12 Mo and Night Nursing

I am not sure if he is hungry or not. If you think about it, 7-4 is 9 hours and that is a long time to go without eating. Neither one of mine would go that long without needing to eat at that age. They also tend to go through growth spurts at this age. That usually means they need to eat more often. Also, if he is not eating a lot of solids yet, then the bf may need to continued so that he keeps up on his nutrition.

I don't know if that is the answer that you wanted, but he really might need the food. Good luck!

It's sounds like he is hungry. If you can soother him without the boob any other time, one has to assume he wants something to eat/drink.

Honestly, you're only getting up with him (really getting up) once a night after a 9 hour period, you could changing the napping bedtime schedule and see of that helps, but I will admit that I am not seeing the problem.

He IS sleeping through the night, he's just going to bed when its still evening, so his "night" is skewed.

If you can adjust his schedule and get his 9 hours to be from 9-6, would that work better for you? Just adjust his nap schedule a bit later in the afternoon (may have to push the morning one too so eveything gets "bumped" accordingly) and keep him up a bit later at night. Then feed him at 8:30 and get him to sleep by 9. You may want to increase the morning nap to get him to need the afternoon nap later than he's used to napping.

I know 4:15 sounds early. But I don't think it's a bad habit, I think he's hungry and rightly so. With his bedtime, he's sleeping, without nursing, for a 9 hour stretch. More than 6 hours is considered "through the night" for infants, so I think your son is doing really well. Can you push his bedtime back a little so that he will start to sleep in a little more? Or do a dream-feed right before you go to bed?

One thing that helped with my son was a bowl of oatmeal just before bed. I gave him as much as he would eat to really fill his belly, and he would sleep a little longer. He was slow to solids too, but he did like oatmeal cereal made with breastmilk by age 1 and would eat a lot of it.

Maybe try bumping his bedtime to 830 if he can make it? 9 hours is a LONG time for a little one to go without eating. Heck it's a long time for an adult.
Added:feel lucky he sleeps that long! My daughter (17months) will got to bed at 1130pm, I know way to late but she won't have it any other way! And then wake up between 2-3am and go back to sleep around 5am then up at 730 for the day! She takes one nap a day after lunch from 1245-3

A child, especially a year old toddler, can't really go over 13 hours without food.

Try putting your child to bed at a more normal hour and see if it helps. I truly don't know anyone that puts their kids to bed this early....

Your baby is starving when he wakes up, as long as you put him to bed that early he's going to continue to wake up 8 hours later between 3am and 4am starving.

I don't believe that babies over the age of about 6-8 months wake due to hunger if they are fed well throughout the day. They may wake up and be hungry, but hunger does not wake them from their sleep. In this case I think it is just habit. Let him cry it out. It will be a rough couple of nights, but if you don't feed him, he will go back to sleep. Just go in say its still time to sleep and then go back out. After a few minutes, go back in if you want, pat his back, but don't say anything. Keep extending the amount of time you wait to go back. Be consistent and this will work. Also, 7:15 is a little on the early side. Maybe try moving his bedtime just a little later... a few minutes each night until about 8:00. All 3 of my kids weaned themselves to one nap at about a year old. Maybe try to skip the morning nap and take his afternoon nap earlier so it is just one nap... this may help him sleep a little longer at night as well. At this age I would say it is average for a baby to sleep 10-11 hours straight at night with 1 or 2 naps averaging about 2-3 hours in total. As far as the waking at 4 or 5, it is a habit that can be broken.

My daughter still woke during the night until about 13 months, so I feel your pain. But, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said he "will scream for 30 minutes or so until I finally give in and nurse him." He knows you'll come if he cries long enough, so he just keeps crying. If you really want to eliminate that feeding and, subsequently the waking up at that time, you have to stop feeding him no matter how long he cries. He is old enough and big enough that he doesn't need to eat at that time. If you can get him to sleep through that, a wake up anytime after 6 a.m. is normal and acceptable if he's going to bed at 7:15.