Am I crazy BF my 8mth old at 5am when she wakes?

[Ilovenutella]

My DD goes down about 7.15pm at night and sleeps all the way through to about 5am (of which I am SO grateful). When she wakes at 5am I BF her (normally about 15mins or so) and she dozes off and sleeps to about 7-7.30am. Am I creating a habit here? If I leave her at 5am she just ends up sobbing (and I end up wincing until I get up). She then has a proper breakfast at 8am and the day starts proper. her 2 bottom teeth have poked through (no sign of top ones) and she is on 3 solid meals a day (and chowing it down quite happily)...... Any thoughts/advice more than welcome.....

Your DD will outgrow the need to nurse at night in her own time. I am trying to remember how old my DD was when she stopped waking regularly for milk at night...not sure, but I guess it was between 12 months and 18 months. But if she is ill and needs the comfort I still nurse pretty much on demand.

I would do that, and I have. In fact, I'm sure I would do that for my 19 month old if she woke up tomorrow morning.

No, not creating a habit at all.

Shes simply waking up for a drink!

Try not to worry so much!

She won't do it forever.

Babies change all the time, and as soon as you think you know what they're doing, they change again.

The worst thing you can do is worry about any of it lasting for ever. It just won't!

I have done this with all my three children well into their second year. In fact, ds will still often have a feed at night when he wakes up, and he's 22 months.

I bf in the night till 13 months and worried about it endlessly. I wish I hadn't worried as it was a waste of time. At 13months I used gradual withdrawal to gently encourage ds to sleep through and it worked in 3 nights. It was easy because he was ready, if it hadn't worked without stress I would have waited and tried again.

Just go with your instincts, it will be fine.

5 did this until the day dd said - at 3 and a week "I don't want milky any more, mummy" and she never asked for it again. Do the easiest thing for everyone, and don't worry about bad habits. How can meeting your baby's needs be bad?

I think it sounds fine. I would go with it, and not worry at all.

sounds very sensible, especially if you don't want to start the day at 5 .

I used to enjoy that quiet feed in the night - they do grow out of it. I had to give up Bf completely when DD was a week short of one year old because she refused to continue So no, it's normal. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Yes, did it until a couple of weeks ago when DD magically started sleeping a bit longer (she's nearly 9mths). Used to try getting her to go back to sleep but was much quicker to feed her and put her back down than faff about trying to persuade her she wasn't really hungry. Thought it might be a habit thing too (but too lazy to try and change it) but she's just started sleeping a bit longer on her own. I'd stick with it - we were just eternally graeful she'd stopped waking at 3.30!

i do something similar and think it no different to me wanting a sip of water in the night. dont worry too much about and enjoy the snuggles

thanks everyone - it's so reassuring hearing it from others. Most of my friends are bottle feeding and tell me that their LOs are sleeping through 8-8 and I wondered whether it was cos I am BF (am not about to change to FF either!)

My DD is almost 8 months and I'm still breastfeeding her a couple of times a night. I'd be really chuffed if she went down to one 5am feed :-) (but would probably still worry sbout it in the same way you are!)

It is entirely normal and not unusual, and certainly nothing to worry about, and if you are happy to do it then carry on, but still, I'd be a voice of dissent. Once my DDs regularly slept through to 5 / 5.30 am at around 2 months I wouldn't bf until what I arbitrarily considered to be morning (6.30!) and would, if necessary offer a bottle of water. The truth is I was exhausted, with DD1 I thought I'd just try and see if she'd go through and it worked really easily. After a couple of slightly grumpy mornings of crying, rocking and re-settling she slept through the night properly. So with DD2 I did the same thing, with the same result.

A lot of it can be habit - I do think that nutritionally babies that have well established weaning don't need to be fed in the night.

I'm also sure it's a complete myth that bottle fed babies sleep better than bf ones.

I know I know - I think I'll just keep going with the flow as she has had nights where she has gone from 7-7 - it's just if she wakes at 5am and I decide to leave her I may as well just get up at 5am and that is just TOO early! Maybe I'll start leaving her 5mins longer each time Nelly?

I think the thing is that when she wakes at 5am it's actually way easier in the short term to feed, as she'll go straight back off to sleep, but in the long term you end up being more tired as you're not getting enough sleep. I'd definitely suggest leaving her just a little bit longer (I never had much stamina for leaving crying, but often I'd find that if I left either of the girls just one minute longer than I thought was enough they'd drop back off!), the other thing I did if there didn't seem to be any sign of DD going back to sleep on her own was go to her, but not feed. Pat or shush or offer water etc. Sometimes I'd take them into bed with me and cuddle but not feed, they'd always drop back to sleep the minute I took them into bed! After really quite a short time (a week or so) both girls seemed to get the message and never really demanded feeding again early in the mornings. While going through it that week was exhausting, but for me the effort was worth it as it pushed them through to consistent sleeping from then on. Even if they woke up they'd quite happily gurgle or chat etc in the cot for a while, then maybe drop off again for a bit. I think maybe they get used to the long stretch without feeding and therefore stop waking up desperate and screaming for a feed.

ds still doing it at 10 months - always wakes at 5am. At that point, feeding is the only thing that will make him go back to sleep - if we leave him he's convinced it's time to start the day and also pretty peckish. As he's only recently stopped waking at 11pm and 2am I am embracing a 5am feed with delight. He comes into bed when he wakes and we have lovely sleepy cuddles until 7am. Or, in this morning's case, 5.45. Grrr.

An alternative would be a late evening dream feed. DS (8 months) gets 11pm dream feed which usually gives us a quiet night till 6.30 or 7am. I say usually as we're just recovering from D&V so it's a all bit skew-whiff at the mo. He's at nursery 4 days a week on FF in the day, and it means I can get a couple of BFs into him even on 'school' days. Just a thought.

i still feed my 7 month old in the night
bah humbug

It's what i do every morning at around the same time and mine is 22 months!

I'd have killed for dd to do that - stopped when she started acting as if I'd just given her a double-shot of espresso at 5am...

Blimey, I often find myself feeding DS 3,4,5 times a night, or more on bad nights. He tries to get up for the day at half 5 so I try to feed him back to sleep then but usually fail. He's 9 months and the HV says he's waking up to be fed. Truth is, he's waking up with sore gums/wind/the urge to crawl around, and while I could rock or pat him back to sleep, I can BF him to sleep while dozing myself. After 9 months of no sleep, I'm afraid I haven't got the energy to do anything different - he'll get better in his own time eventually (I hope!).