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
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