6 mo - how to know when can get a bit tougher?

[anotherbitofcake]

Hello

I'm getting a bit confused with what the best plan of action should be with my lovely just about to turn 6 mo

He goes to sleep at 7. Sometimes he wakes 1-2 times before 10 but is easy to settle with shush pat. Sometimes he self soothes.

I feed at 10 - boob. Goes to sleep again easily. However this isn't a dream feed as he usually wakes around 10-11 anyway.

Then he wakes again 4 hours later and shouts. First I try shush pat but doesn't really work. I usually resort to dummy. We've stopped night feeds here.

He then wakes at 6-7 but isn't usually very hungry till 9.

My confusion is:
Does he need 10pm feed or is that confusing him - sometimes he gets boob sometimes not.
Is he still hungry at 3? I think not as he isn't hungry in am and does go back to sleep eventually with other methods.
How to break the 4hr waking cycle?
How to wean off dummy? ie get him to self sooth?
When could I try the controlled crying?

I thought I would wait till 7 months when he's started eating and is a bit older but what can I do in the meantime to help him get back to sleep by himself and for me to be consistent? I really want to get him off dummy but he does love it!

TIA

There is a growth spurt at 6 months so I'd be wary of stopping the remaining night feed (ie the 10pm one) at this stage in case it backfires later in the night.

In our case we got tougher at 7.5 months - once DD was properly established on solids, eating loads in the day and we were confident she really couldn't be hungry at night. At that stage we stopped doing any feeds between bedtime and morning - we did CC for a couple of nights - and she then slept through. (Until teething and illness kicked in!)

Great yes that was my gut feeling. Did yours have a dummy? How did you settle overnight?

I would;
carry on with the 10pm feed
Ditch the dummy, cold turkey
At 2/3am, leave for 10-15 minutes before responding, don't feed & settle without getting out his cot.

I think that the dreamfeed is fine until they're on 3 meals a day

Are they down to 2 daytime naps now or still 3?

Nope we never had a dummy. DD was on 1 night wake at 6 months and I fed her. Self settled at bedtime and at morning nap with post lunchtime nap in the buggy. We got to self settling via an earlier round of CC (at 4 months - very controversial but it saved us as before that we were on 5/6 wakes a night with rocking back to sleep every time)

6 months was about the time that dd dropped her third nap

Oh really that's interesting he still does 9-9:30; 12-2; 4-4:30 roughly as daytime naps. What nap do they drop? Last one and just go a bit longer in between others?

Thanks v much for useful advice

Last one goes first yes. The others might become a bit later but not too much. (For some reason they seem to be able to stay awake much longer in the latter part of the day). I found that she sometimes needed an earlier bedtime, or a 10 minute mini nap, while she was getting used to not having the third nap.

DD doesn't need much sleep though so may have been on the early side to drop her third nap.

DS was in a nap transition for a while there at the 6 month mark. He then started the nursery routine and would nap 11.30 - 1ish and then fall asleep on the way home from 5-6/6.30 then have dinner, bedtime routine etc and bed at 7.30ish.

Why do you need to get 'tougher'?
He is a baby. Breast fed babies are meant to be fed on demand 24/7 no?

Tall because this woman has been woken up every 4 hours for months by her LO. There is no harm in seeing if there's a way to get more rest.

Life doesn't just stop because you've had a baby and not all are able to or simply do not want to sit on the sofa breastfeeding on demand 24/7. Don't be so simple.