advice please

[metaphortunate]

The past week or two, the Junebug has been waking up four to six times a night wanting to nurse. I have been reluctant to move him into his own room because:
- at that point I will nightwean him
- he's pretty clearly reverse cycled, so if I stop nursing him at night, he will eat much more during the day
- what I can pump is already only barely keeping up with demand
- so at that point he will go on maybe half formula?

And not that that would be the end of the world, but I figured that to keep him on the boob I was willing to be woken up twice a night, which was what he was doing for the longest time. But five times a night - no. This cannot go on, he's 7 months old and I am getting less sleep than I did when he was a newborn, he is no longer cute between the hours of midnight and 7 am and that is VERY DANGEROUS TO HIS HEALTH.

Thoughts? Preferred sleep training techniques? How did you nightwean?

Comments

[loligo]

Hmm, it's interesting that despite my daughter's extreme sleep problems, I never faced this particular issue, since she nearly always had a five-hour chunk of sleep in the middle of the night.

What I would probably try in your situation is give him ALL THE CALORIES during the day (yes, including formula, and whatever solids he's ready for), and see if that cuts back on the waking.

[metaphortunate]

The thing is, we do that already! I mean, when he's hungry, we feed the little dude! And when he's not hungry, he is not into it. I hear about babies who get comfort from the boob. This little guy, if he is not hungry, he makes this >X( face and you cannot pry his little mouth open.