Leasha, Bella is still having a feed between 1 and 2am every single night. I tried resettling her but she knows what she wants. Now I just hear her start to stir and give her the feed straight away. She is always still pretty much asleep when she has the feed and is settled until about 5 - 6am.
I just think it's better to give it to her rather than let her get all upset cause as you said, it takes more time to resettle them after a screaming match.
I don't reckon you are setting her up with any bad habits at all, it's just that some babies sleep through early and some don't. With my other 3 kids, 2 of them were sleeping through the night by about 5 months and the other was still getting up during the night at age 1.
Not sure if any of this helps, but just let you know that you aren't alone matey.
Leasha, Jazz is still little. There is plenty of time later on when she's bigger, eating more solids during the day, and exploring more of the world, to decide to do something about night feeds.
My DD2 was nearly 10 months old, I was horrendously sleep deprived and facing a stint as a single mummy (ie no backup plan) before I started to meddle with the night feeds - even so DD would have 1 around 11 (as I was heading to bed) and I'd resettle if she got up until about 5, if she woke after that I'd give her a feed and back into bed. This coincided with deliberately feeding her more during the day (both more energy-dense solids and 1-2 extra BFeeds) to ensure she was getting enough calories as her weight had plateaued out for too long. This worked for us.
I have heard and been told this many times too but to be honest I think some babies sleep through and others don't.
I was speaking to a mum the other day who is of the "it's normal for babies to cry" and "babies don't need to feed overnight" school and her baby was waking every 15 mins at one point (baby is about 10 mnths old) and she let her baby cry and would only give her baby water at night.
I have read that through touch it helps babies brain synapses make more connections (hope that make sense) so I was/am always hesitant to think that if a baby is waking that you should let it cry (which I know you don't want to I am just saying)
For me personally my DS has never been a great sleeper, at one point waking every 30 mins or so (but he was teething at the time) at around Jazz's age DS would also feed every 2/3 hrs 24/7. By 6 mnths DS and I had moved to a king single to get some decent sleep and he needed me to get him to sleep through the day as well. At 10 mnths I was starting to become desperate as I was going back to work 3days a week when DS would be 11 mnths and Dp would be looking after DS and he doesn't have the patience to get him to sleep in the same way I did, also DS had never slept in the cot before. So at 10 mnths we went to sleep school. For me it was a good experience in saying that I could not have done it when he was younger. Now he is 12 mnths, he has 2 day sleeps and generally goes to bed between 7pm and 8pm, will wake once or twice (generally 11pm and 5 am) and is awake at 6.30 am. There are nights (like this last week as he is teething again) where he is waking 3/4 times a night again. When we got back from the sleep school I was sleeping in the same room for a week or so and when DS woke at 5am he didn't want to go back to sleep cause he could see me so I had to go back to sleeping in a different room which was very, very difficult for me.
So while he is sleeping better I would not have done this if I wasn't going back to work. Dp still doesn't help at night either. I also find that I am more tired now too cause I am not sleeping through the day and I am not co-sleeping anymore so my sleep is more disturbed.
I would find that the more I tried to fight his lack of sleeping the more frustrated I was and the harder it was to deal with but in those times when I was able to repeat many times to myself "he will be sleeping when he goes to school, I won't be bf him when he is at school" that even in that sleep deprived state I was able to get through the day easier.
So the bottom line is do what works for you, if that is feeding when she wakes then do it, no matter what you do you will have people telling you you should be doing it differently.
Hope that makes sense and helps a little.
hi leash: wondered where you had got too!! i came here looking for answers to your question! im up feedinf dd three/four sometimes five times a night!! its driving me crazy! and was thinking about ways of solving what i thought of as a problem, but reading what people have said here i guess its just one of those things and she still needs to be feeding that often.
hope , for both of us, it passes quickly as i know im starting to look a feel like the walking dead!!! big hugs
I could have written your post, I have been in the exact same situation.
We co-sleep, fed him every time he woke as otherwise he would work himself up and wake up. DS woke every hour from 3-8 months and then about 6 times a night until about 16 months. I also wasn't willing to let him cry or switch to formula etc.
I know for us it was completely habit, he was always fed to sleep and didn't know how to self settle at all. He wouldn't sleep for a longer stint until he realised that he could actually get to sleep without feeding.
Eventually I admitted that he wasn't going to grow out of it and with another bub on the way I had to do something. I guess in the end it was some sort of 'contolled comforting', I refused to feed him at night and gave him lots of cuddles/singing/hugging instead. As much as I wanted to avoid any cry-it-out techniques, it wasn't that bad. However, DS was 16 months and even though he wasn't happy about it he was able to understand 'no yummies', whereas Jazz is still such a little bubba and just wouldn't know why you weren't giving her what she needs.
Basically I have no advice, I just wanted to let you know that there are others out there that have been/are still in the same situation. It will get better.
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