day/night confusion

[gentlemantobed]

i just need to write my story down to help me vent my frustration - any advice greatly appreciated.

until 11 wks old my breastfed baby struggled to be put down at night but got there by 9pm - woke and 1am then 4, 5, 6 etc.

Since then getting a cold 3 weeks ago he has switched to going down relatively well anytime from 7.30pm BUT waking 2 hourly til 6am.

When he wakes the only way to stop him fussing/crying is to feed - and invariably he falls asleep.

i'm desperately trying to get him off the breast before he falls asleep but very hard to determine and often miss the boat!
i'm becoming exhausted - has anyone seen this pattern improve?

he does still ahve a snuffle despite every remedy known to man.

also - he cannot fall asleep on his own for naps - again needs to be fed or taken out in the pram. although i can cope with this - it's more the nights that are slowly wearing me down...

i know, from my first visit to the sight yesterday, that many of you are going through your own rocky journey but just need a bit of moral support as my mummy pals are all bottle feeding so seem to have babies that sleep a minimum of 6 hours...

I have a similar problem but our DD is only 4 weeks so I'm hoping things will improve. On the best nights she feeds 2 hourly, on the worst she doesn't sleep at all (other than at the breast). Daytime is fine - regular 2 1/2 to 3 hourly feeds with awake time an 1-2 hour naps.
How do we convince her that night = sleep?

Gummymum - sounds just like our 2 week old DD. She sleeps fine during the day but just wants to feed constantly between about 10 pm and 5 am! If we're lucky we get the odd half hour down during that time.

OP; will he stay awake at all for a while after daytime feeds? Maybe if you did, it might remind him that daytime is a THE time to be playing with Mummy. If you keep night feeds dark, quiet and as quick as possible (I know you're having problems with getting him off the boob, but how long did it take before he was ill for him to finish a boob? If it's about 20 minutes for example, maybe try timing him for 20 minutes and then seeing if he'll settle).

Also, could your milk supply be a bit low? If you're tired, that takes its toll. Try posting on the BF/FF forums for advice on making sure that's all ok. Because if it is low, and he's not getting enough calories then he would wake up in the night, genuinely hungry. And you say he's waking up every two hours to feed? Worth a try, for sure. I think you can boost your supply using expressing, but you'd have to ask someone more knowledgable than me!

Oooh, a thing on that naps. Just a suggestion, but I got it off my friend in RL and it worked! First, work out two or three nap periods in the day you think he should have; my DS has 3; a short one in the morning, a long one at lunch and a little one in the afternoon which he sometimes only has 10 mins, but if he does I put him down earlier. When you've done that, at those set times for 10 days, do whatever it takes to get him to sleep; car seat, pram, sleeping with you WHATEVER. I walked for 4 hours with my DS every day . This should re-set his body clock. When he's sleeping at those nap times well, try just putting him in his pram but not going out for his naps. Then, you can move him to his chair or cot or whatever. It was hard, but it worked for us. If you start tomorrow, you might be sorted for Christmas. It was also when we sorted the daytime sleep that DS started getting a decent period at night too. Sleep begats sleep, I guess!

Hold on in there OP, keep posting. We've all been there and it's going to be fine, honestly it will. Sending you unmumsnetty hugs.

Also, don't forget that any sleep associations he makes now can be sorted in the future. ANYTHING. Dummies, rocking, white noise... whatever gets you through, you know?