Does reducing length of BF sessions during night help?

[MsSampson]

So, DD is 6.5mo. Sleep regressed at 4 months, and never really picked back up. We have stopped feeding to sleep, which has definitely helped - the days of 8-10 wake ups per night are behind us, but we are still at around 4, with v early mornings, so I am considering some kind of night weaning, but I'm not sure I've got the mental resolve to withhold all night. And I sort of feel if you don't withhold all night, you might as well not bother, as it must be confusing - why does mummy shh pat me sometimes, and pick me up and feed me for others? So, I am trying to just reduce the length of time I feed her for each time I go in. I'm now down to 3.5 minutes per time. She's not waking up more often as a result of shorter feedings, and she's not at all hungry when she wakes in the morning, so I am pretty convinced she is not waking for hunger reasons (although who knows?). But, how short should I eventually get to - 2 minutes per waking? Does it eventually make a difference? Or will I still need to go down the route of shhh patting her through a few awful nights? Has anyone tried the gradual time reducing thing to great success?

I did this with ds1, it took a very long time to cut right down to feeding for a few seconds. I also had to make sure he had a big dinner and supper just before his last bedtime feed so that he was full enough to wait till morning. He was in a bedside cot so I got to him before he woke up fully, and he had a dummy which I always offered first. In the end I did sleep training as he just couldn't self settle and I was sitting with him for over 1/2hr to get him back to sleep several times a day/night. It got a lot worse but then he slept through.

Thanks, do you think the cutting down length of time thing helped make the eventual sleep training easier? I'm clinging on to the hope that I will manage to night wean her without any tears, but I think that is a bit naive! Did he keep sleeping through (more or less) once you'd done the sleep training?

My hope was that by cutting down how much milk went in, he got used to sleeping without a full tummy so wouldn't wake up for more milk. It worked with ds3 but ds1 had got used to falling asleep in my arms as well which is why I needed sleep training. Hope that makes sense!

6.5 months seems a bit young for night weaning. I contacted the Breastfeeding Network in desperation over DS's 1.5-2 hourly wake-ups through the night for a feed when he was 7.5 months and they said about three feeds per night are about average for that age. How much is your DD taking in during the day?