Advice needed on dropping night feed... which way to go?

[londonlady]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this - please move if it might be better placed somewhere else...

Sofia is nearly 16 weeks, and we've been stuck in the same place regarding night feeds for a good 6 weeks or so.

She is on 3hr EASY in the day, (I've been thinking about 4hr but she can't seem to stay awake long enough to make it work yet.) She is pretty textbook in the day, and goes to bed at 6.30-7pm and has a dream feed aboout 10.45pm, then sleeps through til anywhere between 4.30-5.30am, waking for a very small feed then sleeping again til 6.30-7am.

I know she is doing well on her nights, and I am ok with the wake up -  my main bug bear is that taking 2oz at 5am ish means she is then not hungry for her 7am feed when we get up for the day. I try again and again throughout that A time, and end up putting her down again for her 1st nap without a feed most days.  So I know in the 24hr period she doesn't need the calories in that night feed - I just can't seem to get them in during the day instead...

So I have been looking to try and drop this feed. I've read the tips on upping her calories in the day and have trialled the next teat flow, but to no avail.

I've begun "watering down" that night bottle - 4oz water, but only 3 scoops of formula. Still she takes 2-3oz max and still she refuses the 7am feed.

I don't think the bottle is a prop. I was breastfeeding then combi feeding until 2 weeks ago and she's transitioned well, she has no dummy, self settles for naps and bedtime really well. So should I try and shh pat / PUPD through the 5am feed to try and extend her, or continue watering down that feed til there is nothing there? Or is this dropping a bottle a sign of needing to transition to 4hr EASY (which I'm struggling with because of the A time issue...)

Any advice would be great. Thanks,
Rachel. x

[Frony]

Hello,
I can't give you any advice, but I wanted to say that my daughter is 14w and her name is Sofia too. And we have a similar problem, it's just that she wakes up at 11pm, at 2am and again at 5am! And she doesn't want to go back to sleep :/ Last night we dropped the 2am feeding for the first time. I know she is not hungry, but I didn't know what to do. So last night I was up from 2.30am till 4.30am and was putting back the paci in her mouth as soon as she started to grumble. It's not easy but I hope that we can get rid of the 2am feeding this way. Maybe it would work for you too...

[*Kara*]

I actually think that the method of watering down is less effective that just reducing the volume offered.  The watered down version still gives LO that temporary full belly feeling... I night weaned completely at 19 weeks by reducing what was offered... she was taking 5-6 ozs at each feed during the day on an almost 4 hr EASY, so I reduced her night feed down to 4 ozs to start... after a few nights of that, I dropped it down to 3 ozs... she was MAD the first time she only got 3 ozs   After a few nights she adjusted to it and stopped waking up... she moved those ounces to day feeds.  I found that this shift helped her get to the 4 hrs with bigger feeds of 7 ozs

Have you tried moving to a 3.5 hr EASY?

[londonlady]

Frony - ah a fellow Sofia! I hope she's not been as hard work as ours!!   Good luck with using the paci to hold her off. We're not using one so unfortunately can't try that tactic. Thanks though...

Kara - I think we may have to try and move to 3.5hr EASY and see how it goes. I need to get my head around what our day would look like with the school run for my son (which is an absolute routine buster at the moment, thankfully Sofia has started to adapt to it.) 

We can definitely give th cutting volume a go, but she's only taking 2-3oz anyway and never finishes the bottle I make up. Will just make up less tonight and see if we can drop again in the next few days. I was figuring that the temporary fullness would carry her through to 7am but that she'd then be hungry again. Clearly that's not working with our delicate little eater!!

Thanks. xx