My 7 month DD was a reasonable sleeper at first (got up to 5 hour stretch at one point) but since she was about 4 months she has woken up every 2-3 hours during the night for milk. To start with I was fine with this as I wanted to wait to wean her, and thought that she was genuinely hungry. We co-slept after her first night waking and all was tolerable. But then she starting waking for hours etc so I worked hard to get her to settle with out boob in her mouth and sleep in her cot. She will now do this, but continues to wake 2-3 hourly. SHe takes good feeds at these awakenings, and I try and make sure she is awake when she goes back down. I guess she is used to having a full tummy at night. However, she is then not hungry for milk when she wakes for the day, and only takes small amounts during the day- she is far too distractable. (I have a 3 year old as well so can't go up to darkened room to feed etc) She has taken to food fine and has a reasonable amount of solids during the day. Naps seem ok- usually a 40 min nap in the am and 1-1.30 hours after lunch with maybe a cat nap later on to get her to bedtime.
I really want to get her to drop at least one of the nighttime feeds- I haven't had more than a stretch of 2.5 hours sleep since Christmas. But I don't really like to leave her crying if she is genuinely hungry- which she will be, because she didn;t take that much milk the day before...
I have read that I should try and push back the night feeds (currently 10pmish, 2ish, 4-5ish, start day 6.30) or just shorten them. Does pushing back the feed simply mean trying to settle them back to sleep and then feeding them when they next wake? I can't seem to get her back to sleep as she gets mad with rage. Do I just decide on times I will let her feed and deal with the tears when they come? SHortening the feeds just leaves her cross as well so it takes ages to settle her back to sleep.
Any experiences with this? I recognise she isn't that old, and I could co-sleep- but to be honest that doesn't really work for us. She is a madam and will not settle for DH during the night. I would be happy to feed her a couple of times, but 3 or 4 is driving me insane. She is gaining weight fantastically.