Breastfeeding & Naps - nearly 4 month old.......

[looneytune]

I've put this in the feeding section but thought I'd ask here too

Ds2 has been in a great routine since about 9 weeks old which was great as I started back childminding the week after and really needed this routine in place.

Until recently it's been like this:

7am - feed
9ish - nap for about 30/45 mins
10am - feed
12ish - nap for about 30/45 mins
1pm - feed
3ish - sometimes naps on school run but often fights it
4pm - feed
5/5.30ish - nap
7pm - feed and bed

This was great as he slept through the night and had feeds every 3 hours and never fed to sleep apart from at bedtime (unlike ds1 who fed to sleep all the time).

Ds2 has been poorly recently, we've all had a horrible cold/bug thing, so it's affected his sleep and feeding patterns. Most of this week he's fed every 30 mins/1 hr and although he took the usual 5 mins to feed as always, Dr thinks he's feeding more often because he's not been able to suck as hard as normal and therefore not taking as much, plus after comfort.

I'm totally fine with this whilst he's getting better but I'm worried about when he's back to normal, that he'll have a bad habit of wanting boob to get to sleep! He's just done this now and yet his feeding pattern today has been pretty much near normal again and he definitely just wanted it to get to sleep.

Any advice?

TIA

bump

Hi looneytune - My dd is a bit older at 22 weeks but I had the same thing happen after a cold. I've been doing the Pantley push off thing (No Cry Sleep Solution - you basically wait until they're slowing down on the boob and it's got to the 'fluttery' stage, not gulping etc and you gently push them off. They will root to get it back for the first few times but if you keep doing it they eventually stop rooting and just go to sleep). It seems to have worked in the sense that she is pushing herself off now like she does in the daytime, but the sleep is still all over the place. I think you've got to remember that unfortunately their sleep patterns do change and they get worse and then better again and then worse, depending on what's going on at the time. Don't they have a bit of a growth spurt at nine weeks as well? I don't know - I blame everything on growth spurts!

Sorry, I've just realised that your DS isn't nine weeks old.

Seems a lot of naps for a 4 month old?
I found that around 5/6 months the connection between a BF and sleep seemed to end.Where previously a feed would calm and send the baby to sleep, by 6 months it didn't work.
I found this difficult to handle as I had to develop new techniques for getting baby to sleep.
So I wouldn't worry about the change in routine because at this age things change anyway.

Sorry for delay, the last week has been a blur with illness and sleepless nights!!

Starshiptrooper - that's exactly what I was doing, just pushing off. He just kept wanting it later LOL. I know routines change and I'm well used to it as looked after lots of young babies with my job, just wasn't sure if this was all down to being poorly and the fact he was constantly wanting feeding was wearing me out.

Mumwhensdinnerready - believe me, he NEEDED that many naps!! It was HIM who decided he needed sleep after every 2/3 hours. I think it's down to the amount of stuff we do with the kiddies as I'm childminding. The 9 month old I have now started at 8 weeks and was bf (or bottle with EBM) and was in exactly the same type of pattern. Luckily with this one, he didn't connect bf to sleep apart from last feed at night for bed. I liked this as I made the mistake of feeding my ds1 to sleep and it caused me problems later. So of course I didn't want ds2 getting into this new habit.

Anyway, I'm pleased to report that we had some progress yesterday. I was back to normal with my routine for school runs, groups etc. after being ill myself and being closed, and yesterday he fed at the right times and I could feel I had more milk plus apart from waking at 8pm, an hour after bedtime, he slept through til 5.20am! Ok, it wasn't sleeping through til 7 but it's progress after last week If when his snotty nose had completely cleared, he's still not sleeping right through, I'll try a dreamfeed at 11pm as suggested and see if that helps

I reckon the problem he had was because he got in habit of feeding so often, he wasn't getting the proper milk that fills him up and therefore kept wanting more. By managing to stretch him to the 3 hourly feeds again, he was having a much better feed and I think that's what enabled him to wait the next 3 hours and so on. Fingers crossed we'll get back on track!!

Thanks again for posting and sorry for disappearing, I was all over the place with expreme tiredness after being so ill and looking after kiddies!