7 months - bf, solids and night wakeings

[mumstheword]

Hello all,

the ladies on the general sleep issues forum have recommended this forum for my questions. My ds will be 7 months old on monday. He is on 4 hour easy, he naps for 2 hours with a cat nap in the evening, goes to sleep on his own and if he wakes, can settle himself again too (it took a lot of practice and sleepless nights though).

He is bf, and takes a full feed at around 11pm, which is not strictly a df, because it's 4 hours after his last feed and he wakes for it. That is my problem, he wakes in the night every 4 hours too, takes a full feed and goes back to sleep. He has been doing this for about 6 weeks now, before that, night wakings were sporadic, sometimes he slept through.
I started him on solids 3 weeks ago, he now has about 3.5 ounces of solids (fruit, veggies, porridge) 3 times a day, about 1 hour after bf.
What am I doing wrong? Is he not getting enough milk? I know the night wakings are not habit, because I tried to reduce the minutes he nursed for a couple of nights, by only 1 minute per side - he woke up 3 hours later instead of 4.
I would really appreciate any help, thank you!

[Samuel's mum]

So every 4 hours at night means 11ish, 3ish, up at 7?

Sounds perfectly normal to me - even for a 7 month old. Here's our recent survey:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=55035.0


There are of course some babies sleeping through at that age but certainly not all.  My LO was very similar and I genuinely felt he needed those feeds. I could cope just fine with my sleep being interrrupted once or twice. If I'd felt he was waking for anything other than hunger perhaps I would have felt differently.

You say he can settle himself at other times (well done) so he's obviously not needing you to transition between sleep cycles or for comfort. Suggestions like offering water, making sure he takes 2 sides or even 3 (back to the first) come to mind but I think you've tried most things.

I would personally say wait it out and see if solids make an impact in the next few weeks. I'm sorry I don't have magic answers!! If you're really suffering is there someone who can give some ebm in a bottle for at least the 11pm?

[mumstheword]

Thanks for the reply - I never realised that it was that normal. I don't mind one bit getting up to feed (I love it, infact, they are special moments!) and at 7 months, I know my bf days will be finished before I know it - I just thought that something I was doing was robbing him of a goods night sleep.
I feel sooooooooo much better now. Thanks.

[Samuel's mum]

I found this quote from someone on the LLL forum (I check out the extended nursing forum)

 

...But the way I figure it is that I have the majority of the rest of my life to have time for myself & that these very few precious breastfeeding years are "once in a life time" w/ each child & will be over way too fast & I want to cherish every moment of them!

 

I thought it was quite sweet (not to say I don't deserve to go to the cinema by myself tomorrow you understand)!