SHE SLEPT THROUGH!!!! I am so pumped! My last post was in the midst of terrible insomnia in the wee hours of Wed morning after 'giving in' and feeding dd a little following 1 hour wakefulness and being inconsolable with anything else. I ended up not going back to sleep as I knew I would just let the alarm come and go at 7:00am if I did. So, I got dd up at 7:00 on Wed morning despite her being up for a while the night before. Previously, I had let her sleep if we had a rough night but could see a pattern beginning, so I got her up and gave her a full feed plus once extra on each breast to increase supply. Knowing that I was going to do that on Wed was part of why I only gave her a small feed at 4:00am, so she would be hungry enough to take a full feed at 7:00am.
Then at 8:30 I offered solids. She rarely takes much at that point in the day, but I made sure she had her fav food (bananas) so I knew if she didn't eat much it was a hunger thing and not a food preference thing. Still only took about 5 baby spoonfuls. Each time she nursed yesterday, I offered both breasts twice to increase supply and each time she took the extra offered, which she'll only do if hungry. For solids, I kept feeding her until she objected rather than stopping after a couple of ounces. This led to a HUGE lunch (9 oz) for a total of about 14 oz for the day. She also took great naps and was very content all day. She also didn't wake up early for the df which she had done for a couple of nights and then slept all the way through to 6:45!!!
Granted, this is only one day and things may still change but with that result I am convinced the primary problem was hunger. It was all very confusing as she jsut started to need solids at Christmas (one day after being 5 months) so I didn't think she could possibly need so much food at this point. Also, I had used the technique to increase milk supply for 3 days twice since Christmas and previous growth spurts only needed that once. ALSO, we had an illness and first episode of teething in the middle of all this so I was concerned her waking during illness or teething may have become a pattern, so I really hesitated to offer food at night. And then she is also occasionally sleeping differently during the day and dropping her late afternoon catnap so all our predictable patterns had been turned on their ear! So many changes at this age!! Tracy's book says there is often a major growth spurt at 6 months so I didn't immediately think that was what was happening at 5 months but several people have said their lo's grew more at 5 months. And dd suddenly seems much bigger and is filling the length of the change table and carseat, and standing straight up in exersaucer!
To Travis's Mom, as for adding more cals, the only thing we can do at this point is to add solids, especially for bottle fed babies. The composition of breast milk will add more fat as needed, but your baby's tummy will only hold so much liquid and then he needs more solids for more cals. The only caution I have read is to just not cut out milk feeds and replace with solids, but if baby is still hungry with a full liquid diet, add more food. I personally don't think you need to try to get him to drink more formula if he is already taking max oz over the day. When I look back on my food and sleep log, I found I fed dd at some point in the night for about 1 week and it didn't become a clockwork habit, so if the problem is in fact food, you probably don't have to worry if you still have to feed him at night occasionally while you're working this out. I offer that only because your pattern seems similar to mine, I hope that will help you.
Keep your fingers crossed for me ladies that we continue to have good nights!!!
