breast feeding at night

[dind]

Hi I'm new here.

I have a 4 1/2 months old baby that has never slept in her cot and can't fall asleep by herself. basically she has no routine at all.

I am starting the 4 hour feeding routine from tomorrow + the PU/PD. But have a question.

Currently my baby wakes about every hour to an hour and a half at night. She is breast feeding. She is a snacker, feeding only for 10 minutes maximum every feed, including day time feeds.

Using the feeding every 4 hours routine, would you advise sticking to this rigidly during the night to start with, as it very different to her current habbits?

I hope someone can help me.

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

You might have a hard time going straight to the 4 hr schedule, and not all breastfed babies can actually go that long during the day at that age - breastmilk tends to be digested faster than formula. The other thing to consider is that for a 4.5 month old, 10 minutes might BE a full feed - they're usually pretty efficient at that age.  The most important things are: getting a full feed, and disassociating breastfeeding with going to sleep.  Part of the problem at night is that she expects to be able to suck herself back to sleep during all the little wakings that babies tend to have :roll: .  Are you feeding right before nap time and bed time?  You might try moving this to a different part of your routine and do something else as a wind down. To get a full feed, use breast compression and you can try distracting her with other things (go for a walk...) to hold her off for 2 or hrs during the day to start off.  You'll probably find that as she goes longer during the day, she'll take a better feed. 

How you plan to implement these changes is really up to you - whether you want to do it gradually or more abruptly.  If you try to go straight to the 4 hr cycle and have your lo sleep in her crib all night all at once, you're in for some rough nights, but you can probably do the transition in a week or so (I imagine - but I'm just guessing).  You might want to try going a bit more gradually (first working on snacking, and extending feeds, then work on sleeping in cot, for example). A nice way to help with snacking at night is the Gentle Removal Method (sticky on the nightwaking board).

Not to worry though - it CAN be done!  Good luck!

[annamum]

Welcome!

Most of babies this age are efficient eaters and finish their nursings in less than 10 minutes. Are you sure yours is a snacker? Maybe she just likes to nurse often for comfort, not because of food. Mine was such.

Anyway, with a transition to EASY, do you see any pattern in your baby right now? How often does she need to nurse during the day? How many naps does she have? You can try to incorporate some of this into EASY to make it easier on her, babies don't like changes, especially when they are sudden  :lol: . Tracy suggests to be flexible and it helped me enormously, as not every baby is the same, you need to listen to her needs. Use EASY as an example but don't get stressed out when things don't go smooth at the beginning, for us it was really not easy. I found out that it was much easier for everyone when I was not set on achieving a perfect schedule every day.

I suggest you start with a day routine. Don't try everything at once, it may overwhelm her and you too. Maybe stick with naps first and try to stretch the feedings during the day. Then when she is doing better during the day, she may start going longer stretches at night. I think, personally, that if you want her to sleep better at night, you need to teach her how to go independently to sleep, at first. Besides, it is the most difficult thing for some babies to learn.

Good luck!