Diary of a dreamfeed wean!

[Mom_to_L&S]

Evening + Night 11 : She drank her full bottle but, like last night, wouldn't accept an extra oz.
DF of 1 scoop/1oz : she blatantly refused to drink! So I guess it's safe to say we are officially done with the DF 

The night was very good; only 1 short waking around 4am which a re-tuck and plug solved.

Morning Day 12 : Lena slept untill 7am, drank a full bottle and then we started our day.

Paula : SO close now, I'll expect you to dissapear from here any time now  Good luck in advance!
Oh and holding Lena a little more upright while using the no.4's did the trick, thanks.

Sophie

[* Paula *]

Sophie that is fantastic news - congrats on weaning the DF - you must be so pleased 

I am pleased that holding DD a little more upright did the trick with the #4 teats.

I am hoping to dissapear soon - I am so fed up of being pregnant now - don't feel I can go on much longer     Hopefully this little madam will decide to make an appearance sooner rather than later 

[Mom_to_L&S]

Hi Paula,

Just popped in quickly to say hi and say that all still is well; allthough Lena is not eating more now that we have dropped the DF. She is still on 180ml-bottles and won't take more. I do try to give her some yogurt every day to get at least a little more calories in her. So overall, one could say that she is now eating less than before but still thriving. Her nights are good. We're a bit in wonky-nap-land at the moment with regards to the morning nap but it'll sort itself out.

Paula, you are STILL here, awww  How are you feeling?

Sophie

[* Paula *]

Hi Sophie,

Thanks for keeping us updated - That sounds perfectly fine having 180ml bottles and a yogurt - remember you can always hide a bit of milk in foods as well as count the milk in cereal as well as cheese etc. 

Sorry the naps are a bit wonky, I am pleased that the nights are going so smoothly.

Yup I am still here - only 5 days to go, and hopefully no more, but would prefer less 

Keep us posted.

[vadensmommy]

After posting in a different post that I am a DF dropping weenie, I've decided to take some good advice and tackle the DF, and I am taking Paula's advice and am going to use this as my diary of weaning the DF as well!  I would love some support and advice from you lovely ladies who've already "been there and done that"!

Some background:
DD has been on EASY and DF since about 7weeks.
She takes 7oz bottles 4x/day and a 5oz DF at 10:15pm for a total of about 33oz of formula/day.
Her night sleep has been fine, other than some serious teething issues right now. 
She doesn't eat her solids very well - usually has two meals (breakfast and lunch) that are homemade, and takes about 2 ice cube sized servings at both meals, and may or may not finish them.  She sometimes has supper, but her pm nap sometimes is long enough that her two pm bottles fall pretty close together, and she isn't really hungry for the supper meal, it just depends on how the naps go. 

I've decided that I will use the two fold approach - decreasing amount of milk offered over time as well as moving the DF earlier and earlier.

Night #1: Tonight the plan will be to offer dd 4oz of formula at 10 and keep our fingers crossed that things will go smoothly!  Wish us luck!

[* Paula *]

Good luck - we will be here with you every step of the way.

Keep us posted on how things go.

[Mom_to_L&S]

Good luck, vadensmommy!!! As you probably know, I did the 1-fold approach (lol) and just dropped the DF in size. I guess I was feeling a bit icky about waking Lena just mere hours after she had gone to bed.

I'm back posting here because I have a situation I'm not sure how to tackle (and to check if Paula is still around!)
Since succesfully having weaned the DF and Lena doing fine for a week or so, she has woken up the past 3 nights at 11pm  Here's a quick rundown of the events:

Night 1: I thought the wake-up was a fluke and thought nothing more of it, but she had a lot of upset NW and a bad nap day following. She was more hungry during the day and I upped each feed with 1-2 oz and offered yogurt (the yogurt I had been offering consistently for the past week already)

Night 2 : I figured she was hungry because she already ate so much during the day, so fed her 120ml/4scoops. She drained this and went back to sleep. A good night with only 1NW at 4am; settled quickly and slept untill 7am. The day following, she ate 4 more scoops in total than usual.

Night 3 : When she woke around 11pm, I fed her 120ml/4 scoops again, she settled quickly but then had 3-4 NW, waking up screaming, very upset. PU/PD worked but only briefly since she woke up so many times.
She was UP at 6am ravenous again and drank (what is for her) a full bottle of 180ml/6s. She never settled again so we had a very early start today.

My ponderings are:
- I am getting more cals in her during the day but she keeps waking up hungry, how do I deal with this? I know Tracy said to always feed a hungry baby and I'm pretty sure it's not habitual because she is such a reluctant drinker usually and when she downs a bottle, it means hunger or she would refuse the bottle otherwise.
Is this a growth spurt? I believe there is one around 8 months?

- She is getting OT from all the NW and the consequential bad naps, how do I solve this?

At this point, I don't know what to tackle first, I had to decide between posting on the naps board, the NW-board and this board, lol because they are all accurate, oh joy joy 

Lena is in good spirits during the day though and hardly gives any tired signs.

Any thoughts? Should I post this elsewhere, maybe?

Thanks in advance,

Sophie x

[* Paula *]

Awww hugs Sophie, sorry things are not going as smoothly.

Do you think perhaps she could be teething and sucking on the teat to ease some discomfort?  Some lo's will suck for comfort when teething and others will refuse the bottle - just a thought?

It could quite possibly be a growth spurt too - how many bottles is she taking during the day, and how much solids?

[Mom_to_L&S]

You're still here! Very soon now, Paula 

Her routine on a normal day:

7am : wake up + eat 180ml/6scoops
9am : 100g baby-yogurt OR bottle 120ml/4scoops
10am:  nap untill 11h15am
12pm : Lunch : 250g veggies/chicken (or fish) + 50ml water
2pm:  nap untill 4pm
4pm : 120ml/4 scoops stirred with 100g pureed fruit and 4 scoops cereal. This makes a porridge I feed her with a spoon.
6.30pm : 210ml/7 scoops (if hungry will offer an extra scoop)
7pm : Bedtime (usually asleep within 10 mins)

I really can't say if she is teething, her gums aren't red and she doesn' t seem to be in pain. She is resisting naps which can be because of OT or teething? I really am clueless on this one.

Thanks,

Sophie

[* Paula *]

SIGH - yes I am still here and feeling very uncomfortable.  Hoping she comes soon.

Right I am just thinking out loud here - but just a suggestion.

At breakfast time have you thought about introducing a cereal with formula mixed in instead of a yogurt - this could be a little heavier on her tummy.

Also at lunch time, perhaps offer her a yogurt after her lunch, to fill her up a little more.

Then at dinner time, you could offer a protien and veggies etc - basically what you eat and maybe a small yogurt or fruit puree afterwards.

Then bottle before bed.

Just a thought, if she is waking hungry in the night, the extra food during the day may help with this.

Also, is your lo going through anything developmental at the moment i.e. crawling, pulling up to stand etc?  This can cause night wakings as well as them resisting their naps.

[Mom_to_L&S]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I will try your suggestions starting tomorrow since I'm at the office now. Sounds very sound 

1 question though : What time would you offer the dinner when her bedtime bottle is already at 6.30pm? We usually eat after she has gone to bed but I guess I could feed her at 6pm. Wouldn' t that make her bottle too soon after?

Sophie

ETA : She isn't trying to stand or crawl at the moment.

[* Paula *]

You could keep her dinner at the same time - perhaps just double up what you make for lunch and offer it at dinner time.

My DS is 2 and he still eats his dinner around 4:30 ish - he prefers it that way.

Hmmm, am still wondering if it is something developmental lurking in the background.  Is she going through any SA at the moment?

[Mom_to_L&S]

Yes, she has started to show SA since a day or 5. We seem to have tackled it when we are at home though, doing WI/WO during nap-and bedtimes and she is playing alone now well again.
I have thought too that she maybe always woke up here and there during the night and then fell back asleep on her own so we never knew but that now; she is scared when she wakes up alone in her room? She really cries HARD whereas she usually used to talk/whimper when she woke up.

I am feeling pretty insecure about the feeding her at 11pm since I don't want to regress back to the DF. It's so hard to read her sometimes that I can get insecure 

I'm not quite sure what time you mean now for her dinner time, she has her fruit/cereal/milk meal at 4pm and then bottle at 6.30pm. I'm confuzzled, lol.

Sophie

[* Paula *]

Perhaps offer her the same for dinner that she had at lunch time but just stick to the 4pm time.

Could definitely be the seperation anxiety - have you tried using WI/WO to see if that helps.

I agree, you don't want to go back to doing and 11pm feed if you can help it - have you tried just offering her water to see if she is just thirsty?

[Mom_to_L&S]

So you mean eliminate the fruit and give veggies/protein again?
Guidelines here advise against that; at to only give 20g protein a day but then again, Belgium seems to have completely different guidelines than the UK-ones, to add to the confusion.

I haven't tried to offer water instead no; since I think she is actually hungry.
Do you think it's ok to wait 2 more days (I believe a growthspurt lasts 5 days? correct me if I'm wrong) and then offer water instead of milk if she is still waking up?

Sorry about the endless questions --This is really about the only time so far I have my hands in my hair and don't know what to tackle first and what causes what, IYKWIM?

We do WI/WO yes during nap and bedtimes but do PU/PD with the NW's since neither me or DH have the stamina to do WI/WO during the night, bad I know!

Sophie