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Reducing night feedings in 6 month old EBF?

vszappvszapp member
in Breastfeeding

DS was sleeping pretty well up until the 4 month regression and a few illnesses (for which I would nurse him almost hourly at night). Now his usual schedule is something like this: bed at 6:30p, and then up at 9:30p, 1:30a 3:30a, and 4:30a to nurse. I finally throw in the towel and start the day when he gets up at 5:30... He sleeps well during the day, taking one cat nap at 7:30a or 8 and two 90-minute naps at 10:30a and 2:30p ish.

Anyhoo, I am all for feeding the guy if he is hungry during the night, but 4-5 times seems like probably more than he needs. We recently moved him to his own room (though he's been in his crib for awhile), so I am exhausted from the broken sleep. I can send DH in to pat him back to sleep during one of the wakings, but he ALWAYS wakes up only one hour after we do that, whereas if I feed him (at 9:30 for example), he may sleep for several hours. This make me think it's not as much of a sleep association problem (we are working to put space in between nursing and bedtime) as it is hunger (either real or perceived). I have tried the Pantley gentle removal and otherwise shortening the nursing sessions, and he just gets fussy and ends up taking way longer to nurse (he clings on to my nipple for dear life!). Any thoughts on how many feedings to try to reduce to, or why he always wakes up one hour later if we try to pat him back to sleep? I would consider cosleeping, but our mattress is too soft and I am a really light sleeper...

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Re: Reducing night feedings in 6 month old EBF?

  • jenn43jenn43 member
    I don't have any advice for you, but we're going through the same thing with my 6 month old right now too.  He used to get up 1-2x to eat.  Now it's more like 3-4x and then he's up at 5:30 for the day.  Hang in there!
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  • mommatotwo2mommatotwo2 member
    Unfortunately, its common. We often bed shared at that age which really helped me get some additional sleep, but it's not for everyone. It's hard, because at every visit, my pediatrician would tell me that baby should be able to sttn and that I didn't *need* to feed her, but I didnt listen to him. If Id truly been feeding on demand all day long, maybe I would've felt differently, but because I was giving her measured expressed milk bottles, I couldn't be sure she didn't need more calories motn and so I had no problem with her reverse cycling and nursing motn.
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