any ideas to stop night wakings and increase MY sleep?

[Shian&Edensmum]

Eden is now 17 weeks.  She has slept "well" at night since about 7 weeks - until about a week ago her day naps only lasted 30 mins but using wake to sleep and adjusting her up time in the morning she is now having 2 x 1.5/2hr naps plus a catnap of about 45 mins.  she gets her last feed around 6.15pm and she goes to bed around 6.30pm/6.45pm - this is following her lead - she really cannot cope with any later than that.  She doesnt have a DF (we tried this a few times but she was never into it). 

I'm really looking for ideas to extend her sleep time without getting into a habit of feeding again during the night.  She wakes around 2.30am/3am and shuffles around and moans - she doesnt cry though.  I give her dummy to her and it sends her back to sleep.  she then repeats this every 20-30 mins until around 6.30am when she wants to get up (a small cry to wake me up and then she stops and is happy to wait on her first bottle of the day).

I realise she is still young and we should be grateful that she can sleep so long at under 4 months.  I have read other posts which say she should have another feed in that time but she has previously slept through until 5am and even a couple of times through till 7am.  also she is not really waking at such - she just moans and shuffles for her dummy and not crying for a feed.

We have tried increasing her bottles during the day and have also introduced baby rice this week.

I dont want to start a habit of during the night feeding and I would also love to wean her off the dummy but am scared it will make things worse (at least I can get a bit more sleep during the night with it).  I have a 6 year old too and when she was a baby she slept through the nite (7pm til 7am) from around 9 weeks.

Any ideas??

[Katet]

I honestly have to say feed her, she will probably go back to waking later as my ds has done 3 or 4 times.
going 7pm-7am before 6 months is lucky & it is VERY normal for a baby to want a night feed between 7 & 7 until even 9mo.
stiring every 20-30mins is sometimes an indication of thirst rather than hunger so as you are ff you could try just offering cooled boiled water.

[Shian&Edensmum]

I don't think she is hungry cos she doesnt actually cry - and trust me, when Eden is hungry the whole town knows about it. lol.  also when she gets her bottle around 6am she doesnt finish it all.

It might be the thirst thing though.  I gave her some cooled bottled water last night and she settled down for an hour or so after that.  Will keep it going for a few nights and see how it goes.  . 

Thanks for the advice.

[kellyhushhh]

It really does sound like hunger, i know what you mean about knowing about it when they are hungry though. I went through this for the last few weeks, ds used to sleep 7-7 without a feed but he was waking at 5am and impossible to get back down until i gave in and kept feeding him at 6am. Last night i fed him at 6.30pm and gave him dream feed, expecting him to take nothing... he downed 9 ounces and slept through....yey!!!

If you have tried previously with the dreamfeed, i would say try again, making sure you leave it a good 3.5 or 4 hours since last feed, so say 11pm.  Try giving less at the bed time feed and you should find she will hopefully be hungry at 11pm

The fact she is waking constantly makes it quite clear it is hunger.

Give it a try what have you got to lose

Kelly xx