how much do you breastfeed

[amy densley]

hi my son is nearly 7mths old and im breastfeeding him at least 7 feeds a day and he is also having three solid meals a day he has a breastfeed in the morning at about 6am when he wakes up then at 7am he has farex with fruit mixed in it then has another feed at about 10am thats mainly to get him to sleep then he will have lunch around 12noon and thats fruit then a breastfeed at 2ish he will have a breastfeed to get to sleep then at about 5pm he wants another one before his bath and then he has veggies at 5.30pm and at 6.30pm i give him a bottle of formula he is a terrible night sleeper he wakes every hour till bout 11 then might sleep till 3am i have brought this on myself because he falls asleep in my arms and i tend to cosleep after that 3am wake because im so exhausted that it's easier to just put him in bed with me,does my daily routine make sense am i doing the right thing i just wish he would sleep through but i find im still feeding him constantly through the night to get him back to sleep.

[Oscar's mum]

Doing what you are doing do you feel as though you are doing what you think is right? Otherwise if it dosn't feel right perhaps you could think about just having bub sleep in the same room as you instead of bed as an example.

As for the feeding, my DS feeds just as much as yours and he is a few days short of 11 months! Some bubs just seem to love the boobies more than others! ;)

[proudmummy]

Oh you poor thing!

I breastfeed twice a day up until 10 mths and now once a day at 11 1/2. but I do plan to give it up within the next month & I don't think he'll really notice. Luckily for me he started taking a bottle at 6 mths-except now l have to start decreasing that from 4 to 2.
I do have a friend who until recently fed four times a night and her baby is 6 days older than mine. She lives with her mother and when her mother went on holiday she slept in a different room and problem solved.



DS 25-1-05

[Nickster]

Hi Amy,

My daughter has always been a pretty consistent "night waker", which, really, is pretty normal baby behaviour.

I used to have her sleep in a separate room and get up to her umpteen times a night, and I would just do whatever it took to get her back to sleep - which usually involved a breastfeed.

I rock her and breastfeed her to sleep every night. We tried controlled crying at 6 months, but it didn't work. Nothing to me will ever work for my baby as well as a breastfeed and a cuddle in the middle of the night to get her back to sleep. Maybe when she's older and can understand the concept of mummy's boobies going to sleep for the night we can then tackle the night feeds, but for the moment, I just accept it's part of "night-time parenting".

She was having pretty much the same amount of feeds at the same age as your son - between 5 and 7 - usually 7 (including about 2 during the night), but now we've finally discovered co-sleeping, she only wakes once during the night, so everyone's happier and better rested. Lucky you for discovering co-sleeping so long ago!

Libby went through stages of waking several times a night for many months. I just took it to be either teething or her trying to figure out how the whole sleeping thing worked, being such a new little person to the world. Now she just wakes at night, checks I'm there in the bed with her and puts her head back down to sleep - maybe it's just an age thing and your little boy will slowly start to do this?

There's a great book by Elizabeth Pantley called "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" which has some gentle yet effective suggestions for overcoming a lot of baby sleeping (or rather, not sleeping) scenarios. I found it quite useful, and it certainly educated me a lot to what is normal with a baby.

You could also go to www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070100.asp to reassure yourself that what your baby is doing is normal and to check out some other gentle solutions.

Your baby may just settle down as he gets a little older and wiser, but in the meantime big hugs to you, I know it's hard being so sleep deprived. Do you have hubby or partner who can do the bedtime to midnight shift, so then you can take over after midnight? My DH and I had to do that for a while, as I just wasn't getting any sleep.

Take care - I hope things look a little better for you soon!

[jacks mum]

really who's to say what's right and wrong. My health nurse says one thing and someone elses says another.

I've got a 7 month old aswell and he has boob at 6am then goes back to sleep for a while. About 8.30 he has farex, then at about 9.30-10 he has boob. Will sleep again before lunch at about 1.00, then at 2-2.30 more boob another sleep before dinner at 5-5.30 then boob about 6.30-7.00 then bed. We're very lucky and don't hear from him until 5.30 the next morning when dh gets cuddles before leavign for work.

Sounds like I've got it easy, lucky I guess ds has been in his own cot in his room since day one, whether his has anything to do with it I don't know. Each bub is different - I'm sure #2 won't be as easy for us.

Keep doing what you, hubby and bub are happy with.