BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: shirat on July 29, 2013, 19:05:40 pm
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my lo is 7.5 months and still wakes for a dreamfeed and another feed 4-5 hrs later. is this normal for this age? seems crazy to never sleep thru the night yet. how do i know if its become a habit that she needs to eat in order to go back to sleep- ie is she waking out of hunger or bec of OT.... and will only settle if fed. did i create a prop?
she doesnt go sleep by bedtime with a bottle. same with naps. only when she wakes inthe middle of the night(sometimes as early as 9:00pm) she will SCREAM and scream forever until i feed her.
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Hi there, it is possible that she still needs two NFs at this age, but there are parts of your post that make it sound like a prop issue as well.
I'm assuming she's FF, as you mention her taking a bottle? Does she take full feeds during the day? Is she taking solids well?
You also mention that she doesn't need the bottle to fall asleep at naps and BT. Is she an independent sleeper? Can you post what her routine typically looks like during the day?
Is she currently teething? Any developmental stuff going on, i.e. starting to crawl, pushing up to sitting, etc?
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she has 4 bottles a day and 2 at night, each 6ounces. she also has 3 solid meals. she is an independent sleeper- we took away paci and swaddle and started sleep training all at once when she was about 5 months old. took a month but she now puts herself to sleep!
she got her 2 bottom teeth, she crawls already and now stands herself up holding on to things. she has been waking to eat since always so i dont think its a developmental thing. the question is if i created a habit out of it, or if its genuine hunger. she finishes the bottle to the last drop during the night feds as well. it just seems ridiculous that she cant go longer then 4-5 hrs at a time
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also, lately she has been waking at around 5:30 ready to start her day, and will not go back to sleep! so annoying. i refuse to feed her then bec i know its not hunger since she eats at around 3 am
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Ok, I think it's worth trying to get rid of one bottle for now. It's up to you which you think would be easier. I'd probably try to drop the DF as you'd still be awake at that time and it's probably easier to resettle. But, first I'd start reducing it and adding the oz to the daytime. So, drop an oz every couple days and add it to one of the daytime bottles. If she continues to wake for it once it's down to just a couple oz, you can either resettle without feeding or do wake-to-sleep if the waking is at a habitual time. Here are some helpful links on both... How we stopped the night feeds with a 9 month old, How do I address habitual wakings? (wake-to-sleep and other methods)
also, lately she has been waking at around 5:30 ready to start her day, and will not go back to sleep! so annoying. i refuse to feed her then bec i know its not hunger since she eats at around 3 am
This sounds like you need a routine tweak. Would you like to post what her day looks like atm, and we'll see if there are some changes we can make to get rid of that EW? (They might also help the NFs go more easily too.)
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so by dropping the df am i just extending her sleeping hours to wake later then when she usually wakes for the dreamfeed? as if to combine the 2 night feeds into 1?
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It depends on the baby. Some will sleep all the way to the other feed and some will bring the other one earlier. I think if you do it gradually and add the oz to her day, it's more likely she'll just drop the one and sleep til the other.
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i can't seem to fit in an more ounces to her day. she finishes all her bottles and meals. as it is i feel like im feeding her very hour in the afternoon to get all the meals in. this may sound backwards, but is it possible she needs to drop a bottle?her third bottle is difficult to fit in, and runs into dinner time and bedtime bottle(4th bottle) but im if she wakes at night as it is, how could she drop a day bottle???
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Have you started decreasing oz at night? Have you tired adding an extra oz to a day time bottle? If she currently finishes all of them, she might take another oz. :-\
Yes, I know it gets tough at this age to fit all those meals in the late afternoon/evening. What is your EAS looking like right now? Could you move the 3rd bottle to before the second nap, so that you can just do solids and then BT feed during that last A time? I would be hesitant to drop a daytime bottle at this age, esp as she's still having NFs.
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ok, so yesterday we were able to fit in only 3 bottles but each were 7 ounces (instead of 6) she woke at 10:15 for a dreamfeed (though i thought she would go longer bec of a bigger bedtime bottle) drank all 7 ounces. woke aagin for some reason at around 12:45, and i knew it was a way to early to feed, so i settled her on and of and she fell back asleep until 5:30. so i read that when dropping bottles its common to wake around then and to feed then otherwise you may stand no chance of settling back to sleep, so i fed her then.
today also looks like it will be a 3 bottle day so we will see how the night goes.
i guess tonight i will try diluting the dreamfeed bottle. but do the 5:30 WU continues or do they get rid of the feed on their own as well?
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Yes, I would try to get rid of only one feed at a time.
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im still a bit confused. shouldnt i be trying to get rid of the middle of night(3 am) feed first? because dropping the dreamfeed leads to needign to eat later in the night, which is what i dont want to do any more!?
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It's up to you, you can drop whichever feed you want. I think I suggested the DF as you were planning on feeding at an EW anyway. And then gradually dropping that second feed as well. Also, the DF can start to interfere with night sleep after a certain age, so some will drop that first. But, if you'd rather drop the MOTN NF, I'm sure she is able to go from DF til morning. Whatever you think is best, really!
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its all so annoying! i cant decide what makes more sense. she finished her bottled by both feeds so its hard to tell which she would respond better to. the problem is that because of the middle of the night feed, she wont have a morning bottle until around 8, and today when she woke at 5:30 for a bottle(never wakes that late!) she didnt want her morning feed until 9, so we only had 3 bottles today, this is why i think that the motn feed is "Extra" and the dreamfeed she really needs. make nay sense?
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the problem is that because of the middle of the night feed, she wont have a morning bottle until around 8, and today when she woke at 5:30 for a bottle(never wakes that late!) she didnt want her morning feed until 9, so we only had 3 bottles today, this is why i think that the motn feed is "Extra" and the dreamfeed she really needs. make nay sense?
Yes, that makes sense. It sounds to me like that MOTN/early morning feed is actually counting as one of the daytime bottles (i.e. she's not hungry enough to drink all 4 bottles during the day because she's getting that one at night). I'd drop that one (remember, you can gradually reduce oz, it doesn't have to be all in one go) and keep the DF for now and hopefully she'll start adding on oz during the day. I think by doing it gradually, you can be assured that she will get used to going longer and when you get to the point of resettling without feeding, you won't need to worry that she's 'really' hungry.
Good luck... let us know how it goes! :)
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im gonna give it a try tonight and reduce the amount of scoops in her motn bottle. wish me luck!
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How did it go?
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so we've been doing 7 ounce bottles and an extra ounce of formula mixed into her cereal for the past 2 days.
so night 2 was the same, woke for dreamfeed and slept straight until 5:30!(which is great) the problem with this is that she won't go back to sleep. if it's not one thing, its the next! i fed her a diluted bottle by the 5:30 am feed and put her back in her crib but she just blabbed and cued and by about 6:15 i took her out.
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Sounds like progress... if you feed her a full bottle at 5:30 will she go back? I might be tempted to do that and just count it as a day time feed. What does your routine look like, atm? EWs can often indicate a need for a tweak.
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last night she woke at 11:30 for her dreamfeed but woke even earlier - around 4 am - for her next feed :( i fed her a diluted bottle then and she went back to sleep
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I think it's normal to get a bit if back and forth for a little while before the feed goes. It does sound like it's a bit of a prop.
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i started to think the middle of the night feed is a habit i need to break, not real hunger, but because she finishes the entire bottle i started to think otherwise iykwim
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Yeah, ikwym but I think she's just replacing day time calories with night time ones. I don't think she actually needs it... it sounds like it is more of a habit like you originally thought.
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last night was the same thing had a dreamfeed around 10:30 then slept again until 4:30ish, i gave her 5ounces with 1.5 scoops this time, and she didnt seem to mind it and went back to sleep until 7
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Sounds good, keep it up! :)