DS does a total of at least 6 night feedings a night plus other wake ups.
Is it pretty safe to say he does not need all of those feedings?? How are you supposed to know? My mom is pushing CIO.. And I agree in some aspects that I can't run to him for every little noise, but at the same time not sure I have what it takes to really let him cry all night long.
Is there something in between to encourage him to drop feedings or sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time? I have tried no cry sleep solution, and have been trying since 6 weeks. He eats 3 meals a day and gets tons of milk. I just don't get it. Ideas?
Re: Night Feedings/waking
My LO goes through phases where she wakes frequently to STTN. I believe that if she wakes up and needs comfort/ food I should be there.
She sleeps in her crib next to me. I let her fuss for a few minutes before picking her up. Sometimes she will go back to sleep. Sometimes it escalates and I pick her up and nurse her.
I nurse her on the couch and sometimes nap while she is eating. I found a safe position where she cannot roll of turn.
How often does your LO eat during the day? How are his naps?
It's like pulling teeth to get him to nap. I spend the majority of my days attempting naps with him. He BFs every 1.5 hours and has 3 meals of solids a day. He is a big boy at 23 lbs and has been eating solids since 4 months.
When my LO naps well and I can put her in the crib, her nights suck. So lately, I am back to letting her nap on me - she wakes up as soon as I put her in the crib... I am mostly SAH now, so this is working for us. At night, what works best is for her to eat before 8pm, bath, the cluster feed from 8:30-10pm. If her last meal is late and she is too tired, she won't nurse enough and will wake as often as every hour.She can go as long as 6h on a good night. She sleeps is the crib at night.
Maybe you can play around with your LO's meal time at night and see if that helps. BM has more calories per once than solids,
We've recently gone from STTN or just one wake to feed to up every 2 hours or less. This is what I do. If it's been less than 2 hours since the last feeding, I offer the pacifier first. If he spits it out a few times, I will offer the breast after that. If it's been more than 2 hours since the last time he ate, I'll just offer the breast first.
My DS has not been eating well during the day though, and I know he's taking in quite a bit of milk during the night feeds. He just won't nurse or nap while we're out anymore, so we come home and have marathon nursing sessions followed by long naps, but it's not enough and he still needs to eat a bunch over night.
Do you nurse in bed? When DD was EBF, I bedshared and let her nurse as much as she wanted. I had to wean her due to multiple food protein intolerance, and bottle feeding definitely sucks at night!
There are lots of gentle sleep training methods, if you feel like you need to try something but don't want to CIO. Do what feels right to you. 6 night feedings is a lot. He definitely does not *need* to eat that often. He may have a frequent need for comfort, though, and he gets that from nursing.