Night Weaning 6 months - is this a good plan?

[Seren mum]

Hi

would love some advice!  my 6 month old dd who is ebf has never STTN.  She used to wake only once but since returning from overseas holiday is waking twice at night.  So far, I've taken the easy option and just fed her   She has no props and goes to sleep independantly for all naps and bedtime.  After night feeds, she is put back into bed awake and just goes straight off to sleep.

The first night feed is at different times and some nights she's hungry and other nights not really.  The second night feeds seems to always be at about 3:30am and she doesn't really seem hungry.

So far, I have tried the 'reducing the amount of time she feeds' approach and are only doing one breast at each feed time.  After she has fed for awhile and is slowing down I take her off the breast and try to settle, if she really protests I put her back onto breast and wait about 10 seconds before taking her off again.  normally it takes only about 3 tries and then I can just calm her in cot before leaving her awake to then go to sleep by herself.  HOWEVER,  after doing this for a month,  she's still waking twice.

Therefore, I'm wondering if I should try a different approach.  I was thinking of feeding her both sides at the first wake up so she's nice and full and then doing PUPD for the second (as it seems like a habitual waking).  IS THIS A STUPID PLAN?

Any advice appreciated!  (btw i also tried doing a df over a 2 week period but made NW worse, so just stopped that)
thanks

[samsmam]

Can you post your typical EASY?  NWs could be being affected by what's going on in the daytime.  I know with my LO, they definitely do!

[Seren mum]

Hi samsmam.

We were on a pretty good 4 hour EASY, but in the last 3 weeks, her naps have gotten shorter and she seems hungry mostly around the 3 1/2 hour mark.  Her A times are normally around the 2 hour 10min mark, but are trying to increase these starting today, because I think this might help.  I didn't realise that A times could affect the NW - can they?

[Tweakster]

Hi there, yes your A times can affect what happens in the night.  If they wake happy at night they are usually looking for more play time in the day.

Have a read here for some good tips and related advice:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=87815.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=52857.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=52878.0

[samsmam]

Here is a useful link which may help you know when to adjust your daytime A times:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64158.0

As a rule of thumb, at 6 months she should be getting 2.5-3 hours of A time in a 4 hour cycle.

Another thought... have you started to wean your little one onto solids at all?  You don't mention it in your post but it may be now that she is starting to need additional calories from solid food and she is waking from genuine hunger.  From 6 months breastmilk doesn't contain everything that they need (iron for example) so solids should be introduced. 

HTH