Help! Baby feeding in night

[ancientgeordiegirl]

am so tired - my 4 month old baby is still wanting to feed about every 2 - 3 hours every night. He feeds well in the day, is gaining weight, is generally very happy so how do I get him to drop a night feed? He's my third child so you'd think I'd know what to do but my other 2 children were sleeping much better by this stage. I don't want to do controlled crying but would love him dropping his middle of the night feed (about 3 am). At the moment he's feeding around 10.30/11.00, 2.30/3.00 and 6.00. I'm finding it hard to cope with a 5 year old and very active and independant 2 year old with this interrupted sleep. I do realise that if he drops his 3 am feed then his 6 am feed might get earlier but that would be ok...any words of wisdom gratefully received.

Feel your pain as I have a toddler to run round after but no baby to feed in the night and I am knackered so you must be exhausted.
Is there any way of encouraging more daytime feeding or maybe expressing in the morning to "top up" after the last feed in the hope of getting a longer stretch of sleep? That may be more work than it is worth though.
Hopefully someone will be along soon with some helpful advice.

No real words of wisdom but our 8 month old is still waking at 1am & 4:30am. Initially she was actually feeding because she was hungry (didn't really take to weaning) but now she's eating more, I've been trying to reduce the wakings as she's just been suckling for 5mins to go back to sleep.

This is what we've been trying... at 11pm or so I dreamfeed DD so I know she's topped up. When she wakes, I now just shush her back to sleep. No eye contact, but I will put my hand next to her in the cot so she can hold my finger if she wants. She's started going back to sleep without feeding or being picked up. I'm hoping, in time she'll do this herself without the shushing. If she wakes up again within 1/2hr, then I check her nappy and feed her. I've found that in this circumstance, she has always been hungry rather than just suckled back to sleep. Personally, I don't mind feeding her if she's actually hungry but I wanted to manage the suckling so she'll get herself back to sleep without needing me.

Not sure I'm doing the right thing, but didn't want to leave you unanswered.

There's a 4 month growth spurt / sleep regression - very common. Have a look at the threads on the Sleep board and you'll find some helpful links.

Thanks for your messages - I'll go and look at the sleep boards - I'm not sure it's a growth spurt as he's being doing it since birth but live in hope! I suppose that I should be tackling it by going to bed earlier but to be honest I need to retain some sanity by having "me" time. He is almost exclusively breastfed I have tried dreamfeeding him with a top up of formula and also breastfeeding at the last feed before I go to bed and that didn't really make any difference. I suppose it just helps to hear that others are in the same boat but really hope that he's not still doing it at 8 months...better go now to see what this night of sleep brings (hollow laugh)