Night feeds increasing with age?

I'm sure you really don't want to hear this, but yes she may very well need night feeds. My DD did exactly what yours has done (sleeping through by around 8wks till 16-17 when she started waking again). We have since gone through several phases of 'sleeping through' followed by 'waking lots' *sigh*

The way I figure it, even though I know she *can* sleep through, it doesn't actually mean she should.

Also re. solids - she will get there.. it took my DD 6 weeks before she was actually eating (prior was literally touching, sucking & spitting food out). But don't rely on solids to stop night wakings.

I'm sure you are really tired and see that you have another wee one to run around after. All I can suggest is uping the feeds during the day (demand feeding rather than schedule) Your DD is still very little and if she is hungry at night then she's hungry. Hope you manage to get some rest soon, sleep deprivation is not fun!

I shouldnt tell you but James did this from 5 months till 9 months and STILL wakes most nights for 1 or 2 feeds. Tom never did this.

No haven't really. She latches and feeds well when hungry so not sure they could help. Her last feed was 6am...it is now 1.30. She has had 2 small snacks today and that is it. Very odd.

Both my kids started re-waking around that age and stopped when they started solids .... so even though people may say it doesn't help, I certainly think it did. They were however still feeding heaps during the day too. If Morgan does ever feed in the night (she has once this week cos shes teething) then she barely feeds in the morning too - I assume cos shes not really hungry from feeding in the night .... so the only thing I can suggest to reverse the pattern is to spend a night trying to re-settle without a feed. It may mean not much sleep, but at least she will be hungry during the day again.

Or have you tried one boob an hour after the first one is offered? She may be hungry enough to take some more then.

Sounds like night-day feeding confusion (if there is such a thing). Is it possible to go to a Plunket Family Centre for a day and see if they can help?

So she's not hungry during the day because she is fed during the night, right?

If I were in your shoes I'd call Plunketline. While I have a like/dislike relationship with Plunket, they know their stuff and have sorted me out with sleep issues. It shouldn't take long to get your DD sorted I reckon, once you have a plan.

If I were you, I would try and get that morning big feed back which means...... holding off feeding in the middle of the night for as long as possible. Once that big morning feed is back, you'll be able to get back into a sort of eating routine (i'd hope).

So, yeah, starve so that she's super hungry at the right time. Mean as it sounds. Perhaps offer water instead.

ETA that I had to do this so that I could start fully FFing my son properly. I found that he was waking in the night again despite three solid meals a day and I didn't know why so would just feed him to resettle. I was feeding him sometimes at 2am and 5am and then when he woke again at 7, he'd only eat for 5 - 10 minutes at the most. So it put all the other feeds out of whack. So once I got him back to the big mornng feed, I knew that he wasn't waking from hunger and I could address the real reason he was waking in the night and be more patient when resettling him.

Prob not much help....

Edited by MrsH