Almost STTN Messing Up Morning Feed

[Casseopea]

My little one is 3.5mo and is almost sleeping through the night.  He usually wakes anywhere between 4-5am, occasionally going all the way until 6am and occasionally barely making it to 3/3:30am.  I had been offering him his normal bottle of 4oz but then when he woke up to start the day- usually around 7/8am- he would not take a full feed.  So I have tried only offering him 2oz and this made his morning meal a little better but still not great.  And of course since he isn't eating much he only lasts about 2.5-3 hours until he is hungry again.

So my question is how do I handle this inbetween period until he STTNs?  Should I continue to offer him a little bit when he wakes in the early morning and then just deal with that first short EASY cycle?  Or should I not offer him a bottle and try to push him to about 6am and then just make that the start of the day?

Thanks so much- I tried looking back at my notes for my two older kids and found that neither of them had this problem- they both easily dropped the last night feed and slept through the night- and both before 3 months.  

[Chicane]

Hmmm...its an interesting dilemma..if it were me I would keep offering the feed at this age, but thats just me. The other thing you could try is to tank him up with some cluster feeds in the late afternoon early evening...if you want to post up a typical day i can get some eyes on it

xxx

[Casseopea]

Sorry, it has taken my so long to reply- it has been a busy couple of days.  Here is his day- starting in the evening, through the following day, to the next morning.  Hopefully that will give you an idea of how different his early morning feed can be. 

7pm Eat 2oz
7:30pm Bed
10:30pm DF 4.5oz
3:45am Eat 4oz
6am Fussy- Swing
8am Eat 2oz
9:15am Nap
10:45am Eat 4oz
11:45 Nap
2pm Eat 4oz
3:30pm Nap
5:30pm Eat 3.5oz
6pm Cat Nap
7pm Eat 2oz
7:30pm Bed
10:30pm DF 5oz
3am Fussy- Paci
3:30am Eat 1oz Fussy- Swing
5:45am Eat 1oz
6am Fussy- Paci
7:30am Eat 2oz

[Yazzie]

Hey there hun, can I pitch in ?

Well, I agree with Chicane that it's quite common for lo(s) to wake for a night feed at this age, in fact, ds kept waking for a night feed till he was 9+ months!

So, having a look @ your routine, I'd suggest sticking with a 3hrs feeding routine, since you're usually on a +/- route, and we'd need to get the 3 hrs established before moving on. So, if he has a feed at 08.00, then you'd follow on at 11,2, 5 and 07.30.

Have you considered extending A times at all, how long are your naps?

Also, what do you do with the swing when he's fussy?

[Casseopea]

All help is welcome! 

He is pretty much on a 3hr routine, I have been trying to get him to 3.5hrs since he is almost 4 months old.  The problem is that his wake-up time in the morning is never consistant because the middle of the night feed time and amount aren't consistant.  And this usually throws the rest of the day off because if he doesn't take a full feed at his first bottle of the day then he can't make it the full 3 hours let alone 3.5 hours.

His A times are about 1.25-1.5 hours long.  This is fairly new for him- up until a couple weeks ago he was at less than an hour so I haven't really begun to push him more.  His naps can be great at 1.5-2 hours or be the dreaded 45 minutes- I haven't really determined why they go one way or the other so I haven't been able to work on keeping them long.

I use the swing when he is fussy and won't go back to sleep after I give him his pacifier.  I don't usually use it during the day but at night I can't really do much sleep training since he shares a room with his older brother.  It isn't a nightly thing- but I probably put him in the swing at least a couple nights a week for at least a couple hours (he doesn't sleep the whole night there).

Both of my other two were sleeping through the night by 3 months- but this little one has definitely proved that he is unique.   

Chicane- I usually limit his last bottle of the day because I found that when I let him have a full bottle he wasn't taking as much at the dream feed and I felt that he would sleep longer if he had more at the DF than the last feed.

[Yazzie]

I think moving slowly towards a 4hr routine would help loads, but I'd suggest taking it slowly and letting him lead the way. What about extending A times by 10 mins and seeing how things goes?

Also, why not try a full bottle at bedtime and see?

[Casseopea]

Some days he struggles to make it to 1.5 hrs of A time and a 3hr routine. 

I have tried letting him have a full bottle the past two nights.  It is difficult to see what affect it has had because he has gotten out of his swaddle twice each of the past two nights so his nights have been a mess. 

[Chicane]

Hi love

I think its could be because he is in the middle of transitioning between a 3 hour and 4 hour routine, so some days might be a bit off as he grow into it.

You could try stopping swaddling altogether at this age...does he still have the moro relfex? (the jerking?) If he has stopped that then you could try not swaddling, we swapped the swaddle for a sleep sack so we still had something during that part of wind down.

The fact that he wakes up at different times in the night may indicate that it actually is hunger. If he were waking up the same time every night then it would be a habitual thing that you would need to train him out of.

Have you done the quiz? http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=52283.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=63275.0

Try not to obsess about STTN at this age. To be honest the fact that your other 2 were STTN by 3 months is really remarkable. Seriously, most babies are not STTN until they are much older (we didn't get there until 12 months!!!)

Remember to keep checking back at the samples here http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164253.0

I think you are doing a marvelous job and perhaps you need to get your head around the fact that this baby is a little different to the other ones and is going to need a bit more time and encouragement. Things will settle down soon and I think the fact that you are aware of how EASY works and about the potential AP traps is a huge asset to you.

You're doing great!

xx

PS I am away from 17 Dec until 10 Jan - my co-mods will be monitoring my posts so you will still have lots of support here

big hugs