Apologies that this is a long post (trying not to drip feed), but I'm at the end of my tether and hoped someone on here might have some tips or advice on how to deal with my 7.5mo dd. Weaning seems to have sent her completely haywire.
As a bit of background, she had donor milk for the first three weeks of her life, before being exclusively ff. Since about 8 weeks she's slept through the night - anywhere from 9 to 12 hours. Until the last fortnight...
I started weaning her at 6 months with finger foods, veg puree, fruit puree, yogurt, porridge etc. She really enjoyed tasting food but didn't really get the hang of eating more than a couple of bites, but I thought that was ok because her milk intake was still good. Fast forward to about two weeks ago, and she's suddenly discovered a big appetite for solids. So now she'll have something like porridge with fruit and yogurt for breakfast, a lunch of something like mashed potato, veg and meat, then a smaller dinner of finger food like omelette or toast. On top of this she's having her normal four bottles and has shown no signs of wanting to drop a feed. I let her eat solids until she doesn't want any more, so I know she's getting as much as she wants/needs. However, between three meals and four bottles, we're spending a lot of every day feeding!
That would all be good, apart from she's also decided to wake every two hours in the night and demand another bottle in the early hours of the morning. So now she's on five bottles (around a litre of milk) as well as three meals, and has lost her ability to sleep for more than a couple of hours. Her daytime routine is also all over the place. She used to have her bottles and naps like clockwork, but now there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
Development-wise, she is about right for her age I think - she's been rolling and sitting since very young but is yet to crawl, although she's trying. She seems bright and alert when awake. When she wakes in the night she isn't distressed, so I don't think it's trapped wind or allergies.
As well as feeling like I have a newborn again, and being extremely sleep-deprived, it's getting very difficult to go anywhere or do any of our groups/classes because all our time seems to be spent feeding. I just don't know if this is normal, a phase or something to be concerned about. I'm just hoping that someone here might have had a similar experience and be able to reassure me that this will pass, or give me some tips for coping!