5mo PUPD - still hungry?

[RosieC14]

Hi everyone,

I'm a big fan of Tracy's books and have done her EASY routine since my LG was 4 weeks old. We recently transitioned on to 4 hour EASY which looks like this:

E 7
A
S 9-11
E 11
A
S 1-3
E 3
A
S 5 (half hour cat nap)
E 6 30
A bath, story
S by 7 30
DF 1045

10 days ago we moved E into her own room and started PU/PD to tackle her frequent night awakenings which were between 3-4 times (sometimes more) and 1-2 feeds (occasionally more) it was also always a nightmare to get her back down - sometimes I was up 2 hours trying to settle her back down - major accidental parenting!!

It's going well and the night awakenings have gone to 1-2. But I am still feeding her. Because she does get a feed PUPD is still taking 90mins or so when she doesn't get a feed because of this.

So my question is, should I still be feeding??

Please someone help! Thank you! X

[becj86]

Hi, welcome to BW forum

When is that NW that's taking a long time to settle? Just wondering as your routine is about right for a 4 month old and she might need a touch more A time, say 2:15 or even 2:30.

How is LO fed - its very normal for a breastfed baby to have 2-3 night feeds at this age, I think still normal for 2 feeds for a formula fed baby. I would just make sure that you decide before you get up to her if you're going to feed and either feed or do PUPD straight away.

[RosieC14]

Hi, thank you for your advice 

It's around 1 30am. I do start PUPD as she shouldn't be hungry then. But I can be doing PUPD for 90mins or so by which time she has cried herself hungry. Once fed, she is straight back down. If not, I used PUPD again.

More awake time so keep awake until 2 15? So only 45min nap?? I don't think she'd stay awake 11-2 15 or 2 30!

She's breastfed. In the book I have by Tracy suggests they should not need feeding after 3-4 months so I wasn't sure if I should be cutting these night feeds out?

How do I incorportate night feeds and PUPD without confusing her?

Thank you

[michaeljacknnugg]

Why shouldn't she be feeding? Breast milk is digested in about 1.5hrs so it's likely that she really is hungry by then. The books were written a while back and it's probable that they would have been updated with new breastfeeding info had Tracy lived longer.

My guy is 5 months tomorrow and ebf. I automatically offer a feed for any NW that has been 2 hrs since the last one. If shorter, I will try and settle him in other ways first.

[weaver]

Agreed. ^^ 

The only reason I would suspect she is not hungry would be if you offered and she wasn't interested, or if she fed and still stayed awake for a long time afterwards.  At 5 mo, my first option at NW would always be feed first and see if that works, save everyone some heartache!

[becj86]

Its totally reasonable to be feeding at 1:30am. I think that would get you all a lot more sleep and LO is likely hungry.