5mo waking multiple times for over a month

[baby_mama]

Hi ladies

I posted about a month ago saying my little ones night sleep is just awful. We haven't had any improvement we had a tough month with 2 teeth, jabs and 2 nasty colds. But that has all passed now!

I have massively increased her A time, our days are like this;

A - 7.30 (she usually feeds and goes back to sleep at 6ish)
E - 8.30
S - 9
A - 9.45/10
E - 11
S - 12/12.30
E - 2.30
S - 4.30
E - small feed at 5ish and then again before bed at 6.45ish
S - 7
DF - 10, she usually wakes herself
NW begin within a couple of hours and continue through the night!

I know it's not quite the Bw routine for her age but it's what works for our family, and I think she's getting the same amount of sleep, just at slightly different times. She is only just able to go 2.5 hrs between sleeps so we are really working on stretching A time and feed times.

She is bf and 5 months old - 23 weeks on Sunday. She seems super hungry at night but I find it odd as she is not hungry in the day - she never feeds for more than 5/10 mins and rarely cries because she's hungry. She's not big - on the 50th percentile. But at night she gobbles it down. I tried giving her a formula dream feed. She took 4oz and then less than 2 hrs later wanted a full breastfeed. I'm worried she's doing her eating at night rather than in the day but have no idea how to change it round?

Getting quite desperate, any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Hx

[Ima shel Alon]

At her age she should be doing more like 2-2.5h A time. Right now it seems she is doing less than that and that's why the first nap is UT. IIWY I would be working on upping her A to the above, by 10-15min for 3-4 days and during those days stick to the new A so you give her enough time to get used to it.

Can you give some more information about the NW - can you post a night? When were the NW? are you feeding for all NW right now? Is she settling straight away back to sleep?
It does sound like she is taking her main feeds at night instead of during the day. I think it's still ok for her to have a couple of NF at her age and considering she is BF, but what you could try and limit the time of the feed. For example if a feed now takes 10min each time then you can reduce it by a minute every three nights and hopefully that will make her feed more during the day.

[baby_mama]

I know her morning nap looks UT but I'm actually waking her as I just can't do a long morning nap as I have two older daughters. We have to be out and about at playgroup etc, so she's been having a shorter nap in the morning and then a longer one at lunch time and a cat nap late afternoon. Do you think this is a problem? I was thinking it would be ok as long as she's getting enough sleep in the day.

Ok - I do know that I have done some serious AP at night time, but I have had to in order to get sleep and be rested to be a decent parent to all 3 girls the following day. I am pretty much co-sleeping with her. She doesn't seem dependant on that though yet, the nights are the same whether she is in her crib or in our bed. I'm aware it's something I need to sort out! She wakes every 1.5- 2 hours and feeds probably only for about 5 minutes, but she only feeds about 5-10 minutes at her feeds during the day. So She is probably taking more milk at night than in the day.

If I knew she wasn't hungry I would definitely try PU/PD with her but she always seems genuinely hungry! How do I switch her feeds to be more in the day?! I try and keep her on the boob as long as possible but once she's had enough she's not interested.

Just want to say again although I know it's a potential problem I know that we're co-sleeping it really isn't a problem yet. Sometimes she's in her bed the whole night and the wakings are just the same.

I don't know if I've made any sense! I'm so gratefully for your help, thank you so much.

Hx

[Ima shel Alon]

Sweety, I am really not judging you, we all AP to keep our sanity . If you are happy enough with the cosleeping then it's totally fine. Like I said, we also used to have props, but I only used those I was happy with, like naps in the pram and feeding to sleep. You do what you gotta do.
And as well, under the circumstances it's only you who decides about the morning nap - if this makes life easier for you then that's the way it's going to be and one can work around it. I don't think she is sleep deprived, but I do think your main problem is the feeding and that she is using you as a paci at night to go back to sleep.
I still think that your best way to go about it would be to reduce the feeds by 1min every 3 nights. Of course there is a different option of going more "cold turkey" and pick say 2 or 3 times that you feed and not feed before hand. Every NW that will happen before the feeding time you picked you will settle with pat/shh (PU/PD is a last resort after pat/shh has been tried and didn't work). It's really up to you how you want to go about the feeds and you know your baby best so you'd know which way is better for her.
I can tell you from me experience (with bottles, though) that reducing the feeds gradually worked well for us. Saying that, I wouldn't aim getting rid of all of them, it's still ok for her to feed at night at her age if she is BF, just not that often, yk?
What do you think?

[baby_mama]

It sounds a good plan!! I guess the hope is that she gets hungrier in the day? People are encouraging me to wean, but I don't think she needs solids yet.

I really, REALLY appreciate you taking the time to reply. It can be lonely being a mum and trying to make the best decisions.

Thanks again, will give shorter feeds a go tonight.

Hx

[Ima shel Alon]

Motherhood is a lonely lonely task, (((hugs))). That's why I am grateful I found this forum, it made and still makes me feel less lonely.

Yes, the hope is that by taking less calories during the night she will shift them to the day time. If you have Tracey's book she is talking about it there.
How did the night go?