Sleeping through the night

[Seagroatt]

Hi, I need some advice on getting me DB to sleep through! DB is just under 7months goes to bed at 9pm wakes at around 2am and 4.30am for a feeds! What's the best was to get stop these feeds?
DB is breast fed and we started BLW about a month ago, and also in own bedroom
Thanks

You obviously know your baby best but it might be a bit early to be cutting out night feeds. My son is 11 months and we’ve only just dropped his night feeds. I knew he was ready to drop night feeds when they became very very short and felt more like comfort sucking rather than satisfying hunger.

We tried initially around 9 months which worked well until a bout of teething, then he got a sickness bug. Initially breast milk was all he could keep down, then it took a week or so for his appetite to get back to normal so I was back to feeding in the night to make sure he was getting enough food. Once I was happy he was better and teething calmed down we tried again to stop the night feeds and so far he’s doing well.

My son was waking up twice as well so I cut out the earlier feed first (thought if I fed him back to sleep around 4ish he would sleep longer in the mornings). My husband took over the early night waking and would sooth the baby back to sleep by rocking/ shushing/singing. I would then feed him when he woke up at 4ish and after a few days we repeated the process for the later feed.

In our experience it took two or three nights to break the habit for each feed but was reasonably painless, although it was hard to lie in bed and listen to my son crying - you just can’t not hear it! Again, I knew it was more comfort than hunger because his cries were more of a moan than a piercing cry if that makes sense, and he wasn’t properly awake.

Only waking twice a night at 7 months is pretty good going. Babies are suppose to wake during the night.

Night waking is totally normal, especially in the first year. You might find if you cut out night feeds you just get a baby that wakes and is harder to settle. IMO it just takes time and patience.

At around 9 months I decided to try and only feed my DS once a night-any time after 3am was acceptable. Then by 10.5 months he started not waking for feeds. I just took his lead on that. I agree with PP-acceptance and patience and it will happen at some point 😊

'Wake to sleep' worked for us and two friends of mine in this circumstance. When the wakings are so routine like this it can be habit rather than need.
Choose whichever waking you think will be easiest to drop, set yourself an alarm clock for one hour before the usual wake time. When your alarm goes off go in and gently wake BD (I did this by picking up, giving a quick cuddle and putting straight back down). You should find that they go back to sleep and then miss their next usual waking.
Good luck!!

Does he always feed for the same length of time? If so, you can start reducing the feed by a minute every two or three nights, until you've cut it out completely.
If the length of each feed is irregular, I'd go cold turkey with one of either feeds and settle with the shush-pat method. Once he's dropped one feed, do the same for the remaining one.
Make sure he gets enough food and drink during the day.
Don't expect him to automatically sleep through, but 7-8 months is a good time to stop night feeding.