six months old & on solids but still wants two feeds overnight

My yummy little man has never been at the front of the line for a sleep prize. Day sleeps past 45 mins are rare but we can usually resettle with a dummy and a pat for a bit longer.

He goes to bed after a bath & booby at 7pm and sleeps until we come to bed at 10.30 when he gets another feed. He then wakes up anywhere bewtween 3 and 5 for another feed which I let him come into bed for. From then until we get up at 7.30 he nibbles on and off meaning he's not very interested in breakfast.

Once he's up he only lasts an hour before he's cranky and needing to go back down for a nap.....I figure that means he needs more sleep overnight??

By six months I would have thought the solids would help to us drop at least one feed. i can't tell if he really is hungry or if thats just the best way to get him back to sleep. I don't want to do any leaving to cry really but I would like more sleep and less feeding overnight.

Any advice please?? :)

I have sympathy for you as my DD is still hungry during the night sometimes. Other times she refuses the breast and has to be settled in other ways.

Is he having a good long feed at that first early morning feed? If so then he's hungry and needs to be fed. As for the snacking afterwards, have you tried introducing other sleep cues such as rocking, music, or using the dummy and patting like you do during the day? If you can do that to get him used to going back to sleep you might find that he'll start sleeping that little 5-7 strecht on his own and letting you have a lot more rest.

Have you read Elizabeth Pantley's "The No Cry Sleep Solution"? It has some great ideas for helping your baby to sleep.

Loulou,

Charlie was also not a very good sleeper, and woke twice a night pretty much until he was 11 months old. I used to nurse him to sleep, and he would always have a full feed whenever he woke. Solids didn't make much of a difference to amount he slept either. And he would usually only nap for 30mins to an hour during the day.

Now that he's weaned off the breast, and can resettle himself, he still wakes a few times a night. Sometimes he talks to himself in the dark until he falls back to sleep, but every now and then he cries until I go in and give him a cuddle. I'd say he probably sleeps through (as in, not wanting me to go in to him) 90% of the time, though.

I do think some babies just don't sleep much. I routinely use the techniques in Pinky McKay's book 'Sleeping like a Baby' but as time went on, it just occurred to me that Charlie kept his own schedule. And since he went back to sleep without fuss pretty much as soon as he got fed, I started to accept it and relax into it, knowing it wouldn't last forever.

I wish you more sleep, loulou.

Have you tried putting him back in his own cot after tha 3-5 am feed? To me it seems its more of a comfort thing than he is hungry as the breast is there he will suckle away on it.

My DD will still have 2 good feeds over night, one bout 11:00ish and another bout 5ish. If you were wanting to stop the snacking maybe see how he resettles after that feed using other techniques such as patting or rocking til hes drowsy the putting him down.

To be honest he stays in the bed after the second feed because I love the cuddles. For all my wishing for a good nights sleep I don't want to wish those away!

He never really has a huge feed at 3-4am but on the times I've tried to pat & dummy back to sleep it doesn't last longer than 20 mins - with the feed he will sleep through the rest of the night and just help himself to the breast for little nibbles which don't really bother me too much.

I suppose I'm just worried that now I've added solids he's getting overfed. In my heart I don't think he needs the two feeds overnight but I don't have it in me to let him cry all night to find out otherwise.

I overloaded on books at 3 months when he wasn't sleeping through & love both Pinky & Pantely!! I'm just a bit worn down from hearing about how he's going to change and sleep all night any minute now and it's just not happening!

If I were to try & drop a feed and maybe settle with water which one should go first? 10pm or 3am?

Thanks girls....I love coming here and reading about other bubs who don't get left to "control cry" There is so much pressure these days that thats the magic answer but it's just not in me.

Babies are so individual, Loulou, and if you're loving that morning feed, I'd say keep doing it. Now I've weaned Charlie I do miss him coming into bed with us at 3am to co-sleep until the morning. At the time I thought I would have preferred the sleep, but now it's gone, I really do miss it.

And yes, there is no magic answer to getting them to sleep all night. You can do all the right things, but your baby will still develop his own routines, especially if you don't CC. I was happy to follow Charlie's routines in the end, and eventually, despite people telling me that letting him nurse to sleep would mean he wouldn't learn to self-settle, he not only did learn to self-settle, he now sleeps 8pm to 8am most nights. It just took him to 11 months to do it, is all, where other babies sleep through at 12 weeks, and yet others at 6 months.

You sounds like you're doing fabulously. And I reckon if you're going to have to wake to give him water anyway, you're probably just as well to give him the breast and be done with it. He'll probably sleep longer too after with a belly full of milk than water.

loulou, ur little man and my MIss Pie sound excatly the same, except Miss Pie now wakes again after her usual bed time of 7 and is awake till 10.. then has 2/3 feeds before getting up at 5.30.. she is guzzling at nite time feeds too and like u said this is so much more effective than trying 2,3,4 times to resettle with cuddles, dummy, pats etc as this just sends her the signal that its wake up time.
I agree with Sushee on the water thing, i reckon he wants/needs milk... some babes just feed better at night...
i hear you on the sleep thing, i dont really have any advice, ill be watching tho for some myself... everytime i have a day where i just cannot fathom being so tired i think of down the track when she sleeps more and i get less "night feed" cuddles. Then i ll be sad
Its tough tho hey and im thinking of you...:hug:

Loulou- I wouldn't worry bout overfeeding, bubs will just take what he needs. My DD is on 3 great size solids day but as I said earlier she still has 2 good feeds overnight plus lots boobies in day.

Just keep doing what you feel comfortable with doing.
Unless you feel it is becomming a problem just keep doing what you are doing.

I believe babies wake up and feed for lots of different reasons. Ella did the same thing as your DS too. But somewhere during 6months to 7.5 months she dropped a feed and then took it back up again when she was sick and now is back to one overnight feed at 3am.

Ella's going through some separation anxiety and i think she wakes and wants to be reassured i'm there with a cuddle and a quick feed (sometimes only taking 1 breast) and is then back to sleep in 10mins.

I'm sure the little rascal will continue to change her night sleep patterns. :)

Ann

Tallon still has the occassional feed overnight.. and he's a PIG through the day with his solids. LOL.

I read somewhere that when solids are introduced, it can actually increase their breastfeeds, because it increases their appetite. So while they're getting used to digesting solids, since we obviously can't just start stuffing them with solids, then their appetite is met with extra feeds. It should all settle down soon, altho, I say that, but Tallon fed through the night for a LONG time, and they were full on feeds too, so I was reluctant to try and wean him from them.

I too love the co-sleeping until morning, and it's for such a short time compared to all the other years of their life. Enjoy it while you can :)