Many night wakings!

[Whatamesshaslunch]

My 6 month old goes down at bedtime no problem. Into bed at 7, lights out, falls asleep. She has a feed at about 10.30ish and then...
1am, 3am, 5am, 6am.... she cries and won’t go back down without a feed. A dummy won’t pacify her. My older child has autism and doesn’t sleep well either and I’m absolutely wrecked. Any advice?

Bf or ff? Bf mayb just for comfort so maybe cosleeping would help but to be honest your little one just sounds hungry.

I know how you feel! Nothing worse than disrupted sleep, especially when no one but you can soothe your child. My DD did this for months until I reached the point that I would constantly fall asleep with her in my bed while feeding her.

In the end I thought it made much more sense to bed share properly and in a safe way than to keep falling asleep with her and waking up in a panic when I realised she was in my bed!

Is bed sharing something you would consider? I always said there was no way I would bed share but looking back was very ill informed and naive about it and now it’s the only way I get any sleep! IMO it’s far better to just go with it and get as much sleep as you can now (and have the added bonus of baby snuggles) and worry about gentle sleep training when they are at the appropriate age.

Hope this helps!

Thanks both. She’s bf. maybe she is just hungry! We’ve been doing a bit of a mixture of baby led and purée so I guess she’s not getting as much as if I was just spoon feeding. I tried to give formula at the 10.30 feed to see if that made a difference but she wouldn’t take it. Serves me right for not introducing a bottle sooner

I’ve been bringing her in at 5 in the hope that she falls back to sleep! Sometimes works, sometimes not.

Weaning often results in a baby needing more milk durring the night as typical warning foods, fruit and veg don’t contain many calories but makes them feel full. There is also a growth spurt and sleep progression at 6 months.

Huge growth spurt at 6 months x

More daytime calories is the answer. If you can't get the calories in during the daytime, they will be needed at night.

My baby at 6 months was mostly not fed at night. Occasionally would have a final decision night feed though. However, this was her feeding routine at 6-7 months:

7am full milk feed
8am breakfast (about 4oz of formula with porridge then slice of toast then fruit)
9am full milk feed
Nap
11am full milk feed
12pm lunch (6m jar of puree, then whatever I had for lunch, then yoghurt then fruit)
1pm full milk feed
Nap
3pm full milk feed
4pm snack (breads tick, fruit, rice cake etc)
5pm full milk feed
6pm lunch (6m jar of puree, then whatever we were having as a family meal, then yoghurt then fruit)
7.30pm full milk feed

As you can see - that is a lot of feeding!

Thank you @FATEdestiny I think I’m going to give this a go. I feel a bit sorry for my older daughter as she has to be wait for me to feed already, but if it means I get a better night’s sleep then that’s good for everyone!!