Thanks, Foogirl! That actually sounds like a pretty good method. Not sure it will work for me or not, though. I have been having terrible problems finding something that fits my particular situation...

Otter is 7 months old, so "should" be able to sleep through. He takes fabulous naps when he is home, but 5 days a week he is in daycare as I work full time. He is rubbish at napping at daycare. So, that compounds my problem as good naps are important for good sleep, I think. He can self soothe to sleep when he wants and does so frequently. But when he wakes at night I can't get him back to sleep without feeding him. Well, that is not true. If I ignore him (he's in an Arm's Reach) then sometimes he'll put himself back out... if I pat his bum but don't pick him up, he'll often go back to sleep. But he wakes 20-30 minutes later SCREAMING for food. He feeds at 8pm, 11, 1am, 4, 6.

DH can't do night duty due to a medication he has to take that has a side effect of making him a zombie at night. So, it is all up to me.

I just keep telling myself I will get there eventually! But I have forgotten what it is like to sleep for more than 2.5 hours in a row!!!!

Thanks so much for this information. It sounds really quite interesting. Don't know how OH would feel about handling the 3 a.m. awakenings but really he has got off lightly so far! I know he's not hungry at 3 so I know that I should really try to settle him back down without feeding, but it's so hard! I think I will have to move Thomas into his own room in order to crack this as otherwise it is just too easy to just lift him into the bed and feed him. He is four months old on Saturday so maybe I will get his room tidied over the next few days and then move him. But then I'm thinking four month growth spurt, argghh!! Maybe I should wait till we've got through that before tackling sleep. So hard to know what to do!

Interesting what you say about naps, I have found this too, that Thomas sleeps better at night if he's slept well during the day. The problem is that he takes 75% of his naps in his bouncy chair and he just won't sleep for longer than 45 minutes in his chair. He then wakes up still cranky and I know he is still tired because he's in much better form when he has a longer nap. When I move him to his own room maybe I should start putting him in the cot for naps too? Or should I just tackle one thing at a time? Why oh why does everything have to be so complicated with these little people?

That's pretty similar to Thomas' feeding pattern, although he does usually skip the 11 p.m. feed and usually sleeps from 8 until 1. So I can get a decent stretch of sleep if I go to bed at 8 p.m. which I sometimes do, LOL! However I do know that Thomas is not actually hungry when he wakes at 3 as he really does not take much at all and on four wonderful nights he skipped the 3 a.m. feed and slept till 5. But if Otter is actually taking a full feed it makes it harder to know what to do.

I have read that babies that are used to feeding through the night will wake up hungry simply because they are accustomed to eating at that time - so even though they are physically capable of going without a feed their little tummy will be screaming for food. A bit like we tend to get hungry at mealtimes because we are used to eating at that time - I know for example if I miss out on dinner, if it gets too late in the evening I just won't feel hungry anymore - Otter might be a bit like that but kind of the wrong way round? I guess Otter doesn't need to eat at night anymore, but it would probably take a while for him to adjust to eating more during the daytime to compensate for the missing night feeds. I'm also thinking that he might feed more frequently at night because you are working full time so he doesn't get to nurse as much during the day?

You must be totally exhausted, especially now that you are pregnant as well. I'm exhausted and I don't even have anything else to do apart from look after Thomas and endlessly research methods to improve sleep, LOL.

Yep, that is exactly my problem, Polaris! He takes a full feed every time.. both bbs. He throws a fit if I fall asleep before I offer the second one and wakes me back up.

Also, working full time doesn't help. I have read that they will nurse more often at night for that reason. He generally has a milk feed at: 6/7 am, 930, 1230pm, 330, 530, 8, 11, 1am, 4... and then start all over again. So, it is pretty evenly spaced around the clock. I can't figure out how to get him to take more during the day and less at night! He's even eating 3 solid meals per day now, too. (730 am, 11 am, and 6 pm)

I agree that a good part of it is habit. But I don't know how to "break" that habit without CC/CIO and I am not ready to put either of us through that yet.

FX we both get some sleep in the near future!!

I guess on the positive side, he is probably keeping your supply good through the pregnancy with all those night feeds. As your prolactin levels are highest at night, aren't they?
I can't really see where you can add in any extra day-time feeds either. He's a big boy too and obviously has a good appetite!

I don't know about prolactin? Will have to look into it.

You are right.. that is a bright side. Considering how terrified I am of loosing my supply due to being pg, I can't complain that he is keeping it up for me!

Yes... he is a big boy. We are sleep obsessed and he is FOOD obsessed!

Bear in mind, the OH's doing the night wakenings is definitely short term. Mr Foo only had to do a couple - and we started at a weekend to make it easier on him

I wouldn't wait til the growth spurt is over, as after that there is teething, then another growth suprt - the sooner you start the better!

Definitely start napping in the cot. It turned things around for us with naps.

I'm afraid I can't offer any tips on dropping feeds - Abby did that all by herself.

I should, however, point out that I've been trying to settle Abby for an hour and Mr Foo is up there now doing the same. But at least this is a once in a while occurrance - to heck with this every day!!

If only these babies would just read the sleep books!

i am, but i try to avoid them now cause i get depressed when people say they just ou their lo down awake and they happily go off to sleep for many hours ...

Sorry

But if it is any consolation, I certainly wasn't doing that at 2 months!