Feeding on demand vs routine

[Liz]

They do sleep through eventually - just don't limit 'eventually' to a specific time. DS's 'eventually' was only recently - and he's 2! He hasn't fed overnight for a long time now, but he still wakes.

DD is still feeding heaps overnight. She's a distracted feeder through the day tho, so she's probably catching up on feeds during the night. Last night was very tiring.. I suspect we're in for a growth spurt or something because it was more than normal.

DD is in a cot attached to our bed, so I'm not really waking up properly to feed.. I'm doing it in a half sleepy daze LOL. So sleep deprivation isn't hitting me too hard. If I had to get up to go to another room and sit there and feed, I'd probably struggle getting back to sleep.

I agree with Kelly that routines are very tempting during the rough patches. But they seem to be too much work for me LOL. I find it easier & quicker to ride it out. It does pass. It feels like forever in the middle of it, but goodness me, time flies by so quick, they're 2 before you know it! It's such a short time in their lives, try and keep at it where you can, and don't worry about when they will sleep through.

[stacey83]

I just haveto say stick to the demand feeding and co-sleeping, i have been doing that with my DS since he was born and ive enjoyed it so much. I used to feed him on demand, every 2-3-4hrs . He sleeps perfectly and is a very happy and content baby... i never used to let him cry much as i would pop him to my breast and he was happy (as i too had to bump my milk supply up).. Now he has slipped into his own routine and i put him to bed at 8pm and he wakes at 5-6.30am for a morning breastfeed and sleeps a little longer in bed with us! Than we wake up together happy!

So just do what you want to do and dont get bogged down with what other people say!

Enjoy your baby!

[meow]

Demand feeding is definately all I feel comfortable with- I've never let our baby cry.

He's developed a night time routine though which makes life more predictable which is nice. He cluster feeds/naps from 5-9pm then feeds at 1-2am and again at 5-6am. So two 4 hour chunks- I am not complaining!