How do I drop a night feed or two??

[KatieRabbit]

My DD is 6 months and has been tasting solids for 2 days. However she goes some nights and days with feeding every 4 hours without a break! She usually feeds 7/8am, 11am/12pm, 3.30pm, 6.30pm, dreamfeed 10pm (or she is awake anyway!!) then always wakes well before 6am, usually 3am or 4am and even waking at 1am, then again at 4am and then at 7am. So she is not really getting full stretches of sleep. She feeds well at each feed, wees lots, has excellent weight gain and is happy and healthy. But this waking in the night is getting to me. The only way I seem to get her to settle from these wakings is a feed. I am too tired/dazed to try new strategies but have tried patting and dummy to get her back to sleep to no avail. So I am looking at what to do so we can both get a bigger stretch of sleep. Any help would be appreciated!

[Lolli]

*sigh* deidre wish i could help but we are in the same boat, except we are every two hours or so. Solids are starting to help a bit, but it's taken three weeks for them to make any difference and we've only really dropped one night feed and taken up an extra day feed to make up for it.

[StrawberryMumma]

I hope you find the answer to your question because I know how hard it is.

I must admit I didn't find the answer with my DD unfortunately! But with a lot of patience and just accepting what will be will be!, we finally got through it. As in, slowly she cut her night feeds down all by herself, without cc and with me not restricting her feeds amazingly!

Hopefully she will at least cut out one very soon for you when the solids get up and running.

Hang in there.

[~clover~]

I can't remember who said it, but I was told to give DD1 some water instead of feeding her through the night to drop a feed. Just one to start with.Keep up with all the other feeds though.
I can't remember if it worked for us or not - sorry. It was 6 years ago & I only just remembered then. I think I will try it.

It's the only thing I've ever heard might help. Hope it does.

[sneakysparkle]

My DD did exactly the same thing at 6mths - apparently it can be a developmental thing, as they start to do so much more around that time.
They sleep more restlessly because they are thinking about and 'practicing' all the new things they are learning, and so wake more often. You could try just giving her one milk feed overnight and give her water for the rest - and maybe even drop the dreamfeed?
It won't last forever, hang in there - you are doing a fab job

[KatieRabbit]

Thanks ladies for your words of encouragement. I would drop the dreamfeed although it is no longer really a dreamfeed 'cos DD wakes up for it or is awake anyway at that time! Thing is, she has never really slept through since birth. The best we have done is a 10pm feed and then a 4am feed for about a month when she was about 4 months. She has slept from 9pm to 7am twice in her life and that was about 6 weeks ago.

[Barb Glare]

Hi, Deidre,

What your little one is doing is completely normal! Much is made about "sleeping through the night" but most babies (about 85%) continue to wake at least once during the night until they are well over 6mnths old. 6 feeds per day is pretty minimal really, although she is tasting solids - it won't be having much of a "filling" effect just yet.
I always think that, with any group of babies there is sort of a bell curve. There are a few babies (one or two percent) down the low end of scle who sleep through at a ubelievably early age. Society applauds this, so the mothers of these babies subconsiously believe it is a badge that they are a "good mother" Everyone else sits there gritting their teeth in silence - fearing they might be judged a "bad mother". so, we hear a lot about babies who sleep through and mothers of normal babies who don't sleep through are effectively silenced.
She sounds like a healthy and happy girl, and you should be really proud of yourself. If she feeds at 10pm and then 6am she has, for my money, slept through the night. Brag madly to your family and friends. If she wakes earlier, pop he in your bed and you will both get a bit more sleep.
Regards
Barb