"How we stopped night feeds" - Finally!

[Eden&Connor'sMom]

See the last post - my daughter is finally sleeping through!!!

********

After reading the success story entitled "how we stopped night feeds in 9 month old" I tried it. After two weeks, my daughter is still waking up at the same time as before to eat. I don't know why it's not working for her.

And since I am new here, here's general information about my daughter and her schedule:

How old is your child? - 7 months
What’s his/her daily routine? - 4 Hour Easy

7:00 AM   Eat - Wake up and feed
7:30 AM   Activity
9:00 AM   Sleep 1.5 to 2 hour nap
11:00 AM   Eat
11:30 AM   Activity
1:00 PM   Sleep 1.5 to 2 hour nap
3:00 PM   Eat
3:30 PM   Activity
5:00 PM   Sleep 5 to 6 catnap
7:00 PM   Eat
7:15 PM   Activity - Bath
7:30 PM   Sleep

What’s nap routine? - see above
How long are naps? - 1.5 hours is typical
What's bedtime routine? Time? - Change into pjs, lights dimmed, book, lullaby, tuck in with shirt that mom slept in and favorite stuffed animal.
Do you bottle or breastfed?? Bottle
How much? or how long? 5 to 6 ounces per feeding is usual unless it's with solids
How many wakes per night?  2 to 3
What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up? - Cries almost immediately for her bottle
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? Or is it a mantra cry? - She is crying. Not sure what a mantra cry is.
What have you tried to settle?? Yes. Does not work.
What do you do for A time and how long is it? 1.5 hours usually. Involves playing with M and D, practicing standing, tickling, playing with toys.
Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones? - Not really.
Do they have a prop? If so what is it? - Needs a bottle to go to sleep
Do they have a lovie? - She has a pink stuffed elephant that she sleeps with. Can't say if it's her lovie yet or not.

Thanks!

Eden's Mom

[Colin Macs Mom]

Are you sure that she's waking from hunger rather than habit?

[Eden&Connor'sMom]

I believe she is waking up hungry, since she'll wake up more frequently when I try to reduce the amount I feed her at night (3x vs. 2x when she gets a full bottle). Also, I can't soothe her at night by holding her, rocking her, etc. I'd try a pacifier, but she stopped using one months ago.

How else could I tell if this is habit versus hunger?

[Colin Macs Mom]

A hunger cry will usually have a coughlike quality to it. I was just wondering if you have one of those  LOs that truly needs a night feed longer than most, or if it's a habitual waking now. There's no quick fix to something, so after ending a night feed LOs often wake around that feed time anyway.

[Tatumsmom]

I struggled with nightfeeds for the longest time, I tried everything under the sun to stop them and nothing worked. I finally relized(with help from the wonderful Jessica ) that my lo was just one of those lo's that needed a nightfeed for longer. She turned one on Dec 12 and we have finally gone away with the NF. Haveing said that she still wakes up some nights and she looks for a bottle. I used to stress about it but know I have come to peace with the fact that she just needed it and some nights still dose. I'm not saying it is going to be the same for your lo, but I just wanted to give you some support. I was so tierd of everyone(not here) making me feel like I was doing something wrong by still feeding her at night. If you have truley tried everything and she is still waking maybe your lo isn't ready yet. I did  nothing different and then one night she slept through!!!!  Good luck I will be thinking of you and if you have any questions I'll be glad to try and help.
Kim

[Tobysmum]

My LO was waking up 2-4 times per night and would take a full feed each time.  I decided to find out if he was really hungry so I tried pick up/put down.  The first time it took about 10-15 minutes.  The second time it only took pu/pd once.  He has slept through the past 4 nights now without needing a feed!  For the first 2 nights he did wake up and I did pu/pd each time (twice per night), the next two nights he's slept through the night!  Amazing.  Now, I do have an angel/textbook baby but even he amazed me.  So the fact that he was able to go through the night tells me that he was not hungry, he was just using me as a prop to go back to sleep.  That said, it's only been 4 nights so I am not counting my chickens yet!!!  Today he hasn't really had a milk feed since 11.30am this morning so I think it highly unlikely that he'll go through the night - I may even do a dreamfeed tonight to see if that will stop him waking in the night.  I do believe also that some babies do need a feed in the night - but probably not more than one, particularly if they are on formula - isnt' that supposed to be slower to digest?
I agree with the hunger cry sounding like a cough.
Good luck.

[Tatumsmom]

I should say that she only woke once a night for a feed and then would go straight back to sleep till 7:30 or 8:00am. Some nights she would wake twice but that was very rare. She would always take a 8oz bottle. I truley believe the only reason she would wake at night was because she was hungry, she never  woke at the same time and no matter what I did she would not settle untill she got her bottle. I tried pu/pd but that just made her hystarical wi/wo was even worse. One night I was up for 3 hrs trying everything and nothing worked to settle her so I feed her and she went to sleep. I think that if I had seen an improvement in the length of time it toook her to settle I would have tried longer but it never got better. Each night I was up for hours and since I'm back at work I just couldn't function that way. I felt like I was torturing both of us so I just exepted the fact she still needed a feed. She sleeps through the night  from 6:30 -7:30 am and I'm doing nothing different so I guess she just wasn't ready till now.
Kim

[Eden&Connor'sMom]

I changed the title of this posting, as we finally have had success with our now almost 8 mo sleeping through the night. Besides sticking with a 4 hour EASY, I believe two things really worked:

1) Gradually cutting back the amount of formula in nighttime bottles. We still fed her when she woke, since she was hungry, but the bottles were just 4 oz and 50/50 formula. I kept doing this for a month until a few days ago when she would only take an ounce of the bottle.
2) Dream feeds. We put them back into the routine, even though she would wake for them about 3 hours after falling asleep, so dream feeds weren't at 10:30 to 11, but 9:30. We are still doing them.

So last night she slept from 6:30 pm to 6:45 am. That included the 9:30 dream feed of 6 oz and waking at 4:00 am for a diaper change. We are so glad our little girl is finally not waking hungry at night!

[Colin Macs Mom]

Congratulations, that's wonderful!!