gradual wean or W2S?

[nursemeg01]

My 5.5 month old has a hungry habit! She wakes at 5 AM and I had been feeding her. I always put her back in the crib awake so she is not falling asleep while nursing and sometimes it takes her 10 minutes to fall asleep but she always falls asleep without my help. In fact, I nurse her, put her in the crib awake and then just leave. so I thought I wasn't creating a habit. However, now that we started solids when she wakes at 5 AM, she isn't really hungry at 7:30 and won't really feed. I think I need to wean the 5 AM feeding. What is the best approach for this w2S or gradual wean?

thanks

meg

[nursemeg01]

Ok I just started the gradual wean this morning. It wasn't because of choice as I set my alarm to do the W2S and she woke up at 3 instead of 5! I nursed her for 7 minutes instead of the usual 10 and she went back to sleep without a fuss. So I'll try this again tomorrow going down every 3 minutes. I think i'm going to be really nervous in 2 days...I hope this works!

[~Natalie~]

I am going to pop this over to the Night Waking board for you.  The feed is not a prop, just a habit you want to drop

[kikoz]

hi, do you give her a DF? ... this usually helps stops the hunger feed at erratical times at night. X

[nursemeg01]

I do not give her a DF. Everytime I have tried that she ends up waking up MORE throughout the night...

[nursemeg01]

Ok when I started this post, my DD was waking every night at 5 AM only (give or take 10 minutes). The first night I tried GW she woke up at 5, the second night she woke up at 3 and last night she woke up at 2. We are going in a different direction here. I have been decreasing the amount of food I give her each night (10, 7, 5). Last night I fed her for 5 minutes and she kind of quit sucking around that time. I put her in the crib, she was rubbing her eyes and I went downstairs. She was quiet for 30 minutes and then she started mantra crying. I let her do this for 10 minutes and she didn't settle. I got to thinking that maybe she was really hungry since the times are varied???

So I went up there to feed her and she wouldn't eat. Not interested at all. So I put her in the crib and of course I must have stimulated her by going there in the first place because it took her an hour to settle. She then woke up at 6:30--an hour earlier than what she usually does.

So what do you guys think this is? What should I do---keep GW?

[nursemeg01]

Ok now the NW are going up instead of down. She woke up at 2, 5 ,and 6:30. I fed her for 5 minutes each at 2 and 5. She was not really sucking after 5 minutes. She's teething and I'm wondering if she just wanted comfort. Things have gone wonky...we had such a good routine and now it's out the window...

[kikoz]

if she is teething its probably it, some los have it very hard!  hugs XX