Little Piglet co-sleeping

[Southwestwhippet]

Couldn't think of a better way to describe it! but my 15wk DD would very much like it if she were allowed free access to the boobs all night long to latch on and off whenever she fancies a mouthful!

Up until about 10weeks she was a good sleeper and would wake only once or twice a night, feed and go straight back to sleep.

Now she wakes about every 1.5 to 2 hours to feed. I feed side-by-side with her and on odd occasions must confess to falling asleep with her latched on and waking a couple of hours later with the vague feeling of her having latched on and off constantly all that time.

Last night I was very mean and when she woke at 3am for the fourth time I refused to feed her but just rocked her back to sleep. She wasn't very happy about this and whinged a bit but did go back down for an hour or so.

I get the impression that because the milk is right there, on tap as it were, she is getting into the habit of 'topping up' every hour and a half rather than a proper feed and sleep.

Is this common in co-sleeping babies and is there anything I can do to help develop a more parent friendly sleeping style?

Stopping co-sleeping not an option!

From what I read, it can be common in co-sleeping babies. Elizabeth Pantley's No-Cry Sleep Solution has some suggestions for co-sleeping families.

However, there is a sleep regression/developmental spurt at 4 months which might be making things worse. You can find info about it here, here, here and here.

My DS (10 weeks) does this from about 3 in the morning. Wakes every 45 minutes for a snack. Its driving me crackers. I'm trying to get tough and try and resettle him without it, but its hard to do that in the middle of the night when you (both!) know that a quick boob will do the job and resettling will take much much longer. And I'm constantly paranoid that he really is hungry and I'm depriving him. All I can say is good luck!

I have to say that during the day I am really motivated to be firm and resettle her if she wakes repeatedly but when it comes to 3am it is all too tempting to just latch her on, top her up and we both go back to sleep.

But it is maddening to be repeatedly woken .

Have to say after me semi-desperate post on Wed, she slept really well last night, only waking twice, once at 3am and once at 6am. So at least I feel refreshed for whatever tonight brings. Perhaps the one night of being mean-mum and resettling her rather than feeding her a couple of times helped? I've been being a bit firmer about day time naps as well and resettling her back to sleep if she wakes after less than half an hour - I'm hoping this will help her develop better ability to sleep for longer stretches and help at night. ut its just a guessing game really I think.

good luck to you too suchanamateur - hope you get a good night soon.