dropping a night feed - which one??

[slaver]

I have finally decided that my 10 week old DS is still waking twice a night out of habit rather than hunger. He is a very good size baby and weighed 9lb 2 at birth. He's on the 3 hr easy and is majorly breastfed. He naps well in the morning and ok in the afternoon. We give him a botle of formual at the DF when he normally takes 6-7 oz. he still wakes at around 2 and then around 5 give or take half an hour.

Due to the timings being fairly regular i don't think its anything to do with growth spurts. Last night I decided to drop one of teh feeds. He had a DF at 10pm and then woke for food at 2am. i bf him and he went back to sleep. He then woke at 4.20 and we had him back to sleep by 5am without feeding. He then woke again at 6.15 and I bf him at6.30 and started our day half an hour earlier than normal.

Did I do the right thing or should I have tried dropping the first feed at 2am rather than the second one?? I obviously want to get this right as to get up once (or even not at all) in the night would be amazing!

Any tips and advice would be so grately received!

Sarah

[blakenmom]

Hi there,
I just did the same thing with my DS.  Also at about 10 weeks.  I tried to drop the 5am feed but found that it was easier and he really wasn't hungry at the 2am feed.  We now only get up once between 4-5am.  If he wakes before that I pat/shush him back to sleep which usually works.  He usually does not wake till 4-5am.  What a life saver for my sleep!  Also try o make the room as dark as possible.  I found that my DS slept much later if the room was totally dark.  Hope that helps!
Sarah

[slaver]

Thanks so much for your advice. I'll give it a go tonight dropping the earlier feed and we'll see how we get on. How long did it take him to get used to it and for him to stop waking early most of the time?

Sarah

[blakenmom]

Hi again Sarah!
It really only took him a few days.  The first night obviously took a little time, I think he woke at 2am and it took about 30-45 mins to get him back to sleep, then he woke at about 5am.  Sometime he still wakes around the 2am time but usually soothes himself back to sleep. Hooray!!  Good luck and keep me posted!
Sarah

[slaver]

Hi.

I was going to try and drop the feed last night but didn't need to in the end! We had had a really busy day and had been out all day at a summer party. Toby was late to bed (8.30 rather than 7-7.30) and didn't have a bath as I was anxious to get him to bed. I DF him later as well (11 rather than 10-10.30) and he woke at 3.30 to feed. I fed him and then he went back down till 6.15 where I unswaddled him and put his mobile on and then  fed at 7.

Not sure whetehr he did this because so much went on in the day and also not sure whether I should maybe make his timings a bit later to enable this to happen again?? If I go back to normal bedtime and DF time will he go back to waking at 1-2??

So feeling a bit more rested but not sure how long will last!!

[blakenmom]

Glad to hear you got more sleep!  Its a great feeling! I know what you mean about not knowing how long it will last. I wonder the same thing every night.  My LO has started waking around 2am again!  He seems to be going through some kind of strange eating phase.  He is very uninterested in eating during the day.  It is all I can do to get him to eat.  Most of the time he only tales 2 oz. and pits half of that up on me.  SOOO, I am going to keep trying, hopefully he will get back to sleeping till 4-5am like before.  As for the bedtime thing, I am not sure what time you are "supposed" to put them to bed but my LO seems to do good with starting bath around 8:30 and in bed around 9.  This ay be later than some but he seems to be at the perfect stage at about this time.  I have played with the time a bit but found earlier waking's and more frequent.  Let me know how you guys do, and are you having similar feeding issues?
Sarah

[slaver]

We are mainly breastfeeding at the moment so never really sure how much he is taking. When he does have a bottle which is twice a day (formula) he takes around 6-7 oz, maybe a bit less at the DF. He doesn't seem to be as starvingly hungry anymore when it is time to feed but he does nurse for around 10 minutes which is all he's ever really done.

Today, again, we've been out all afternoon and therefore his naps have been disturbed and I havn't managed to cluster feed. He's just gone down at 7.45pm after a feed so we'll see how he does. Normally, without cluster feeding, he will wake up before we are due to do the DF. Let's see!! Will keep you posted.

Hope you have a better night tonight!

Sarah

[blakenmom]

Just checking in again to see how you guys are doing?  We are doing ok, some nights are better than others.  I have really realized how important his day time sleep is to how well he sleeps at night.  When we miss a nap or have a short nap he has a much harder time sleeping.  And I have noticed he doesn't go right back to sleep after he eats at night, I really have to work at getting him back down, sometime just for him to wake up again an hour later!!  How frustrating!  Hopefully we can get back on track.
I switched to a faster flow nipple for him also and that seems to be helping the feeding issues.  I already know he has reflux and h is on medicine for that so I think he just wasn't getting enough food fast enough so he was fidgeting and bored with it.  We will see if it continues to get better.
Well I hope you are doing better with only one night time feed and LO is letting you get some sleep.  Hang in there....I HEAR it gets better....when I really don't know!   
Sarah

[slaver]

We're doing ok. For the last few nights he's only woken once and fed around 2.30. He then has been waking early at about 5.30 but I'm able to get him back to sleep without feeding adn am hoping that gradually he will get the idea that he's not supposed to wake then. We have been having problems with sleep times during the day though so he's not been getting the full naps that he needs. Maybe this could be why he wakes early??

Glad to hear that the feeding is better and I masure things will get better at getting him back down after a feed. We're lucky that that normally isn't a problem although at the moment Toby has a cold and therefore keeps sneezing and waking himself up!!

As you say....it will get better, we just have to keep going. When I think back to even 3 weeks ago he is soooo much better now

Sarah

[blakenmom]

Yeah, I hear you!  Blake is doing MUCH better then he was a month ago.  At that time I really didn't know how I was going to make it.  I booked a airline ticket to go home to be with my family for 2 weeks because I was so overwhelmed.  By the time I got there he was a totally different baby!  He was happy, eating and sleeping well and my family thought I was nuts!  But thankfully each day does get a little better so it makes it easier to push forward.  We seems to have a pretty consistent schedule now and that really helps.  So keep on truckin and before you know it they will be off to school!  And what will you do with all that free time??     Can you say bubble bath!