6 month old EBF when will he sleep?

[zwiggy]

my 6m old has never been a great sleeper, never gone more than three hours, frequently wakes every 1 1/2 - 2. Have been trying solids, slowly, for last couple of weeks, he's not particularly interested, seems genuinly hungry in the night, he doesn't take a bottle or a cup and DH works nights so DH doing the soothing not an option.

I don't want to leave him to cry at all, and he doesn't like co sleeping.

Any ideas? Is this normal for EBF babies? Will it get better?

He sometimes self soothes for daytime naps but never in the night

help

What time is he having his "last" feed before first going to bed?

Poor you. Sympathy from me - I've had 2 non-sleepers, so I sympathise.
At that age, both of mine were waking every 3 hours. Possibly 4 occasionally, but certainly having 3 feeds a night. Solids didn't make a blind bit of difference to their sleeping, regardless of how well they ate. It's normal (much more normal than you might think from speaking to other mothers - there seems to be a code of silence designed to promote the myth that babies should be sleeping through the night from 3 months). Neither of mine were that keen on co-sleeping though we did it from time to time. Didn't like leaving them to cry either. So it was a case of feeding them back to sleep and soothing them in the cot.

dd got better more or less on her own when she hit 11 months, and by 12 months was sleeping 7 to 7. ds is 13 months and is a lot better than he was but still tediously wakes at 4.30am and will only go back to sleep after milk.

No ideas, sorry. If I had a magic solution I wouldn't be sporting the bags under my eyes that I am...but just wanted you to know I feel your pain.

Mine was just like that. She is 9 months now and has been sleeping through the night for about a month (she is still breastfed in the day). I stopped feeding her in the night at 8 months when we mastered a technique called the disappearing chair/gradual withdrawal. She didn't need to feed in the night up until that point but it had become a habit and was the most reliable way to get her to fall back asleep. Controlled crying didn't work for us and our bed is not big enough for the three of us! If you think he is still hungry then carry on feeding him. Do you give him a 'focus feed' or 'dream feed' at about 11? I always got my DD up at this time in an attempt to make her sleep longer during the hours i would be asleep. I would carry on feeding him until he was happily eating 3 solid meals in the day so that you know he is capable of going the whole night without milk and then try out some techniques to help him to fall back asleep himself.

Good luck.

thanks its really reassuring to know that its quite normal and that it will improve, the sleepless nights are not bothering me too much although i'm completely knackered. its more everyone thinking i'm being too soft.

he has a bath then feed at about 7 - 8 sometimes sleeps till about half ten, but will often wake at nine and be full of beans.

He used to have a feed then go straight back in his cot and fall asleep but now he wakes up as soon as i put him in and cries in anxiety then will have to be cuddled or fed back to sleep and i have to wait til he is completely fast asleep to try him in his cot again , it usually takes several attempts.

There doesn't seem to be any EBF babies around me. Is it really that rare?

Zwiggy - I'm same as you - my 8 month old dd is still waking 3/4 times a night and won't go back down without a feed - even after doing gradual withdrawal, which worked really well for her bedtime. And yes, ebf really is that rare - apparently only 2% of babies in the uk make it to 6 months ebf - we are a rare breed!!! Sadly, this is an achievement that our LOs seem reluctant to reward us for !