6 month old night feeds

what would i do?

i would probably try a resettle without boob first, check her bum and all that, change if wet, give cuddles and snuggle her back up. but if she wasnt happy then i would feed her.
oh i would probably also check that she isnt getting too hot. it is definitley warmer at night now and she may be thirsty more than hungry cause she is hot!

and if i were YOU i would stop going by "usually" happens as there is no such thing with babies! Thants just my opinion tho of course!

Is she on solids yet?

DS was a bit like that - waking up more and more often for feeds. Once we introduced solids (just baby rice and EBM) he slept a bit longer and fed at 11/12 and 4/5 rather than every 2-3 hours.

Having said that, he didn't sleep right through the night til 8 months when I introduced formula. The formula clearly kept him fuller than my milk.

I called Plunketline when DS started needing more night feeds and they advised that DH get up and try and settle him and see if that worked. We tried for couple of nights and always ended up DS agitated and me feeding him anyway. Plunket's next plan was to introduce solids - which worked. (DS was about 4.5 months when we introduced solids btw)

Sounds like she's just getting hungrier. My DD did the same about a month ago (she's 7mo now) so I started with apple and baby rice. shes great now. I was set on doing BLW, but I found that if I just got a "dinner" into her, she did great sleeping. maybe try cruskit, its a bit more "solid" than easy to eat fruit. HTH

FionaS wrote: So what do you think? Does she need 2 or 3 night feeds??

Yes.

FionaS wrote: Why are they INCREASING, not staying consistent or decreasing as they usually do at this age?

I am not sure how much stock I'd be putting in the theory that babies are "supposed" to be dropping feeds - often they are getting hungrier and starting solids, so to me it makes sense that they'd still want a fair amount of breastmilk if not more.

Are you schedule or cue feeding?

FionaS wrote: What about the fact she is the not hungry in the morning?

Do you feed her as soon as she wakes or do you wait a while? Is she eating solids in the morning yet?

FionaS wrote: Those who know me will know we have big sleep challenges with our first daughter so this added night waking lends towards one very tired household.

Is there some way that you can be more supported in the daytime and catch some extra naps to top up your 'sleep bank', or are you able to express and have your husband do the occasional night feed by bottle? I understand if you have already tried expressing and can't, I have never had any luck with it either but fortunately have no need for using EBM anyway.

Overall though, it sounds like your daughter is developing beautifully and you are meeting all her needs - are there any other underlying issues that are causing you to worry about this more than you need to?

mayb you could contact that parent port place i posted about if you arent getting enough sleep, i'm sure sleep issues were one of the things they helped with. (thats parents with sleep issues mind not kids).

another thing too, is makeing sure she is having good calorific feeds off you during the day, not snacking. You could also re visit cluster feeding perhaps to try to tank her up?

I personally don't think she needs to feed that often in the night, and agree with you re getting the calories in during the day. I think the whole household is alot happier when everyone is getting a good nights sleep (don't shot me, just my opinion) and its important for both baby and mum to get uninterrupted sleep.

Both my kids started waking around 4-5 months after sleeping thru young .... I'm certain due to hunger so of course fed them, but also with Morgan we started a formula at night which helped and once they were established on solids both slept through again. I've found they both sleep better with a big dinner and decent bottle (Jake had EBM til 6 months at night then formula but was otherwise BF'd, and Morgan had formula at night from 4 months but otherwise BFd). I know some people say it doesn't help, but solids definitely helped my kids sleep better again.

Sounds like she is doing great otherwise though! If you do want to try something --- I personally would up her dinner (give her some toast if you don't want to spoon feed) and do EMB (or formula if you are OK with it) for her last feed if I was you, so you know shes had a good 200mls+. Then when she wakes for a couple of nights try to resettle without feeding, so she is going longer. Once shes going all night again she will be hungry for a good feed in the morning. Morgan went through the not hungry in the morning thing when she started waking for feeds - was really annoying! I too preferred her to feed in the morning than night!

Good luck. I know how annoying it is .... and yes, it is very "normal" but I still think there is nothing wrong with trying to improve it.

PS - should also say, Morgan still wakes the odd night and I feed her sometimes cos its the quickest way to get her back to sleep (but she will re-settle with a cuddle / dummy most of the time), but most nights she doesn't wake til about 6am now.

Oh no, good luck with the weigh in .... hopefully it was just an issue with your scales, as that doesn't sound good. Let us know how you get on.

Yeap pretty sure she feeds really well each time. I've never had supply issues and I eat like a horse so I am baffled by her weight gain, or lack there of.

She looks really healthy.

Nope bizzy...she hasn't.