8 months old, less interest in BF during day and now NW to feed

[LucK]

Hi,
I’ve posted on the night sleep forum but maybe this is more of a BF issues so here it is.  This past week my LO 8 months started to wake for a feeding at night. The times vary from 10pm, 2:30am, 1am.  This happened 3 nights in a row, fourth night she slept through and on the fifth night she was up at 1am again.  If my husband tries to sooth her she starts to cry and clearly is asking to be nursed.  After I nurse she goes right back to sleep. During the day I’ve also noticed she is more distracted and not nursing as well and either wants to play or is bit fussy at times.  I can get her to nurse more during the day by trying diff. positions or giving her the other side before she finishes the first so sometimes I’m moving her from side to side and she will suck for few seconds then sits up starts to play etc. Sometimes she BF better.  She is also getting restless when eating solids past few days and we haven’t introduced any new foods or increased solids as she’s been constipated for weeks and just getting over it now I think/hope.

My LO started STTN at 2.5 months (12-13hrs), at 5.5 months she started to wake around 5:30am for a feeding and then goes to sleep to 6-7am. Now at 8 months she is asking to be nursed twice at night and her early morning feeding past few days is occurring 4:30-5am and she’s waking up closer to 6am for the day.  Why would a baby that was able to sleep for 13hrs need to be fed more frequently as she gets older.

I'm also thinking teething but there is no gum swelling and my dd1 got her first tooth at 12 mnths so don't want to put this on teething.

This is her EASY:
5-6am BF and back to sleep

6:30-7am BF
7:30am solid food purees

9am nap usually 1 to 1.5hrs

10:30am BF
11:45am solid food purees

1:30pm nap usually 1 to 1.5 hrs

3pm BF

5:00solid food finger foods mainly as an activity to join her 3year old sister and me during dinner

Depending on her naps and how tired she is the BT is between 6 and 6:30 (prior tried for later bedtime to get her to drop EW feed but never worked)

5:30/6:00 BF, bath and bed

Any suggestions to get her to nurse better during the day and what to do about NW I would appreciate.

[Erin M]

At this age, the distraction can certainly come into play.  Have you tried feeding her in a darkened room, or maybe right when she gets up from her nap before she's fully awake?  Sometimes LOs will take more when they're still somewhat sleepy.  Could also be a random growth spurt or something developmental going on.  Is she feeding ok at her wake up feed since she has the feed just a few hours before?  Have you tried decreasing that one at all - either by only offering one side or by decreasing the amount of time she's nursing?  Might be something you would try at night too in order to shift the calorie intake to the day.  Of course it could be teeth too, but it's so hard to tell whether or not that's affecting things or not. 

[shivi]

Definately recommend feeding before she finishes her nap. I had to do this with my two very stable STTN-ers and ebf babies to get them to take full feeds from 5 mths, or even earlier (two spiriteds).

I would creep into their room, have them latch on before they'd even be aware and we'd get much, much better feeds this way.

S x

[LucK]

At night I always do only one sided feed and I usually wait until she drifts of to sleep or semi sleep and her sucking slows.  Actually I used to do only one sided feeds during the day until now so to get a feeding I've started to offer both sides.  Yesterday she fed well lying side to side on the bed with me.  Today my 3yr old is home so the baby only wanted to play with her and not feed after the morning nap.  I'll try feeding right after nap in her dark room in the afternoon and see how it goes. 

She usually doesn't eat much during her wake up feed so then she just has solids a bit later.

Shivi, did they wake up when you latched them on or did they continue to sleep? 

I think there is something else that's bugging her because she has fussy moments and she grunts on and off.  She's also more gassy and had a spit up just now which she haven't had for a long time now.
I think I'll wait couple of more days and then start cutting down on the feeds at night.

[shivi]

mine ate kind of semi-comotose....with that sleepy look in their eyes.