Comfort v. Hunger in nighttime nursing

[Sfcmama]

I have a 9.5 mo old DD who has been EBF up until ~6 weeks ago when we started blw. (Prior attempts at solids were tried but she wasn't ready.) DD more easily accepts food from others when I'm away but thats only a few times a week. Other than that, she mostly just explores the food and doesn't seem to get much down.

When she started crawling, she seemed to start waking more to nurse at night and I'm wondering if she's really needing the calories (in which case I'm happy to nurse) or just having trouble getting herself resettled (in which case DH can take over). She's definitely a distracted nurser during the day and get most of her BM nursing down for naps. When she does nurse at night, she's not fully awake but does chug for a few minutes before unlatching or me popping her off (using NCSS method) and falling back to sleep.

I know sleep is not linear but we are going from 3-5 hour stretches to every 2 hrs or less and it's starting to take a toll on my body...

Any thoughts? Btdt stories?
Thanks _/|\_

[PatioGardener]

My little guy (7 months) is almost crawling, and has started to nurse every 2 hours at night in the past week.  He was going 4-5 hours before.  We just started solids, so I figure he needs the extra milk.  He is also very sure about when he wants comfort and when he wants to nurse.  He does not comfort nurse - he prefers his thumb - so if he asks to nurse I know he is hungry!

HTH

[Sfcmama]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener 

My little guy (7 months) is almost crawling, and has started to nurse every 2 hours at night in the past week.  He was going 4-5 hours before.  We just started solids, so I figure he needs the extra milk.  He is also very sure about when he wants comfort and when he wants to nurse.  He does not comfort nurse - he prefers his thumb - so if he asks to nurse I know he is hungry!

HTH

Thanks. My hunch is that she's going to need to eat more at night until she's actually eating solids as a meal... Glad to hear crawling may be the culprit ;0)

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by Sfcmama 

Thanks. My hunch is that she's going to need to eat more at night until she's actually eating solids as a meal... Glad to hear crawling may be the culprit ;0)

Good to know that it may not stop when he actually learns to crawl!  I was sort of looking forward to it...

[Bflygal7]

Hi!  I thought I'd weigh in here.  We'd been going on a year and still not sleeping through the night - waking up every 2-3 hours, etc to nurse.  The lack of sleep was really taking its toll on me.  I went to the St. Luke's sleep center in St. Louis where the nurse told me that my little guy could absolutely fast through the night and that he woke out of habit and the desire to be comforted by mom via the closeness and companionship of nursing.  She said that nursing is extremely comforting and that it is a habit that needs to be broken and it's not enough to simply hope that they grow out of it.  Armed with this knowledge, I started sending dad in at timed intervals and my little guy learned to go back to sleep, especially in the early part of the night when he was the most tired.  Around 4 am, if my son was still having difficulty, I was sending Dad in with a bottle of milk I expressed.  At the nurse's advice I eventually decided to forgo the 4 am pumping because I didn't want my son to learn that if he cried long enough he'd receive milk, and the consistency has paid off.  The first few nights are the hardest.

Are we sleeping through the night yet?  Not yet.  We started making good progress (getting sleep intervals of 4-5 hours, the longest I'd ever experienced) and then we went away for Thanksgiving and the new surroundings really threw my son for a loop so we pretty much did whatever it took to comfort him.  When we got home things were really out of control but we started being consistent about not nursing at night and he has fasted through the night on 2 occasions.  

I don't know if my son would have eventually grown out of night nursing or not but I couldn't wait anymore to find out.  Waking every 2-3 hours for more than a year was making it difficult for me to be the best parent I could be during the day and also the most productive and actualized mom I could be.  Incidently, we started solids late (10 months or so) but it had absolutely no impact on my son's sleep, nor did his activity level during the day.

[PatioGardener]

For people interested in gentle night weaning after 1 year, the Jay Gordon method may be useful: http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html

At the moment my baby is only 7 months old, and actually sleeps 10-12 hours at night (he nurses without waking), so I can't imagine ever wanting to "break" him of this (or anything he does).  I realise that not all babies are the same, and patterns often need to change as they get older.  I do like Jay Gordon's gentle approach to changing sleep patterns after 1 year.  Hopefully it will work for us if we ever need it. 

[Sfcmama]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener 

For people interested in gentle night weaning after 1 year, the Jay Gordon method may be useful: http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html

At the moment my baby is only 7 months old, and actually sleeps 10-12 hours at night (he nurses without waking), so I can't imagine ever wanting to "break" him of this (or anything he does).  I realise that not all babies are the same, and patterns often need to change as they get older.  I do like Jay Gordon's gentle approach to changing sleep patterns after 1 year.  Hopefully it will work for us if we ever need it. 

I guess that's my dilemma... DD doesn't really wake when she's nursing at night so I don't want to create a problem where one doesn't exist. And, yes, "breaking her" of a habit is sounds harsh - I'm also not clear how that would work with cosleeping...?
I am aware of the jay Gordon method and have a few months before DD is a year. Maybe she will be better on solids by then and the Italian mama in me won't be worried that she's hungry in the middle of the night ;0)

[PatioGardener]

How have things been this past week, Sfcmama?  My guy did some reverse cycling (so much excitement during the day!) but is starting to go longer again at night now.

[Buzzer Beater]

Been followin' this thread...

DD is just 7 months and we're all tired here too! I'm starting to wonder when this gets better, when DO babes STTN? Or yeah, just longer than 3 hours? It occurs to me this could go on and on, and I have no knowledge of how to change it... I can't imagine not responding to her when she needs me in the night (she's in a co-sleeper). She's not just looking for comfort, she's really nursing quite a bit, and luckily she goes right back to sleep. I guess we'll just stick it out, not like I need to be anywhere in the morning but with my babe. In perspective I am a lucky mama!

[Sfcmama]

Thanks for checking back with me, patiogarder. Of course, shortly after i posted, DD's teeth started popping through!!! So I'm thinking she was hurting and wanting to nurse to help settle. Her two bottom teeth have popped through and she's already starting to eat more solids. We are back to a couple 3 hour stretches a night and even got one 4 hour stretch when I put her back in the sidecar after a middle of the night nursing. I'd been suspecting for some time that DH wakes her up when shes sleeping in between us but got reallynlazy about falling back asleep while nursing her. Now, my goal is to try to put her back in the sidecar whenever I can muster the strength...
That is until the next set of teeth start coming in ;0)

Just another lesson in "this too shall pass"!!!

Hope you mamas are doing ok! Hugs!