Need Help with Putting 7 Month Old on a Schedule to Help Him Sleep Through

Well, I guess it's all in what you value most.

Some prefer to keep life as close to what it was before they had a child as possible and some like to submit to life with children all the way.

Some worship schedules and rules and boundaries while others prefer focusing on the science of relationships, trust, and nurture; a few are amazing and are able to combine the two.

Myself, I'm about creating trust with my children. I want a FIRM foundation that my children know I AM there whenever they need me: WHENEVER that is. I also like them enough to have a willingness to be with them even if they JUST want me, too. I will gladly loose sleep for anyone I love, especially a wee one without skills to fully communicate. That is not to say I don't need and LOVE (and boy do I mean LOVE) my sleep.

I'm not into training children like pets or breaking them into submission. I'm not looking for robots that need to be programmed and have a deficit in the ability to think for themselves. My method isn't always easy and convenient but I have 10 very independent, well thinking, lovable, passionate, creative children of whom I've never employed the philosophy of abandonment to illustrate boundaries of time or space.

The first year is about building a foundation of trust for the child toward you. You should be responding to your child, I mean, it goes against everything in you instinctual to not care for your baby; it's anti-intuitive which may produce an immediately desired result but also lays the footwork for others that you may not desire. Babies aren't the age group you practice tough love with; that's your stray teenagers...and you're going to need the backup of being able to say you've never just let them suffer for your convenience. (They will reach back that far--sneaky little devils; nieces, nephews, neighbors, friends, and my own teens have taught me that nugget)

Seriously, through out the books, stop listening to other people, and just go with your own intuition. NO ONE knows your baby, NO ONE except you. Trust that you are a good Mom. Don't let people tell you that you're "catering" to your child as if it's a bad thing, and stick to the values and boundaries you really feel married to.

Also, there are so many more reasons for nursing and feeding a baby than simple nutrition. And babies DO NOT eat out of "habit", that is simply untrue!! If you want to make a change in the diet, talk to a nutritionist; a specialist in diet who has studied nutrition and chemistry for years, rather than the run of the mill doctor who took ONE semester of basic nutrition way back in pre-med.

One more thing: the best way to teach someone how to sooth is to demonstrate soothing...just like any other thing. There is a huge difference in not asking for help because of mastery versus not asking for help because of futility. One would be wise to ask WHY and HOW a certain method of doing anything works and WHAT are the secondary results (increased bonding, increase ability to dismiss, clarity, confidence, anger...anything) and are those acceptable. I make my best decisions when I actually use that litmus test...that, and, do I feel like I'm coming from and conveying Love when I'm doing or saying this or that particular thing...

Seven months is when we looked at what our son needed as far as nourishment and realized he no longer needed the night feeding it was just a habit.
So I had my husband go in and check his diaper, and lay him back down and say good night so he would not smell my milk and get frustrated I was not feeding him. Your breasts will still be producing milk for that feeding so the first few nights you may need to pump, just enough to relieve the fullness, then you can feed him in the morning with out being over full till then, just don't pump all the way or your milk supply will stay high at night.
With in three nights our son no longer woke up for that feeding. He still sleeps 10 to 12 hours a night, with one to two naps in the day.
Enjoy your little one.
S.
mother to Kai (19 months)
www.HomeWithKai.com

Nurse him and feed him all in one meal (for the solid food meals). He can get a couple of extra just-nursing feeds, too. Here's where my DD was at around 7 months:

6am wake/nurse
9:00 or 9:30am nurse/breakfast
12:00 or 12:30 nurse/lunch
4:00 or so nurse
6:00 nurse/dinner

You can also offer another nursing right before bed (around 7:00). We did for my DD, but in hindsite I realize she did not need it! Make sure you wake him at 6 or 6:30 everyday (or within 1/2 hour of his wake time, whatever that is). There generally will be 2-3 naps about 1-2 hours in length in between these feeds, but I wouldn't worry as much about perfecting those times--we stressed about it with my DD, and we did not stress about it with my DS. Both did/are doing just fine and both slept through the night at 12 wks and at 15 wks. Follow the eating schedule first; perfect the nap schedule second. My 5 month old son still has not perfected the afternoon nap yet, although he does well in the a.m. But he sleeps like a champ from 8:30-6, so that is all that matters to me at this point. He will eventually get it. You are correct in not feeding him in the middle of the night. You can soothe him since it could take a week or so to get him through the process. Also, try not getting him out of the crib at night, just rub his head.

My advice for the night feedings is similar to below. What I also did though, to see if it was habit or not was to wait. When my son cried in the middle of the night (he will do this sound asleep), I wait a few minutes (5-15 depending on the cry). Sometimes he put himself back down, sometimes he didn't, and sometimes the cry let me know that he was teething or something else was wrong. This also helped spread out the feedings and I only fed if he needed it. After about 3 nights, night feedings were gone!
I did the Babywise, so my perspective is from that, and I haven't read the Baby Whisperer. I would say wake him up when he needs to be up. We set a bedtime and a wake time. Bedtime was started about 9 or so (this was after the final feeding and the awake time), until he was able to sleep through the night. I would get him up at 6, and as I needed to pry him out of bed in the mornings, I would back up his bedtime. He now sleeps from about 6:30-6:30.
At 7 months, my son was taking 3 naps a day, again fairly scheduled, so that if he woke up early, I tried to keep him up until his "official" nap time. Sometimes he would just talk to himself during naps, sometimes it was crying and I would go in every 15-20 minutes to soothe him. But he needs that rest, even if it is just quite time. It is a good habit to start, and as they get older and do daycare/preschool, there will be schedules there. I can give you more details of my son's schedule if you would like.
For solids, I started my son late, but I would usually nurse and then offer them about 45 minutes later. Remember, solids aren't for nutritional needs, but just teaching him about food, so he doesn't have to eat a lot of them. Also, this way you aren't feeding him then putting him down for a nap.
I don't know if you are nursing him to sleep at night, but if you plan to "schedule", I would highly suggest changing that now. Nurse, play time, bedtime routine, sleep. This will make it MUCH easier when you go to wean him.

Sorry for rambling on so much, but I am so happy with the schedule that we did for my son. It was hard and we got a lot of comments about it, but everyone we meet comments about what a happy baby we have. It was very worth it. Hang in there, and feel free to let me know if you need support. This is a difficult time, and sometimes just need to talk, or hear that you aren't alone.

Hi,
I have a sixth month old and he's slept through the since 6 weeks. I would definitely recommend a routine to help your baby know it's nap time and bed time. I do write his schedule down to help me know his hours of nap and night sleep. It also lets me see a pattern - your baby will show you - just let him. Since 6 weeks, I would notice patterns of tiredness - rubbing eyes, not interested in play, etc. Then, I would read him a few stories and tell him it was nap time. He'd get drowsy and I would lay him down. A few times he would cry, but I would give him a few minutes to calm down. Then, I'd go back in and let him know he was okay and tell him I would be back in a few minutes - Ferber Method. The same goes for night time - our routine is bath, bottle, books, bed. It never changes and he does really well. He goes down around 7 pm. and wakes up a 6 am. My advice is write down his patterns throughout the day - sleep, activity, eating. Start a routine and stick with it. Most importantly stay consistent and your child will sleep through the night. There have been times when he does get up in the night - I wait a few minutes to see if he can calm down, if not, I go in there to soothe him by patting his belly, but I don't pick him up - since he'd think it was time to get up. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Hi B.,

I remember how hard it was to get my son on a schedule so that he would sleep through the night, but he is 19 months-old now, sleeps 11 or 12 hours at night and takes a 2+ hour nap everyday. Here is what worked for us, maybe some of it will work for you.

I found it easier to start by addressing the nighttime sleep, and not deal with the naps until that was working well. My husband and I started letting our son cry it out at 5 1/2 months. Up until then he slept in our bed, since I was nursing and it was so much easier. We had a good experience with the cry it out method, which we did on the advice of our terrific pediatrician, but it is really hard to get through the first few nights. I went to stay at my mom's for the first two nights because I couldn't listen the the crying without going to my son. After about 4 days, he was putting himself to sleep with very little fuss, so that method worked for us and I'm very glad we did it. I really struggled with the decision though. I'm a first time mom and a lot of people told me that my son would not feel loved or would have some long-lasting psychological issues if we let him cry it out. I worried about that. But the bottom line is that sleep is so important for you and your baby and you have to help him establish good sleep-habits early on. Everyone is happier and healthier when they are getting enough sleep and we have showed our son that he has the ability to soothe himself when he needs to. If he wakes up in the night and doesn't need anything, he sings to himself or chatters for a bit, then goes back to sleep. Now, when he cries for us, we go to him, but he only does it when he really needs something. And for the record, he is a sweet, loving, happy little guy, who knows how much his parents love him!

But before you try that, you will need to eliminate your middle-of-the-night feedings. Here's what we did with our son. At the time he was waking two to three times per night to nurse. I started reducing the amount of time he nursed every night ( you could do every other night if you would prefer, it will just take a bit longer) So if you have been nursing him for 6 minutes every 4 hours, only offer 5 1/2 minutes of nursing tonight. When there are multiple feedings per night, you also increase by 15 minutes per night, the amount of time between feedings. So you would do 5 minutes of nursing every 4.25 hours tomorrow, 4 1/2 minutes every 4 1/2 hours the next night, and so on. We found this method in Dr. Richard Ferber's book (which made a lot of sense to me, you may want to try reading it to see what you think), and it worked really well for us. According to the book, most kids stop waking to eat before you can reduce them down to nothing, my son stopped waking to feed after 4 or 5 nights. I thought a gradual approach was better than just trying to quit cold turkey, which seemed pretty awful to me. Unless your son is under nourished during the day, is underweight, or has some other medical complication, I don"t think there is any reason he would need to nurse in the middle of the night, so don't feel bad about eliminating it.

Also, make sure when you go in to feed him, you keep it as utilitarian as possible, no lights, no conversation, just nurse and back to bed. You want to show him that nighttime is for sleeping.
I hope some of this helps you, I know how hard it can be to be tired all the time. Good luck to you!

Hi B. - I just skimmed what others have said, but I have a 9-month-old and I only recently cut out the 3 or 4 a.m. feeding, although I do nurse him before he goes to bed (at 7:30 p.m.) and again before I go to bed (at around 11 p.m.), but then not again until he wakes up (somewhere around 6:30 a.m.). In my opinion, there is no "right" way to get a baby on a schedule because they are all so different. What works for my friends hasn't worked for my baby and vice-versa.

In any case, I know lots of folks say to cut the nurse-to-sleep association. I will say that I went through a period (of literally probably a week) where I would nurse DS but make sure he didn't fall asleep, put him in his PJs and THEN put him in his crib awake. There was some crying, sure, but he did learn how to put himself to sleep. Now, if he falls asleep while nursing, he still knows how to put himself back to sleep should he wake up in the night and it isn't a problem. And likewise, if he isn't asleep when he finishes nursing, I can still place him in his crib awake and he's totally fine with it.

It sounds like you've already cut out the night-feedings and if your LO is doing ok with it, then he's probably good. Mine still needed the calories and so we did a progressive cutting out of a feeding (i.e., you allow them to nurse for fewer and fewer minutes each night until you eliminate the feeding entirely which allows for the body to slowly adapt to not taking in those extra calories).

I'll also say that while we did have some "crying it out", we did what I guess could be called an "assisted" CIO because we would go in and and do a check-and-console every once in a while to let my LO know we heard him and all was ok but that it was time to sleep. This worked well for our son but I know for other babes, they get mad if their parents come in and then leave.

I would suggest you wake your son at the same time every morning for a while to help get him on a schedule (as suggested in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby"). Put him down two to two-and-a-half hours after he wakes (like you're doing) and make sure you have a pre-nap routine to get him drowsy. Then have 2 1/2 to 3 hours of awake time before the next nap, again with a pre-nap routine. And then about 3-4 hours of awake time again before bed.

As far as when to give solids/nursing, you'll have to play around with it. I vary it throughout the day, but it took some experimenting until I figured out what worked.

My DS is a little older than yours at 9-months, but in any case, here is his schedule if it helps:

6:30 a.m. wake, nurse
7:00 a.m. play
8:00 a.m. some solids (although he doesn't eat much in the morning, usually just yogurt)
9:00 start pre-nap routine (nursing, rocking, white noise)
9:15 asleep
10:30 - awake
we use this awake time to go outside for a walk or to the park if nice or run errands if I need to
1:30 p.m. - solids
1:50 - pre-nap routine (nursing, rocking, white noise)
2:00- asleep
3:30- awake
Once again, we go outside or go to grocery store, play with toys, etc
6:30 - dinner
7:00- bath
7:15 - pre-sleep routine (pjs, sometimes a book, nursing)
7:30- asleep
11:00- one last nursing before I head to bed

Hope that helps!

When you find the answer please share with me too. Our 11 month old still wakes up once (sometimes twice) for a bottle. I read that sometimes babies are hungry in the middle of the night and that that's ok. So, rather than letting him cry it out we get up change and feed him a bottle of formula and he is back to bed in 10-15 minutes. He is on a serious routine and doesn't really stray away from it.

6 a.m.: Up for the day – Drinks an average of 5 ounces of breast milk. Change diaper, change clothes and brush teeth.

8:30 a.m.: Breakfast. He has 2-ounces of milk mixed with 3-5 tbsp of cereal and a 1/2 a jar of fruit and/or small pieces of pancake

8:30 to 9 a.m.: Playtime, exploring, pooping

10 a.m.: He has a 6-ounce bottle of milk. Falls asleep and naps for 3 0 minutes to an hour.

11 to noon: Playtime.

Noon: Lunch. Jar ½ of baby food plus 2-3 tbsp cereal in milk and/or some finger foods like soggy cheerios. Milk in a sippy cup.

12:30 to 1 p.m.: More playtime. He loves going outside

1 to 3 p.m.: He has a 6-ounce bottle of milk. Nap time.

4 p.m. 6-ounce bottle of milk

4 to 5:30 p.m.: Playtime.

5:30 p.m.: Dinner — small pieces of whatever we have and milk in a sippy cup.

7 p.m.: Bath time.

7:30 p.m.: 8 ounces of milk with cereal and bedtime.

2/3 a.m.: 6 ounces of milk and diaper change.

when my daughter was 7 months here schedule went something like this... I don't remember the specifics of when she ate, but I think it was something like this:
wake up between 6:30 and 7
Eat & play
Nap at 8:30 (until around 10)
eat (maybe twice during this waking)
nap at 1 (until 3:30ish)
eat (probably twice)
in bed at 6:30

Some babies also take a late afternoon nap (5 or 5:30) and go to bed later.

until about 7 or 8 months she was waking once around 4:30 or 5 to nurse, but I weaned her around that time and she dropped that feeding entirely. You should try to get him on a clock based schedule. At this age its good for them. Him crying it only last a few days with most babies before they get it and quit waking and crying at night.

I would suggest you get and read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". Best sleep book I've ever read, and useful for YEARS!

By the way, wether or not your breast fed baby needs to eat at night is completely unique to each child. My daughter gave up her middle of the night feeding on her own before she was fully weaned. My son's pediatrician told me at his 2 month appointment that my son could be sleeping through the nice (10-12 hours) anytime I want him to... its just a matter of gettig him to give up his 3 am feeding. If you get the baby their necessary calorie intake in during the day, night time feedings are unnecessary. If you have a sensitive milk supply you may have issues with that, but someone assuming that giving up a night time feeding for a 7th month old will lead to failure to thrive is ridiculous. And all babies at 7 months are still getting the majority of the nutrition through milk... the reason formula fed babies seem to sleep through the night earlier is two fold I think: 1) mom knows exactly how much milk they are getting so she doesn't worry all the time if they're getting enough and 2) its harder to digest, so their tummies are full longer. Same caloric value, put with breatmilk being easier to digest leads to an emptier tummy.

wow you are doing some reading, I only read the what to expect the first year and it has helped me. When my daughter was 7 mnths old I had a hard time getting her to nap. She started taking a sippy cup pretty soon (soft flexible spout)so I began laying her down with her sippy cup full of either breast milk or formula in front of baby einstein. That probably is all wrong but it worked. As for the night time thing, crying it out is what works. Make sure when you check on her that she doesn't see you, it will just prolong the process, I know from trial and error. My daughter was 5 mnths when I started making her sleep all through the night without BF (I made sure and gave her cereal right before I BF so it would last longer in her tummy) and it took 2 grueling weeks, and yours may take longer since he is older and more persistent. Be strong and know that it will turn out. As for the feeding, I would feed my daughter a little bit of solids and then finish with BF about every 3 hours. Now she is 10 mnths, I only BF morning and night and she has solids for 3 meals with snacks and some juice in between. I give her formula for her naps at 9 and 2 and then she goes to sleep at 7:30. Good luck you will eventually get a schedule down.

My son is 6.5 months old and sleeps about 10.5 hours straight at night and takes 2-3 naps that range from 1-1.5 hours each. Here's my personal view on this. I think it's still a little early to go to a strict nap schedule. What I find with my boy is some days he's up a little earlier and naps a little earlier, some days he's up a little later and naps a little later, and some days he just throws in a curve ball (up early, but wide awake and naps later). Also, some days he's fine with two naps, other days he needs three. If you're good at reading your baby's cues (in my case, he starts to get fussy and it's not hunger, but can also include eye rubbing, yawning, etc.) why not just let him "tell" you when he needs to go down. Otherwise, you might be putting him down at exactly 2 hours after wake up when this is the day he needs to be put down at 1.5 hours or 2.5 hours. I know I can't sleep when I'm not tired, so I don't know why we expect that babies will and should just because that's what's on the clock? I've even had days where he wakes up from the nap and a half hour later still seems tired an I put him down again, and other days where after his morning nap he's wide awake for 5 hours. Don't let the books drive you crazy, as my pediatrician told me, "the problem with babies is that they don't read the books." That said, our main exception is bedtime, where he goes down around 7:30 like clockwork (but again, depending on cues, some nights it's 7:00 and some it's 7:45)

In terms of feeding, I've read you're supposed to feed them all the milk they want and then solids right after, but I do it exactly how you do it, starting with milk, then doing solids about 1.5-2 hours later, then milk again (about 4 hours after his last milk). Again, I know that even I at least have a snack in between meals, and rarely go 4 hours without eating, and I figure this way he can still regulate himself over time (if he starts to prefer solids, he'll fill up on those meals and drink less milk, if he prefers milk, he'll only eat a little solids and make the milk his main meal, but at both meals, I let him eat as much as he wants without pushing him and let him set the pace -- and, FYI, he is perfectly height/weight proportional at 45/45%

In terms of the night wake-ups, depending on how long he is sleeping and how much he is eating before bedtime, he might just genuinely be hungry. Many babies simply can't sleep 11 hours without a snack in between, though mine USUALLY can. However, again, there are times when he is going through a growth spurt where suddenly he wakes up at 3:00 am for a week straight and I get up and feed him, and then one night he starts sleeping through again. Also, on occasion, he doesn't eat enough during the day and then wakes up in the middle of the night (about once every 10-14 days this happens). It's tough because if your baby is truly hungry and it's been a while since he went to bed (6-8 hours) you'll want to feed him, but if it's just habit then you do want to try to break it. I know mine eats about 6 ounces right before bed (though doesn't eat before naps). If you find after a few nights of sleep training that he now sleeps through, then it's probably just habit (FYI, there are also various "softer" approaches to cry it out, even the Ferber method (search online) which includes things such as having your husband go in and stand by his crib for a minute for reassurance, and coming back at increasingly long intervals (3 mins, 5 mins, etc.) but preferably not you going in for reassurance since you're the food source.

Good luck!

Hi B., Is this your first child? Just thought I would offer some thoughts for you. Your baby is ONLY 7 months and as such needs to be able to eat whenever his hunger strikes. I realize that feeding is all that you seem to do but they really need it. After having five myself and struggling with the first the same way I became resigned that for the first couple of years with them that they are the only ones that mattered and all their needs came first. Then it was very easy for me. Sleep deprevation and all. Also I strongly object to the cry it out method. My thoughts on this are what are we teaching them at such a young age, that we are not there for them when they need us. I have never let any of my kids do the crying and have had no problem with them getting on a schedule or being self soothing when it was age appropriate. I really think that the schedule for babies is more about the parents then the babies when they are so little. I always just watched my little ones and if they seemed sleepy I would rock them to sleep. And as far as naps go I was never a stickler for them as they got older as it seemed to cause more problems getting them to sleep at night. When they all reached one and two if they fell asleep on their own then they needed a nap if not then they didn't but I never forced them to take a nap. Although I would love that quiet time they did not need it. Just some food for thought but you must do what you think is right for you and your family. Good luck

It's a shame that our culture has taught us that we need to put baby on a schedule. Babies need to eat when they're hungry and sleep when they're tired. When they are gowing through a growth spurt, they will need more to eat and more sleep to facilitate that growth. When they are not in a sput, they may spend less time feeding and sleeping, but need stimulation for their brains to grow and develop. It's all very natural and happens quite well without our attempts to fit baby into the "best" schedule. In fact, those attempts at scheduling can even backfire if they interfere with what a baby is needing that day.

Don't worry that if you don't put him on the 'right' schedule now, he won't 'learn' how to be on a schedule. This is not the stage for him to be learning that (nor is it the developmental stage for learning to self-soothe. He needs to learn security first, that mom is always there to take care of him). When he gets into toddler and preschool years you can, and should, start implementing a reasonable bedtime if he hasn't already settled into one, and feed him his solids when you eat (or riht before or after, but let him sit in his chair while mommy & daddy have dinner, with something to play with). He'll learn that mealtime is also a social time (and studies are indicating great benefits for kids who have family dinner in their schoolage years) and he'll get used to eating when you do. E

At 7 mos he is still growing and needs to eat during the night. All kids vary with sleeping through the night. Both of my kids did not sleep through the night until close to 10 months. I agree completely never to feed them to go back to sleep, feed him, burp him and change his diaper so he isn't immediately laid back down asleep, lay him down awake every time. He may very well need to eat! His sleep patterns will vary the first year. I NEVER did crying it out until after the year mark, they are still babies and go through so many changes they know what they need.
Just don't nurse him to sleep. I have to say too, formula stays with them longer then breast milk, maybe try formula at night for him or make sure he has some solids right before bedtime, like some cereal.
At seven months when my babies woke, I gave them some cereal with fruit mixed in for breakfast, and a bottle. Then at lunch cereal with veggies mixed in and a bottle (with a bottle in between), then another bottle in between lunch and dinner. Then cereal with mixed meats/veggies and a bottle. Then before bed a bottle. Mine would sleep five hour stretches but always needed to eat during the night at some point until close the year mark. My son slept all night at 10 mos my daughter however didn't until 11 mos. Nobody can tell you that they should or shouldn't be sleeping through the night, it is totally dependent on the baby!!!

So basically yes every four hours, maybe pump and see how many ounces he is taking in. Maybe he needs more ounces or isn't getting enough when he nurses.
If he seems like he is going to fall asleep, tickle his cheek, lift him upright so he is drowsy when you lay him down but never asleep.

I have no help to offer you on sleeping through the night, because I think every baby is different and what works for one baby may or may not work for another baby, depending on so many factors. I had some success with the Ferber method, but sleeping completely through the night has been trial and error, and we are just now having some success (my baby is 11 months old).

However, since you asked about schedules, I can tell you what my baby's daytime schedule was around 7-10 months, because I remember it clearly. I have nursed him every 3 hours, though, so this may be too far from your schedule to be helpful, but here you go:

wake up around 9 a.m. (his 7:30 feeding was before he was really up for the day)
breastfeeding at 7:30 am, 10:30 am, 1:30 pm, 4:30 pm, and 7:30 pm
naps from 11-1 and 3-4:30 (approximately)
solid foods around 8 or 9 am, 1 or 2 pm, and 6 or 7 pm...
bedtime at 8 p.m.

like I said, he wasn't sleeping through the night, so I was also feeding him once or twice at night, or sometimes putting him back to bed without feeding him, depending on which method I was attempting at the time. The 7:30 a.m. feeding was also variable--it sometimes happened as early as 5:30, but I found that he was fine waiting until 10 or 10:30 for his next feeding, so that his schedule during the day could at least stay consistent.

You are such a devoted mom--I can tell you're thinking really hard about this! Personally, I don't think you need to.
Of course he wakes at different times--he is growing so much, so quickly that every day his needs are different. I have read both books you mention, and I think they offer a recipe for low milk supply and failure to thrive. Sometimes I want two sandwiches and sometimes I only want half a sandwich, you know? It just depends on the day. Since a seven-month-old does not eat for recreation like adults, I think it's completely healthy to feed him on cue. In utero, the umbilical cord doesn't space nutrient delivery at three-hour intervals. . . that's something we grow into as we learn to communicate and plan for meals in early childhood, but not so much in infancy when every calorie is needed. Nursing on cue is how you can be sure he receives both the foremilk and hindmilk and grows and learns. And since milk production is all supply and demand, enforcing a clock-oriented schedule even when Baby is hungry and different intervals will mean your body does not get the hormonal signals it needs to adjust supply to meet the needs of your growing baby. Nursing is not a habit, it's the biologically normal way to meet needs for food, sucking and closeness.
It is so important to watch your baby, not the clock. I am uncomfortable with cry-it-out methods and arbitrary schedules. . . it's just a waste of calories if he has to cry and fuss when he is hungry (he is crying out calories that would be better spent learning and growing), and teaches him his parents are undependable (which you're definitely not, but the only way he can know that is if you are consistently responsive).
The medical definition of "sleeping through the night" is a four- to five-hour-stretch. If he's giving you at least one stretch like that in a 24-hour cycle,he already is "sleeping through the night."
I have a nin-month-old (my third son) and here's a sample day from the last couple of weeks--but this changes often according to growing, teething, and other needs.
Baby wakes between 7 and 7:20 a.m., and crawls around biting toys while his brothers play with him and my husband and I take our showers. By 8:10, my husband leaves for work and I nurse Baby while I cruise on the Internet for a few minutes. By 8:30, Baby wants to see what his noisy brothers are doing, so we go check it out. Everyone has breakfast, and I give Baby some pieces of solid food (peas, carrots, bits of toast, apple, pasta) on his high chair tray to taste while the rest of us eat. Baby plays while his brothers get ready for the day and do chores. By 9:30, he's rubbing his eyes. I hold him while I direct the other kids to their jobs, and then sit or lay down with him and nurse him to sleep. This nap is short, maybe only 30 minutes. By 11 a.m., we need to go run errands. I "top off" Baby with another quick nursing so he doesn't fuss in his car seat, we run errands and either come home to eat or get soemthing to eat, depending on the day. He will share a few nibbles with us. I nurse Baby again around lunchtime, and he falls asleep again for a longer afternoon nap of at least an hour, often close to two. I nurse him again when he wakes up. He has some bites of food at dinnertime, and I nurse him at least twice more in the evening--often more, since he tends to "cluster-nurse" to stock up for a long stretch of sleep. By 9 p.m., he is asleep in my arms and I can lay him in his co-sleeper next to my bed. He will wake up once more about 11:30 for a final top-off, and then will often sleep until 4 a.m. (when I roll him next to me to nurse laying down, and then roll him back into the co-sleeper) and again until about 7 a.m.
This works great for us. Babies are resilient, and this arrangement of keeping Baby near me has saved me a lot of nighttime effort and aggravation. My two older boys happily sleep in their own beds, so I am not concerned about creating some kind of "bad habit." I know Tracy Hogg was all about beginning the way you mean for things to be, but needs are constantly changing and evolving and a mother's job is to meet needs. . . I want my children to be healthy, compassionate people who can be independent not because they have been trained into it, but because they have an innate sense of confidence, so I am mothering them with that end in mind, and that means being very flexible and responsive. I think babies' needs and wants are very much the same. Babies only express needs, they do not manipulate. There's no need to "train" a baby as you might train a puppy--behaviorist methods have little place in the building of loving relationships.
I hope I don't come across as rude. I only mean to encourage you to enjoy your baby. Babyhood is such a short season, and the time of having just your first-born to love and snuggle is an especially short season. If you enjoy reading, I recommend "The Baby Book" or "Nighttime Parenting" by Dr. William Sears and Martha Sears (it's OK to combine philosophies of various experts as you become an expert on your own child) and also "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley.
It's OK to skip the mental gymnastics and just love. The learning and logical schedules really do come.
My sincerest best wishes to you and your little man.

My problem was that I DID get my baby to sleep thru the night and started solids then my milk supply went way down. What I've learned is that breast fed babies need to eat more often and it should still be the primary source of nutrition for them. SO:

1.)The lactation specialist suggested that I go in before going to bed (around 10ish) and do a quick feeding. No chit chat, just back to bed and close the door.
2.) Then do the once a night feeding -if you want to continue breastfeeding- sometime around 1-3am when your prolactin levels are high.
3.) When your sweet son wakes up other than that, go in hug him, tell him it's sleepy time and leave. Shut the door. He will cry most likely for a while.

If you are ready to give up breast feeding - or if your milk supply isn't as sensitive as mine, then I suggest you simply do #3 but make sure he gets a good meal in before going to bed (maybe even supplement with a few oz. of formula). Go in, hug him or gently pat him on the back when he wakes up and leave. Give him a good while to cry before you go back in. Chances are he'll go to sleep (and learn to self-soothe without the boobie). Also try the book Happy Baby Healthy Sleep Habits. Everyone is different and so just take what works for you and ignore the rest.

I am going to try to keep feeding her for a few more months so I'm pretty much stuck with the once a night thing, but it's not too bad. GOOD LUCK! Email me if you want to exchange ideas or have a play date!

J.