7 month old night nursing all the time..(long)

[Jaimep]

Hi all. I think I already know what some of you will say. BUT I have to ask some questions.
When my DD was born, she would go 2-3 hours sometimes 4 at night. Then about 5 months she started doing a few 4-5 hour stretches. Then a few weeks later, she started nursing every 2 hours , sometimes more. Then about 7 months she would once in a while suck her fingers and go back to sleep. So I thought I would try to see if I could pat her sometimes back to sleep and hopefully extend our nursing to every three hours.

The first week was AWESOME. It worked like a charm. Only once or twice I had to pick her up and actually rock her in my arms. The other times i could just pat her. This continued into the second week. She once even went 4 hours till nursing.

Well this week has been hell. She immediately starts crying if I try to pat her instead of nursing her. So I have tried picking her up and she starts crying like I have broke her heart. So I just stop and nurse her. I am not trying to wean her, I just thought she was showing signs of being able to sleep longer and was trying to help her and me get some more sleep.

I wonder if anyone has been through this? I just don't get it...it was going well and then the next night it is all a mess.
So tell me the truth ladies, am I being unrealistic? Is she too young? Is there too many things going on with her, learning to crawl, teething, etc... to even think this would work?
Should I give it a few nights and try again?
One thing that did happen the other night, I put her to bed and forgot to turn on the monitor, she was crying for a few minutes before I heard her. COuld this be the sudden problem??

Oh and she does co-sleep with us.

[MamaTT]

I seem to remember by first doing this about the same time, perhaps.

I do think that the crying *might* have something to do with it, however to me it is more likely teething or developmentally related, as in the new crawling you mentioned. I tend to give these things a little break and then come back to them later on.

You could also try nursing her and as soon as she startes to flutter suck, take her off again. If you read The No-cry Sleep Solution, it suggests this a a method which eventually helps to reduce the need to nurse during the night.

I have heard it is easier to eliminate all or most of the night nursing after 10 months or so.

HTH!

[sea island mama]

In my experience, the only thing you can be sure of is if you think you have them figured out, they'll change : . Ds (almost 10 months) slept for some quite long stretches early on. Now, I can't remember the last time he went more than about 2-3 hours at a time . He has been teething, sick & learning to scoot & pull up for the last few weeks. Some kids sleep long stretches & some don't.
I guess my question would be, why do you not want to nurse when she wakes? For me it is a roll over & nurse for a couple of minutes & we both go right back to sleep. It would be more trouble to convince him to sleep without nursing.
Yes, it is nice to get those long stretches of sleep, but they are only this age for such a short time (looking back at dd) & things will get better on their own before you know it .

[Jaimep]

Its not that I don't want to nurse her at night. I guess that sometimes when she wakes so much, I am tired the next day and think it would be easier if she slept through the night.
I keep wondering if me being so quick to nurse her is the reason why she keeps waking up all the time. :

[Raven67]

I am wondering what you mean by "pick her up"? If you co-sleep, do you not just nurse lying down? I know some people can't make that work. It is great for us...I don't usually sleep until she de-latches, but at least it is more restful to tuck her in beside me and nurse rather than sit up, which is what I did when DD was first born. Also, I latch her on as soon as she starts to stir, which seems to make her wakings much shorter than if she fully wakes. Good luck, it sounds hard! I am holding my breath as my almost-four-month old goes 4-5 hours each night without stirring. But, I dread the thought that this pattern could change at any time.

[be11ydancer]

When my daughter was 6 and 7 months old, she went through a monster of a growth spurt. She nursed hourly all day for about a month and at night, she would nurse every two hours. Perhaps your baby is going through a growth spurt as well. My baby also tends to nurse constantly at night when she's coming down with a cold or something. And when we've had a long day of being out and about, she nurses constantly at night. The other night, she gave me a 4 hour stretch between feedings , so I really only got up once with her that night. But the nights following she got up about every two hours . So my assumption is that at this age (she's 8 months now), they have so much going on in their brains that any kind of schedule they may have been on get's completely screwed up and it's unpredictable what they'll do from night to night. Hang in there, mama!