Hungry AND habitual?

[ellenjess]

Hi
I started using EASY with DD when she was 4.5 months old.  Now at 5.5 months old we've had some great successes and our NW have greatly reduced.

However, she still wakes at 3.30am, give or take 15 minutes, every night.  If I feed her, she'll then settle pretty well and wake up for the day between 6.15 and 7.15am happy.  If I don't feed her and shh/pat her to sleep instead, she wakes again at about 5.30 cranky and is very hard to resettle, even after a feed. 

The last two night she woke at 3.30am - ish and I shhpatted her back off, she woke again 15 mins later, I did the same thing.  She then woke again 15 mins later and was crying a lot so I wobbled and decided she must have been hungry and fed her.  She then slept til 6.30/7ish.

I'm feeling unsure about whether this is genuine hunger, or a habit.  Clearly it's the same time every night so it looks like habit.  I want to try WTS. What if she still wakes before morning? Is it best to shh/pat/PUPD and stick to my guns - no food til 7 no matter how many times she wakes??  She has breast feeds at 7, 11, 3, 7, 10.30 and solids at 12 noon.  When she turns 6 months, I'm going to increase the solids to twice a day.

thanks

[stevesmum]

Hi ellenjess,
just posting to let you know we're doing much the same here (minus the solids) as far as feeding goes. i've spent the last little while trying to break what i thought was a habitual waking, but am back to feeding. It's pretty much the same - if I feed, then he goes to sleep til 6.30-7 (if there's not an explosive poo in between) and if not - well he wakes, and wakes and wakes. I'm assuming he needs more food to get him through the night, but again Tracey's books seem to imply that he should be able to do without til 7. I'm hoping that it's not habit, but rather just how long he can make it so far and as he gets older he'll get further through. In saying that, i'm sure he used to do 10df - 5am but for some reason (probably some AP on my part) we're doing 10.30df - 3.30/4/4.30....
Perhaps (and I can honestly say I hate this answer) bf doesn't get our LO's TTN properly yet...
I'm just going to follow along and see what replies you get.
 

[Lolly]

Most formula fed babies are still having a nightfeed at this age let alone breastfed babies. If she is waking very soon after she settles then she really is hungry and that nightfeed is totally normal. It's not always habit that means she wakes around the same time, in the day she is hungry at around the same intervals so they will be in the night too. She is going 5 hours from the 10.30 feed which is good for breast fed babies!

Have a look at this link if you haven't seen it already! http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=98183.0

Laura

[ellenjess]

Thanks guys! I have no probs feeding DD if she really is hungry, I have been worrying that I'm setting her up with more bad habits.  I cannot wait for her to speak!!!!  She has been sneezing today so it looks like we might have a cold...all plans are on ice til she gets over that.  I'll keep feeding at 330 for the time being.

[Kirhei]

Same here, DD (5 months) is on 2 formula feeds and 3 BFs per day and even with a 6 oz bottle at DF she still wakes up between 4-5 am and is impossible to settle without a feed ( my patience lasts about 50-60 minutes before feeding...). But for two nights I did wake to sleep; woke her up slightly at 3:15 and she slept then until 5:45.... So hard time figuring out if it is hunger or habit, or both! I will wait until solids are well introduced before thinking of stopping the night feed and meanwhile will try W2S for a week....