8 mo frequent NW/EW weaning from DF

[ChelseaMoms]

A few weeks ago, after 5 months of extending my then 7 mo's naps, I consulted a sleep trainer who looked at my routine (4-hour EASY) and suggested I feed her before naps rather than after. I was sceptical, but it worked, and she's been having two 1.5 hour naps every day since. However, night wakings have not stopped and she sometimes wakes at 5:30 a.m. without going back to sleep before her usual 6:30 wake up time. For the past 4 nights, I've been slowly weaning from the DF - she is now only taking about 5 min (BF). I'm considering not doing DF tonight. Can this be causing NWs/EWs?

Here is what my routine looks like now:
6:15 wake and BF
7:30 cereal and fruit
9:00 BF
9:15-10:30 sleep
11:30 veggies and meat
1:15 BF
1:45 - 3:30 sleep
3:45 BF
5:30 cereal, veggies and fruit
6:30 BF
7:00 sleep
10:30 DF

During the night, she usually can put herself back to sleep (sometimes takes almost 1 hour). Sometimes, she requires shh/pat.

Any thoughts/advice?

[Tweakster]

Hi there, Tracy did mention in her book that it can affect their sleep starting around now.  I would try cutting it out and see what she does really.  How does she eat during the day? 

[ChelseaMoms]

Thanks.
She's been fighting a cold since yesterday and has lost her appetite (which is usually pretty good). We tried dropping the DF anyway last night, only to feed her after almost an hour of crying at 3 a.m. I'm not sure she was crying because of hunger, but the feed did soothe her. I'll DF again until the cold passes. Is it best to withdraw gradually or cold turkey?

[Tweakster]

Hi there, you can try reducing the amount (if BFing you could try expressing and give a bottle so you know how much she's getting) or you can just do it cold turkey.  If you go cold turkey you would need to be relatively sure that she's not genuinely hungry.  At 8 mths it's likely she's able to go through the night without eating but alas not every LO follows the book there, particularly BF babes.  If she hasn't had much in the day, if she's particularly thirsty/hungry that day, if she's going through a growth spurt, there are quite a few reasons she may still eat at night.  If she has a cold then I would say continue to feed her until she's better and then you can formulate a plan.

Here's a good link on the gentle removal plan:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=52857.0
and a link about a success story:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=46907.0

You can also start inserting snacks into her day to get her eating more solids and requiring less BFing.  We would give Finn a small snack after nap, like even 4 or 5 Cheerios or whatever, mainly as practice with the solids and also sippy cup practice with water.  But the little snacks added up and he didn't need to have as much in his bottles.