HELP - how to break a nightfeeding cycle??

[pollyannasgladgame]

I am bf my 4 month old and he is a good weight (75th centile-ish) (very long -91st centile)and is still feeding twice or three times every night (after a dream feed at 10/ 10.30 he will wake a further 2/3 times for a feed and not always at the same time).

There was a time when he was feeding very well in the day and at night. Now, however, he doesn't feed well until the afternoon. Have been feeding him every three hours during the day ( recently trying to stretch him to every 3 1/2 hours as he has gotten bigger.I have tried to up his milk at individual daytime feeds but he won't take any more than 3/4 ounces (been expressing to check yield) even though there is more milk left.

When he wakes in the night he feeds and goes back to sleep pretty much straight away(bedtime at 7pm and day starts at 7am). So he seems to be an ok sleeper. I've tried a dummy and soothing with a cuddle etc when he wakes up but he screams until he is fed.

How can I break this cycle? He seems to start his 'feeding day' in the afternoon and so the longest period between feeds is between 6am and 12 noon. Advice very much appreciated. Will I just have to endure an awful night of a hungry screaming baby and not feed him til the morning? Sounds awful but I don't know how else to break this cycle.Help, I'm very tired!

Are you sure he's actually fully awake? The last few nights I've found that DS makes a lot of noise, i.e cries and noisy sucking, but when I go over to the cot he's still asleep.

It sounds horrible but I've been inclined to leave him until he's actually awake, otherwise I'm waking him up to feed him when he might not really need it (he often falls asleep after a couple of minutes during his night feed).

I've swapped sides of bed with my hubby so he's the one closer to the cot, as the sleep noises don't wake him up (don't worry, the crying does).

I dont really know what else to suggest, other than may trying to feed more frequently during the day so he's getting all he needs then... or I've a read a couple of things which suggest giving a drink of boiled water so he stops being used to getting the milk at night and is more inclined to eat in the day (but my DS in almost totally breastfed and I was under the impression not to give them anything else, so haven't tried it)

Sorry, if this isn't much help, my DS is only 8 weeks so we're not quite where you are yet.

Thanks for your suggestions HelenLG. I peer into his cot with my miner's lamp (!) to see if he's awake and he always is unfortunately. have tried more day feeding but he's not having any of it. Read something in a book today which rang true which suggested that he is on some sort of prolonged nursing strike which sort of explained why he feeds at night better (less militant when sleepy it would seem) than during the day. Offered no solution but was interesting to read.

My dd did this at around 4 months old. Very patchy feeding in the day, totally distracted, pulled away and cried etc. In fact I posted about it here for help, hence the username explodingbosoms (my boobs were as engorged as they were when she was tiny). This coincided with dreadful sleep with lots of wakings- up til then she'd be going 5-6 hours or even sleeping through.

I think it's because they suddenly get so aware of their surroundings, they've lost that boob/bottle tunnel vision they used to have. There's a whole world out there for them to look at.

I'm happy to say that phase did indeed pass. Sorry to say there wasn't much I could DO about it at the time, other than forget trying to extend time between feeds and offer milk regularly; I also took to feeding her in a quiet dark room, which did help a little.

Now at 7mo she's feeding well in the day again, and has stretched to every four hours. And joys, I can even watch telly whilst feeding her (this was impossible during the distractible phase).

She's still waking for a feed in the night, mind you, but usually only one (and I'm soon going to cut that one out now I'm confident she's feeding well in the day, I'm sure it's habit).

explodingbosoms that's very reassuring thanks. Yes rather selfishly I have been resenting the fact that I can't watch telly whilst feeding.

I hope it is a phase. Did you find that your milk supply manintained? I worry that it is lessening unless I continue to express when he doesn't take a daytime feed???

Thanks again x

Hi sorry for not replying to this yesterday. My milk supply stayed fine throughout the milk strike shenanigans and has stayed fine. From what I know of babies (disclaimer: very little), once breastfeeding is established they are clever little creatures at making sure they get what they need and keeping the milk supply. Hence, unfortunately, your current experience!

I suppose you could look at it this way: if a baby feeds properly in the day and then sleeps for 12 hours at night as they are "supposed" to (ha ha), the mother's milk supply will still stay up despite the 12 hour break.

Honestly, it will pass. It drove me mad at the time, but is over now.