Dilute or decrease middle of night bottle?

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

So last night went well, suprisingly he didn't waken for a bottle. But he was up at 5.45 for the day. I was tempted to give him the bottle cos I knew he would drink it and go back to sleep until I woke him at 7, but I said if he woke after 5.30 I would just start the day or at least every 2nd day.
So he got up and had a bottle at 6.10 180, breakfast an hour later and 60 ml at 9.
Then he had lunch which was not too bad.
But after his nap he only had about 50 ml, dinner at 10 to 5, so we will see how the last bottle goes. I am really stumped on this one . He is turning into a textbook sleeper apart from this middle of the night/ early am bottle. Am now beginning to wonder if too much day sleep is the culprit as he gets 3 hours and I usually wake him from all naps

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Ok so I started diluting and tbh I dont think it's going well. It seems like I have a real hunger issue on my hands and am not sure how to fix it as ds just will not drink any more milk during the day.
This is how the last 4 nights went,

Night 1  4.00am 240 ml bottle diluted 50% drank 220. Woke at 6.40. Total 11 hours sleep
Night 2  4.20am 240 ml bottle diluted 50% drank 240. Woke at 6.20. Total 11.40 hours sleep
Night 3. 4.45am 240 ml bottle diluted 50% drank 180. Woke at 7.10. Total 11.30 hours sleep
Night 4. No bottle, whinged 2 at different times resetteled in min. Woke 6.20. Total 11 hours
Night 5. 4.45. 180 bottle diluted 33% drank 180. Woke at 6.00 am. Total 10.30 hours.

He is also having about 140 ml for his breakfast milk when he gets up, and weetabix less than an hour later.

So where do I go next with this? Anyone?
I am so tired and I felt last night was a disaster as I gave him a bottle near 5 and he still woke at 6 for the day, hungry and tired but I had to start the day then as I dont want 2 night feedings.
Am thinking tonight of giving a 180 bottle with the regular 3 scoops, hope it gets him to 7 and then reduce the amount instead of diluting?

[emmas]

I don't know - I was hoping it was working for you - Its a tough call because whilst he is still getting milk at night he has no need to drink more during the day and understand about not wanting to give just water.  I'm sorry I wish I had an answer - would he take some porridge or something before bed?  I remember reading in a post something about wake to feed - think you wake them before the time they wake for a feed?  maybe thats just for younger babies.

Hugs to you - misery loves company so if it makes you feel better I've had H getting up at 3.30 and not going back to sleep until 5 for the last 2 nights!!

[*Nicola*]

((Hugs)) Fiona

We are a similar situation with Callie. She is only taking 6 oz max at each day feed (although it has been 4oz last few days!) then taking 7oz at bedtime and 8oz during the night.  I know she won't take more during the day until she will/can give up the night feed but I'm not sure how to get there!!

We did dilute milk but that was when we were also doing DF which we have now stopped.  ATM we are giving her a week to see what she does/figure out any patterns and then I think I will try reducing the oz at night.  Diluting didn't seem to work for us.  When we were diluting feeds she would wake at 6am each day just as you describe.  When we began to offer 8oz at the first waking she started to go thru til I woke her at 8am LOL.

So, I haven't really helped there have I??  But wanted to let you know you are not alone xx

 

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Gentle bump in case anyone has any ideas.

Nicola it's awful isn't it. I either get up at silly o'clock and have done for weeks on end often starting the day at 5.30 until I decided I couldnt do it any more and started giving a bottle. 5.30 is my cut off time so if he wakes at 5.45 I get him up for the day. He was also wakening dd from 6am on so something had to be done.
Ds will only really take 2 bottles a day, am and pm and they are about 150 5oz or at the most 6oz. I offer 2 other bottles and the most he will drink is 2 oz and he is not over eating on solids either as in only on 3 small meals with no snacks.

Emma I thougt seeing no news from you was good news, sorry it's not :-(

[stagemanager2]

I think you might want to start to decrease as you say.  If diluting isn't working then it may be that he is getting filled up with liquid so he isn't hungry in the morning... the first thing I would say is give him 1oz less each feed in the night... I think that's like 75ml? then do it again each night until you are down low enough so he is eating more in the day... if he still wakes at the same times yet you have reduced the food and there is hardly any left from that feed... you might want to try water for a few days... just to get him used to the fact that he is only going to get water instead of food....

try that out and see if reducing helps nw.... good luck and keep us posted

[lilmonkey]

Hugs to all you ladies going through this b/c I may reluctantly have to join you.  The ews and nws are creeping back and I'm just getting sooooo tired of all this.  I don't know what to blame it on anymore.   

Do you think it's child abuse if we give them some sort of sleeping pill? 

[*Nicola*]

technically ... yes LOL but it's ok to think about it!

You know, if someone had said to me 6 months ago that I'd have a 6 month old still eating at night I'd never have believed them!

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Ha ,all started at 6 months and here we are at 10. I certainly would never have believed it. I made the huge mistake of looking at dds diary from when she was 10 months old today, she was on a 45 min am nap after 2 hours wake time, 2 hour nap after 3 hours wake time and bed at 7.30 up at 8 the next day. I almost cried.
Mimi sorry you are joining us too.

Anyway today I have decided on a new plan for tomorrow. This reluctance to milk is going on for over a month now and I probably havent been giving him enough solids as I wanted him to have milk. I shouldn't really be suprised he doesnt want milk cos dd gave hers up completely at 8 months and went on 4 spoon feeds. I didnt think he was doing that cos he will drink some. So starting tomorrow, he gets offered a bottle for breakfast and then brekkie, lunch as much as he will eat and will be offered a bottle. Snack at 3.30, dinner whenever he seems hungry, here I was limiting his solids but tomorrow as much as he wants then bottle aroud 6.45 and then bread rolls which he loves. There is no point trying to give him milk he doesnt want and he is stronger willed than me cos he just pushes it away and plays with it when he has decided that's enough. 2 months ago he was on 850 ml or more and 3 good solid meals, now neither bottle or solids are good . I cant stop solids at this stage in favour of milk so maybe it's time now to try and let solids take over a bit. I could be wrong but after 4 months of EW and now about 3 weeks of night feeds something has to change.
Good luck to all of us and hope we all get some sleep.

[*Nicola*]

How's things going Fiona x

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Woke at 4, at the bottom of the cot kneeling up and crying, did the whole excited cry when I brought him a bottle you know the one I mean? I made him a 180 fully concentrated bottle and left him to it. He then woke around 6, cried for a minute but it was a different cry so I left him to resettle and he did and woke at 6.45. So the fact that he can resettle makes me think he is hungry during the night.
Anyway he drank 140 of that 4 am bottle, gave him a bottle at 7.30 he drank another 140 and had a weetabix straight after. Gave him a cracker at 11 which he wolfed down and  lunch will be in about 45 mins. So let's see how that goes.
I am really hoping this strategy works, and soon. Dh is away next week too for a week so wont even have help in the evening which is when I am more tired so a full nights sleep would really help.
How about you guys today?

[emmas]

That sounds promising Fiona!  I'm doing the reverse, trying to get him off milk and onto food! We also seem to be having an A time problem, he can't decide how long to be awake for, if I put him down at usual nap time he spends nearly an hour playing, if I put him down later I get a 35 min nap!  This weeks challenges - food and sleep, do they ever change! Oh and we've had 2 more teeth pop through.

Are you still having spoon refusal?  DH suggested a different cutlery set, and brought him one with a fork - he loves it - actually ate a fromage frais from a fork - DH now thinks he is the baby whisperer lol!!

I have my fingers and toes crossed for you x

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Emma lol at your dh. Yes spoon refusal except for weetabix and yogurt. I have started using a fork or my fingers ( gross) but he is eating a bit. But he wants bread and crackers cos he can control them though I made carrott zucchini burgers yesterday and he loved them.  We are up to 6 teeth now too.
So yeah for me too this week sleep and food :-) dont care if it's milk or solids at this stage. Having fun with A time too, it's ok in the morning but we seem to have taken a massive jump to a full 4 hours in the early afternoon. He only had a 35 min nap this morning which I am fine with cos I usually get 2 hours in the afternoon, just put him down now after 3.5 hours wake ( early cos of short nap) and 15 mins later he is up there singing and shouting, hope it doesnt go into cry mode or I will have to go up.......ok silence :-) yeah.
No I was wrong he is shouting to himself ..........and there is the cry...

[emmas]

I'm hoping my plan doesn't backfire on me - we had 35 mins at 9, I managed to get him down at 11.20 (how I don't know!)I'm going to let him have an hour then hopefully he'll go back down for a short nap about 4??  God knows as long as he's not OT at bedtime its doesn't seem to effect his night sleep anymore.

Hope you managed to get him back off to sleep!

[lilmonkey]

Fiona, Emma,

What are your A times now?  For the past few days, ds have been giving me 30-45 min naps and this has really messed up our nights.  I'm sitting here right now with one eye on the monitor and seeing him sitting in the crib at 5:30 am.  Hope he gones back to sleep or else we're in for an endless cycle again.