Seems to all be going wrong - very lost as to why/what I should do...

[ouchthishurts]

Not sure whether to post this, so will post in Breast and Bottle Feeding and Weaning. Bit of a mammoth post, but really really appreciate any advice from anyone who can be bothered to get through it!

DS is 23.5 weeks and exclusively bf, and from about 13 weeks has been sleeping through the night, after a dreamfeed as a bottle of EBM at about 10.30pm. In the first couple of weeks he would sleep through until 8am ish (wow), and then through to around 6.30, when he would wake for a feed and then go back to sleep for a couple of hours. have been feeding on demand during the day, and dont really have a daytime routine as such for him - he just fits in around whatever DD (aged 22 months) is up to. that said, he has always (from about 3 weeks) settled to sleep around 7pm and has always had to be woken for a dreamfeed.

That is, until the last week. about 10 days ago, he started waking about 5am, and then over the next few days that gradually slipped earlier and earlier, until the last couple of nights, when he has woken at 1.30/2 for a feed, at 4/4.30 and then slept until 7.30. So suddenly he has gone from not waking between 11am and 6.30am to waking twice. And as well as that, he has been waking before his dreamfeed - this evening it was at 9.20, so about 2.5hours after he last fed he was awake.

I am beginning to feel a bit desperate, partly because I just dont know why and therefore what to do, and partly because I am getting increaingly exhausted (with a wakeful toddler as well) and feel like I am back to newborn stage with an unpredicatable baby feeding every couple of hours.

Can anyone offer any advice? Is my milk not satisfying him anymore? Should I start to wean him? or should I just top up with formula and wait another couple of weeks to wean him?
Could it be a growth spurt that lasts this long and I should just put up with it? I just feel a bit lost with it all, and dont know why it suddnely feels we are going so far backwards and that bf-ing isnt working anymore - but maybe he has ust reached an age/weight where he is reading for weaning (he was born on 50th percentile and has basically stayed there).

Thanks for any advice...sorry for mammoth post.

ouch feeling for you, my DD slept through from 9wks until 21wks when growht spurt that lasted 4days had her up in the night followed by teething then a cold she is now 29wks and only just starting to go through the night again.
She also gets distracted through the day at times and dosen't finish feeds properly so plays catch up at night.
sorry not much help, hope you get some quality sleep soon

This could have been written by me! I feel for you, ouch and hope things improve.

My DD did exactly this and I felt awful as I was SO tired and also confused as she had been such a good sleeper. I did take it as a sign that she might need to be weaned and so started slowly weaning her. I also gave her a bottle at 10pm as then I knew she had a good amount of milk and so I was more willing to settle her without feeding her- this then got us into a better pattern and I started breastfed for that 10pm feed again.

Does your son sleep in your room? I reluctantly moved DD to her room a few nights ago as I thought I might be reacting to her cries/ grumbles too quickly and I also thought we might be waking her in the night. This certainly has helped and she is sleeping longer now (6 1/2 hours).

Good luck- I hope this helps.

Thank you both. It really does help to know I ma not alone in this.

Lulu, he had in fact been in our room until 2 nights ago - like you I was wondering whether i was reacting too quickly to his cries and grumbles. I think I am going to try not giving a feed in the night, and trying to resettle him in other ways. (easy to say now, less easy to do at 1am when I know a quick 5 mins on the boob would do the trick!)

Will try that and see how we go - as you say it is as much the confusion of all the sudden unpredictability.

Thanks again.

Again, ouch- you could be me!!! I also tried to settle her, but when you are SO tired and know a bit of boob will settle them it is so tempting. I did try to settle her without feeding and it definitely worked- did it a couple of times and then she stopped waking so much. I also got my husband to do it thinking she would be less likely to want a feed from him! that also worked. I definitely think moving him to his own room will help- it certainly helped with us.

I certainly sympathise- good luck!

Thanks lulu - what did you do to settle her without the boob? feel so lsot - DS has always been such a good sleeper we have never had to think about any of this...he just fed, and then gradually stretched out the amount he slept. He also discovered how to suck his thumb, but that seems to have totally disappeared (his ability to self-settle by sucking his thumb - not the thumb itself!!) and now feel that despite him being my second I still dont know how to settle him without feeding. Any advice???!