OK to limit night BFs for 6mos-old?

[sadiebean]

Hi,
This is a combo BF and sleep question, but right now I want the pro-BF perspective.

My 6-mos-old has always woken repeatedly at night, with some pretty regular wakeup times (9:30ish, 12ish, 2:30ish, 4:30ish), though it's definitely also varied, esp. when I was doing a DF.

He eats (I think) very well thruout the day, I feed him after his nap and typically a second time before his next nap. He falls asleep on his own, with a simple routine, so that's not the issue either. He naps well, with a typical schedule for his age (two 1.5-2hr naps at about 8:30am and 12:30pm, and a catnap at about 4pm). He goes to bed at about 6:30pm, not overtired. So... I think I'm doing the rest of the equation as well as I can.

I'm spent. But I don't want to curtail his night eating if he needs it. He's a big boy, probably 20lbs, at just 6 months old today. And really not fat.

Is it ok to limit his feeds? I'd be happy even to just drop one waking, since the first one is before I go to be anyway.

I managed a couple of weeks ago to get him to go from 10pm to 7am (after a few night of lots of tears, sitting right beside him and patting him, just no feeding). Only to wonder the next day if my milk production had diminished, and then to have him come down very sick with a terrible cold. And now I'm plotting my next move....

Many thanks for your input!
Ann

[lilmonkey]

Hmmm...at 6 mos I was still nursing ds once at night around 4/5am with the last feed at 7/7:30pm sometimes twice when he was going through a gs.  Also, he was more of a 3.5hr EASY.  Some days he was nursing 5/6 times.  I do think that you can try to stretch him out to 6-7hrs at night.  Have you tried settling him back to sleep after the 12:30am wakings?  A nice 2hr interval at night makes me think that he is using you to get back to sleep. 

As for the supply issue, I *think* that as long as you are still nursing regularly and he is taking a full feed then it shouldn't be a problem.  Your body just learn to adjust to his needs, making more milk to compensate for the decrease in the night feeds.  My milk capacity is small so I was afraid that I'll be nursing all day and all night.  But ds slowly learned to take most of his feeds in the day early on.  We weren't on a strict EASY plan and I used breast compressions for all the feeds until he weaned at 12 mos.

HTH a little

[sadiebean]

Your input on supply is very helpful, thank you! Looking back, I wonder if his fussiness that day was because he was starting to feel rotten (he had a temp 2 days later) and not for lack of milk.

Also, if he would always go right back to sleep after eating it'd be easier, but sometimes he doesn't and needs to be nursed again, etc, telling him it's really a crutch not a food thing.

He had so much gas as a little infant because of oversupply, the habits have just stuck since then.

But anyway, it sounds like I wouldn't be starving him... which I'm not worried about for one night. More that we'd go thru all the tears for a THIRD time (twice already this month we did a week's worth, to have it undone first by a fever, then that terrible cold) only to find out Oops! he IS hungry!

So perhaps I feed him once between bedtime and midnight and that's it...?

[lilmonkey]

Once or twice at night is still normal for a bf'ed baby at 6 mos.  I really hate to tell you to only give him one feeding and not feed him till the morning without considering how his day feeds are.  Is he on solids?  Sometimes solids can cause nightwakings in babies that have sttn before. 

I do know that when I tried to get rid of the second nightfeeding after the gs, I made sure that ds was getting as much as possible during the day.  Ironically his true nightfeed was around the 4/5am and the second one he added was before midnight.  It was the one before midnight that I got rid off.  I simply send dh in to settle him after determining that ds was using me to get back to sleep.

What I would do in your situation is determine which nightfeed(s) is real.  Is he taking a full feed or just comfort nursing?  Once you know that, then concentrate on getting rid of the comfort nursing feeds.  Get dh involved.