Does my 5 mo *really* need to bf every 2 hours through the night?

[Scoobi6]

Or is she just using me for comfort? She has always been bf to sleep but used to sleep really well 10 hours straight through! But recently she has started waking up in the night and now its every 2 hours
She doesn't often scream when she wakes but she moans and rubs her eyes. The moaning is quite loud and she seems unhappy, and it goes on indefinitely (the longest I've left her is about 40 mins). Sometimes she doesn't seem to have a proper feed but drops off very quickly at the breast. She won't take a bottle or dummy and if I pick her up and cuddle her she wakes up properly and starts to scream.
I don't know whether to try CC or something to get her to settle herself to sleep, or if its just a growth spurt and will settle down. Its been getting worse for about a month. Any suggestions please?

In my experience, if she was a good sleeper before, she will be so again. Sounds like a growth spurt/readjustment. Although it's always difficult, I'd try maintain the status quo a little longer, and leave her for as long as you feel reasonably comfortable.

At five months, she shouldn't need feeding at night, so it's probably a comfort thing.

Different strokes for different folks, I know, but I'd just always scoop my ds into bed with us when it happened, and he'd fall asleep straight away.

yes, at 5 mths ds pretty much slept with us as he started waking 4 x per night. it was doing my head in! it slowly got better over time, less and less until he was finally sleeping through at around 9 mths.

My DS went a bit mad at this age, but had settled down by 6 months (even slept thro a couple of times).

Hi, thanks for your comments. I'm hoping she will settle down on her own as you say. I don't mind the night feeds so much at the moment but I'm going back to work in a month. And DD seems to be getting progressively worse at sleeping! I don't know if I'm making things worse by bfing her whenever she wakes.

sounds to me like she's ready for solids. My DD did exactly the same thing and I subornly held out for 6mths thinking I was doing the right thing. In hindsight I don't think starving her was the right thing!

same here! will bump for later

I've been thinking along those lines too but come across lots of anti-early weaning threads.
DD sharing room with computer (and us) at the mo due to decorating, so I can't post more tonight but thanks for all responses and I'll check back in the morning.

Mine started doing this at 3.5 months and has been at it ever since (now 5 months). I've been doing the gradual withdrawal method as outlined by Tibsy in an earlier thread and it is really helping, so I think it has just become a habit for her. Within a week of really trying to settle her without feeding I have reduced the feeds from 3-4 between 10 and 7 to 1-2. Am hoping the trend will continue! Good luck with yours...

ps I started on solids to try to combat the problem and am not sure whether its helping or not, but maybe? She's only on a teaspoon of baby rice a day though, as I'm trying to take it slow and not force it

Both DS and DD did this at 5 months. (DD, 6 months now waking twice a night - hope it will get better). DS was on solids before the night waking started (this was back in the days of 4 month weaning), so I don't think the solids make much difference - or if they do its not until they really start solids properly (8 months?) that it makes a difference. I think that if you think about the amount of calories that are in an icecube of pureed veg./baton of carrot compared to breast milk/formula, early weaning doesn't make a huge amount of difference. I think the 5 month waking thing is due to being more aware and more control of their nervous system - its developmental rather than to do with food.

Solids did nothing for my sleep shirking 8 month old. At around 4 months she did exactly the same but it has started to calm down. They go through a mega growth spurt. I continued to feed until this week when I felt her weight gain and her feeding was more stable.

Thanks everyone. Last night wasn't too bad in the end - took 3 attempts to get DD to sleep, bf every half hour or so, but once she was down properly at 9ish she only woke once at 11 and up at 6 this morning. I could use more nights like that! She seemed happier too. Interesting what you said about it being developmental MadameP. I think I'll just hang in there for a bit and see what happens, and if she is still waking frequently when I go back to work I'll be back asking for help with GW or CC!