how do you define sleeping through the night?

[Mama2boys]

Hi all,

Am curious as to how one defines  a baby sleeping through the night? Is it a 12 hr stretch or can it be lesser?

My LO sleeps at abt 8pm wakes up betwen 3:30-5 for a feed and then goes straight back to sleep till 7:30/7:45..

what is this? and more so, how can i delay the 4/5am feed to maybe a 6/6:30 feed.

He is extremely hungry when he wakes, its not consistent at all just an approx 3:30-5 period.

Any thoughts?
thanks,
Mukta

[Jocasta]

I've always classed sleeping through the night as an eight hour stretch.  As for a one year old, I have no idea - it seems like he shouldn't really NEED a feed in the night if you kwim but I'm by no means an expert.  I'm sure someone will come a long with some much more helpful advice!

Good luck!

[*Nicola*]

Callie goes 7-7 with a DF and a feed at 3ish and I class that as going through the night LOL

[Mama2boys]

thanks ladies,

We cluster fee din the evening, so dinner at 5:30, yogurt at 7 and then milk at 8..and my little man is a tiny tiny eater..so i think he gets hungry really quickly.

In all his 1 year of existence, he has never had more than 5oz at a time, a handful of times he has had 6oz bottle but thats really rare maybe once every month. everyone tells me he should manage 12 hrs without food....but he just cant. I tried cutting down his oz at the 4amish feed and he kept waking every 15minutes till he had his full and then slept...and that was way worse than just feeding him once in the night.

Do i just come to terms with the fact that I gave birth to a human hummingbird??

[brenda2]

does he eat really close together in the daytime too?  maybe he's a snacker and not used to going long periods between feeds?  what happens if you don't cluster and try to space out the feeds so he takes more at each feed?

[Bryony]

I'm going to move you over to Sleeping for Toddlers as your LO is over a year old (only just - but I think you will get more mums of older children to see your post over there)

Hope that's OK!

Bryony

[andibig]

Well I class sleeping through the night for toddlers anything from 10-12 hrs at night with no feeds ,just my personal opinion though!!

Some LOs do hang on to their night feed for a long time but when they get older I think its more a case of their body expecting a feed early in the morning and therfore they wake up for it IYKWIM.

Whats his eating like during the day?

[Mama2boys]

Thanks for moving me over Bryony.

DS's schedule is as below:

8:30 solid bfast - cereal + fruit
10 - 11:15 nap
11:30 1 petit filous yogurt
1:00 solid lunch + fruit
3:00pm milk 4oz and nap
4:15 wake up
5:30 dinner + fruit
7:00pm yogurt
8pm milk 3oz
4am milk 5oz

he tends to be a light eater...barely sits in the high chair for about 20-30 minutes, eats himself but selectively but is open to being fed at times. So all meal times include finger food he can feed himself and something I can feed him in between him feeding himself.
Fruit is always eaten on the run, there is no way he will sit in one place and eat fruit

what do you think..should I get rid of the snacks? But if I do, I am concerned that he won't eat enough.I am hesitant to remove the 3pm milk as well for the same reason.

All guidance is much appreciated.
thanks,
Mukta

[andibig]

Really quick reply as i've got to get DD to bed .But I would move that 3pm milk.DD had exactly the same problem with milk at that time as she would hardly eat any dinner.
We originally tried to get rid of it completely but then her snack had to be so big it defeated the object!!!!
We moved it to 1pm which was before her nap and it worked really well and if she wanted a snack then we could get away with a sml one.so try moving his milk to 2pmand see if that makes a difference.

something else i would be tempted to do as well is maybe not give him the yoghurt at 7pm and see if that helps him take a larger milk drink before bed.
HTH

[Mama2boys]

Thanks Andrea, sounds good.

Today I gave him the yoghurt right after dinner and he drank nearly 4oz of milk so that sounds like in the right direction, will also try removing the evening yoghurt and see if milk intake is drastically different.

As suggested will try the same with his 3pm milk and try and pull it up a bit. Fingers crossed.

thanks for your support.
Mukta

[andibig]

You're welcome hun .Let me know how he gets on.

[mari]

What about moving the milk during the afternoon and give it in the morning if you feel that he isn't getting enough.  I also gave porridge at bedtime as it was more filling than yoghurt.

How does he fall asleep? Naptime and bedtime?

[Mama2boys]

The reason I had replace the morning bottle was because I was trying to bring him to only 2 bottles of milk a day now that he is 1 and that was the easier bottle to get rid of as he sleeps straight after the afternoon bottle.

He tends to fall asleep pretty ok, when he is ready though, I can;t get him into bed if he does not want it...and had been sleeping well 2 1.25hr naps...but for the last 2 days his morning nap has been at 11 instead of 10 and the afternoon nap has become short maybe 30-45min...am thinking it might be the 2-1 transition? But thats another post.

I have tried porridge as well but dint make a big difference.

Lats night was ok, he had his yogurt as part of dinner, almost like desert Right after the fruit and then 4oz of milk at sleep, brushed teeth and slept till 4:30 woke for milk and slept through to 7:15...

obviously schedules are not his forte!
Mukta

[andibig]

If you find that his PM nap is getting short you might have to start cutting down the AM nap.Sasha was only having 30 mins in the morning and 1.5hrs for her pm nap.
HTH

[mari]

You say that he wakes for milk, how do you know that it's milk he wants?  How exactly does he fall asleep at naptime and bedtime, is it with a dummy, sh pat, milk, or does he just lay there and fall asleep without help from you or anything else?