Baby EBF help

For us starting on solids really helped. I also introduced a bottle before bed (mixed of pumped milk and formula). He is probably waking for comfort not for food. We were the same for a while and I started not offering a boob every wake up but tried dummy many times before. Only resulted for a boob if he really cried I hope this helps

Do you have a partner that could offer comfort and resettling during the night? It is likely that baby just wants some cuddles rather than needing food. Also, at what point in the bedtime routine are you feeding? I used to feed my little boy to sleep but about a month ago, switched it to the start of the routine and almost immediately, he was more successful linking his sleep cycles.

@Faye for the bedtime routine I feed her to sleep, maybe I shouldn't do that? Sometimes she does go back to sleep and just stirs between cycles but mostly won't settle without a feed. How did your little boy link his sleep cycles? My fiance sometimes resettles her but mostly me as he doesn't wake up when she crys it stirs. We are also co sleeping as she just won't sleep without being cuddled (since the four month sleep regression)

@Karita do you think the bottle has helped? I tried a pumped bottle before bed and then boob to fill her up but maybe she is just wanting comfort instead. Shes never taken to a dummy, but I'm hoping now shes eating abit more solids it will get better x

Same here apart from she’s still feeding loads in the day. I know she can go longet, as she’s fine when I leave her with my parents for a few hours and she’s done a 5 hour stint at night before (still woke up but not for feeding). I feel your pain! I’m trying to do some gentle sleep training and I’ve stopped feeding to sleep as I think she’s waking between sleep cycles and wants a feed to go back to sleep. Hopefully it gets better for you soon!

@kate i’m going through this aswell my son wakes every 1 hour don’t know what to do havnt slept in months im really struggling

If she's breastfeeding every 2 hours overnight it sounds more like comfort than hunger. If she won't sleep without it could you try reducing how much you're feeding at each wake and try and wean her off the feeding that way?

with my lo he just won’t settle will cry hysterically unless i give in and feed

@Kate I found it really helped. I was so desperate I looked at sleep training. We've not gone all the way with it but have used some of the principles such as putting down to bed awake, not feeding to sleep and having a set "feeding is ok" time. It has been flexible to whatever is going on with him to some extent. Like last week he was really unwell so we rocked to sleep and fed more often but we've just gone back to how we were doing it before and it has made a huge difference. Sleep cycles he mostly connects himself or he just needs a bit of bum patting. When that doesn't work, from around 5 onwards, I'm open to feeding him to get him through the last couple of hours. I'm not sure how it would work with cosleeping but you might be able to find a way. Or, if you wanted to move her to her own bed again, you'd probably have to struggle through a few tough nights before things start to settle. When we made changes, I told my partner that he needed to do the resettling the first part of the night so no boob.

@Faye how did the putting him down to bed awake work? Yeah I don't want to do sleep training either but I'm just exhausted. Last night I fed her before bed then she did wake up two hours later but I managed to get her back to sleep by rocking, without a feed so she went about 4.5 hours without a feed at the beginning which was good. But after that I had to resettle so much more than every two hours which was hard. Ahh okay, yeah a little bum tapping or something is okay if you can go straight back to sleep yourself. I did this a few times it helped but sometimes I had to get up and rock her. But maybe harder for me to do it because she can smell the milk, esp co sleeping. Will try get my partner to do it to see if that helps. Hoping to get her in her own bedroom soon. Hopefully a few hard nights will pay off if I try to be consistent. when I'm so tired in the night it's quicker to just feed her back to sleep than resettle her but I need to try change something.

@Kate can't lie, he hasn't been happy about it and does cry, but we take it in turns to stay with him until he does eventually fall asleep. Sometimes it's really quick, other times he's just busy standing up so we let him know we are there and he's OK. I was similar to you with cosleeping and he would often end up in bed with me but that was becoming earlier and earlier in the night and just wasn't comfortable for me. You'll find your way.

Aww bless him. He knows you are there too which is important. Ekk thankyou hopefully I get to sleep soon 🤞x

@Shazza I feel you! We've been the same for alot of the 8months 🙈 it's so hard isn't it. But it will get better. I'm going to try the things suggested in this post and hopefully it will help, even if a little 🤞😴

@Kate thank you i will try also, just feel sooo out of my depth, he’s such a good baby in the day it’s just the nights im sooooooo exhausted 😩