Reverse Cycling, BLW, not sleeping and fed up of everyone telling me to use CC/CIO

[Bayleaf]

Hi Ladies
Would really appreciate your thoughts on this.
Emmett is 7 months old and an allround great guy.
He's been reverse cycling ever since his 4 months monster growth spurt. He feeds every 2-3 hours at night for about 5-7 mins (he's very efficient at BF now) and in the day will happily go for 5-6 hours and only have a little 2-3 mins feed. We started BLW a month ago and he's just not very interested, he enjoys playing with and exploring the food but isn't bothered with actually eating it. He has refused drinking from the bottle ever since he was 3 months old but will have small sips of water from a beaker.
Sooooooo where am I going with this?
Well although I enjoy co-sleeping and feeding him lots in the night I would just absolutely ADORE it if he slept for a bit longer. I can totally handle being up for 10 mins every 2-3 hours but I would really really like to somehow gently show him that night time is for sleeping and day time is for eating.
I'm not a routine person and neither is my OH (who is fantastically supportive) and there is NO WAY we'd ever do any sleep training.
Any ideas greatly appreciated.
TIA

 

[FemmeEnceinte]

This happened with Molly when she hit the 3/4 month growth spurt and from 12 weeks to about 18 weeks she was awake and feeding until 7am and then slept til 5pm! I just went with it and looked for clues that she was tired earlier than 7am, what really worked was keeping her awake for longer periods by distracting her and she started sleeping earlier and better.

She's now 21 weeks and goes down around 11pm and will sleep for 5/6 hours and then wake every two/three hours until about 10am. It was just a gradual process and what helped was a strong and clear night time routine which involves simply turning off all the light downstairs, taking her upstairs, turning the lights off, putting her in her grobag and putting her down to sleep. Until recently she'd have a little feed while OH and I whispered and she'd fall asleep but now as soon as she's in her bag and hears us whispering she's asleep! You will get there, it just starts to happen one day.

As for weaning, my understand is that he'll just do it one day when he's ready. If he's doing OK and is healthy, just leave him to it. Way back when, babies weren't weaned until 8/9 months!

HTH

 

[anothersquish]

What Femme said

Gentle persuasion may be required, nothing harsh but just distraction, the only sort of "routine" I have is that we do the same things right before he goes to bed (dogs out, light off, night nappy, PJs, song/massage/kiss, light off) so he drops off straight away, it might be worth having a half hour/40 minute 'routine' that you do to lead up to bedtime, doesnt have to be a set time at all, just whenever he feeds and looks very sleepy do the same things in the same order and pop him to bed.

Also agree on the weaning, dont worry about it, my last one didnt eat anything til 7 1/2 months...I stressed about it as I didnt know better but looking back at it Im glad I didnt try and force him or anything as he developed his appetite as time went by and hes a fab eater now

 

[Bayleaf]

Thanks ladies!
We always try to stick him in the bath, pj's, feed in darkened room (which is normally the first long feed of the day) then pop him in the bed. But often he's overtired so we end up cutting corners.
I think you're both right though, it's time for a strong consistent bed time routine. Thanks for the reassurance re: weaning. I guess I sometimes get a bit of a wobble when I see babies his age being on 3 meals a day!

 

[anothersquish]

I think it helps to be sure they arent overtired when winding down for sleep. When T is overtired he will cry and it isnt easy to settle him (its happened a couple of times, such as the other night when I ended up sat on sofa waiting for ambulance, by 9pm T was a VERY unhappy baby) I always prefer to start when hes more wakeful but just had a good feed, I dont mind sitting upstairs with him for a longer amount of time if hes not quite ready for sleep as thats better for everyone than having overtired crying baby

 

[im_mi]

Eek, i can understand your frustration! i know i would be a LOT more uptight about it if i was in your situation, though. Kudos to you, mama!

re:weaning, you are totally doing the right thing. we did BLW as well, my son was on three meals a day by the time he was about 7 and a half months old but it was all his doing. He just absolutely LOVED food, loved it, couldnt get enough of it (and still cant now, haha). they are all so different! I would definitely try to encourage him to nurse more often in the day even if its just little stints. Will he settle using techniques other than nursing during the night? it might be worth just letting him nurse for a little while, until his thirst and comfort needs have been met, and then try to settle him with lots of cuddles instead?

Its a real toughie. Im sure that he will figure it out soon enough. And as for the people who keep encouraging you to neglect his needs (oops, i meant sleep train him )... tell them to f*ck off

 

[Bayleaf]

Thanks im_mi!
I'm offering the boob ALL the time in the day, but he's not very interested.
Will defo try to settle him more often without nursing him to sleep, my OH is also trying to settle him more often despite Em not being impressed
I'm sure he'll figure it out one day. Sigh.

 

[im_mi]

Thats good that your OH is trying to settle him sometimes. If he realises that he *can* drop off to sleep without booby sometimes, then he might be willing to let you drop a couple of the night feeds I was lucky with my little boy, he was always happy to let DH settle him to sleep once he had a belly full of milk. I only had him do it at the beginning of the night; i would go straight to bed at 8.30 as soon as i'd fed him and DH would do all of the cuddling and burping etc, so he's always been used to being settled in different ways other than booby. That probably helped, but at the same time i fear he probably wouldnt have nightweaned so early (just 11 months old) if we hadnt done it that way. i would have liked to have continued to feed him in the night a little longer.

/ramble. sorry, its late, lol.

 

[June_Sprite74]

You'll possibly find that once he has more solids, baby rice or whatever before bedtime, he will sleep much better.

 

[BabyHaines]

You are so fab. Soooo many people would stuff them full of baby rice, top them up with a big bottle, then CC or CIO

You are doing fab, and it's refreshing to hear a mum that is following bubbas lead *hugs* after I've heard so many 'i'm fitting baby in around me' stories lately!!

I'm sure lo will get out of it soon enough. Once he's taking more during the day, I guess it will have a baring on his nighttimes too.
Oh, and I second the whole bedtime routine thing - it's fab

lol at Im_mi!! I'd tell them to f*ck off too!! Hahahaha

 

[June_Sprite74]

You are so fab. Soooo many people would stuff them full of baby rice, top them up with a big bottle, then CC or CIO

You are doing fab, and it's refreshing to hear a mum that is following bubbas lead *hugs* after I've heard so many 'i'm fitting baby in around me' stories lately!!

I'm sure lo will get out of it soon enough. Once he's taking more during the day, I guess it will have a baring on his nighttimes too.
Oh, and I second the whole bedtime routine thing - it's fab

lol at Im_mi!! I'd tell them to f*ck off too!! Hahahaha

I wouldn't suggest 'stuffing' the baby with baby rice, just a couple of spoonfuls done the trick for me. I breast fed my 2 exclusively too, and found they needed more than just milk at that stage, as they got more unsettled through the night with hunger; I was feeding more and more, which was silly. My daughter was breast fed until 2 years old and my son 13 months, both were on-demand babies but it gets to the stage where you can get demented with sleep deprivation and if a couple of spoons of baby rice filled a little hole in their tummy, jobs a good 'un!

 

[BabyHaines]

Sorry - wasn't having a dig hun, I hadn't seen your post.
I just personally don't like the idea of people stuffing baby full of stuff, just so they are so full up they are too groggy to wake. (The whole Rusks in milk or lots of baby rice thing).

I hope I didn't offend you, that wasn't my intention xxxx