Hourly nursing through the night

[mosomers]

Okay all you mommies and daddies out there. I'm dying here! My 6 month old wants to nurse at 9 then 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 then 5 then 6 then 8. That's our recent nighttime eating schedule. I don't know how we got on this new pattern but I just can't hack it! I'm so delirious in the night anyway that it took the longest time to figure it out because I was thinking, "I JUST fed you; so if you're not hungry, then what is it?" He just cried and cried and I felt so bad for him (and angry too that I couldn't sleep). Eventually I would nurse him again out of desperation and he would quiet down and go back to sleep until I moved to try to get more comfortable. That would wake him up and we'd go through it again. The other night I couldn't sleep for no apparent reason and I was able to figure out that he DOES in fact want to nurse hourly through a lot of the night. The thing is, as much as I want him to have access to nursing whenever he wants it, my sanity needs to be maintained too. How can I get him on a more reasonable schedule without him crying and wailing through most of the night? I want to maintain our cosleeping arrangements but with 4 kids I really need some SLEEP!

[nstewart]

My DS started waking up more often in the night about a month ago.  He was waking and nursing at 12, 2, 4 and 6 (after being nursed at 11 when DH and I go to bed) when he'd been waking to nurse at 3 and 6.  Then he wouldn't want to eat during the day so I was pretty sure it wasn't a growth spurt, he just wanted to suckle.  What DH and I decided was that if he woke before 3, DH would get up and rock him back to sleep (unless he was obviously hungry).  This got me more sleep, DS was still getting "nursed" by daddy and also after a couple of weeks he stopped waking up so often every night (he still does from time to time and then daddy will give him cuddles and rock him).  Would DH/DP be on board with trying that?

[letileon]

Is he eating or just comfort nursing? If he's eating then maybe he's showing signs of being ready for solids...that's what I've heard can happen around 6 months. If he's just comfort nursing I think you'll have to enlist DH on that one. My 6 month old has never slept "through the night" or for more than 3-4 hours at a stretch....so I feel ya

[moonmama22]

My 6 month old has been doing the same thing!  I thought maybe since she just cut her first tooth she is maybe feeling some discomfort from that.  But we have the same thing happen - I was so excited when she was sleeping 4 hours at a time, then all of a sudden it's an hour and that's it...  Every time I try to move her over to the cosleeper she wakes up instantly and we start all over again!  I'm hoping it will pass soon...  Maybe we will try some solids in the next couple of weeks if it keeps up...

[mosomers]

Thanks for your responses! I feel better just knowing that I'm not the only one whose baby wants to nurse ALL NIGHT LONG. I think he's just comfort nursing and DH would certainly be willing to help with him in the night. He's great like that. I've tried a little bit of solids, but he seems to still have a little bit of the tongue thrust reflex so I don't push it. We'll keep working on it! Thanks for your ideas! This too shall pass, right.