks, I’m panicking about how I can leave her with my mil if she’s getting up 4 times a night. Stressing me out!

(She’s sleeping beautifully now in case anyone’s wondering 🤦‍♀️ Now I have to be up to get the others ready for school!)

I bf and it is constantly changing how many times he is up for a feed. We went through a few weeks of horrible multiple wake ups and demanding feeding every time. It passed. Until the next time it happens which I'm sure won't be long! Just try and get through it however you can I really don't have any advice other than that. It does get better.

Have you tried giving some solids around midnight and then bf that might help her sleep longer.
It will only last a few weeks but will probably happen again. Not easy

I can’t be up at midnight 😂 I’m in bed at 9 most nights, I’ve got 2 others who get up about 5.30-6 every morning. Last night she only went 3 hours from her bedtime bottle to her first night feed, then awake again 1.5 hours later, so it’s not hunger - think we might have to do some sleep training. My others were bottle fed so it’s a different experience, feel like I’m doing it for the first time again

I would just hang in there. My eldest was ff and was waking 3 times a night at that age. But then I also had to get up and faff around making bottles 3 times a night. It’s not easier! 5-6 months can be really tricky as they are developing quickly, teething, starting solids. Hang in there. Can your partner do early evenings or mornings so you can catch up on sleep?

Starting solids can really mess with sleep, so very possible that’s what it is, especially if you are feeding her full meals which is probably too much at only 5 months. Maybe back off and see if it settles?

@mindutopia the rubbish sleep started before the solids. I’ve always been a believer of if they’re ready for food they’re ready for any food, so we just sort of go for it. My 2 older ones are brilliant eaters and just started straight into family meals.

I keep having the same conversation with my husband that it’s easier to not have to go and get bottles all night! Hopefully she’ll fix herself soon 🤷‍♀️😴

@newyearnewunicorn I hope this is true for us! DS2 slept well til about 3 months or so then it all went to pot and he has a BF before our bed at about 10pm and at least 2 in the night! He's been on solids for around 2 months (he's 7 months old) and I see no correlation between amount eaten and night wakings . He eats a reasonable amount of solids for a 7 month old and filling stuff too, has probably very slightly cut down on daytime milk but so hard to tell when they're BFing! DS1 never had a sleep regression and slept from 8-5, quick BF/bottle before back to sleep, so this is all new to me.