Attempting to Eliminate NF starting tonight!!! Advice?

[Lincolns_Mommy]

Ok...tonight is the night that I am going to (begin to) try to eliminate my son's early morning NF. Wish me luck! He is 6 months next week and I have felt that he needed a DF and a NF for awhile...but the past few nights when I have given him a NF, he has only BF (exclusively) for a couple minutes and then wanted to sleep.
He wakes consistently for his NF around 2-2:30. And when he wakes he is always wet from a leaky diaper, this has increased since he has started sleeping on his side. However, I am eliminating that by purchasing a washable diaper cover. I really think it will work.
Here is my LO's average routine:

6:30am Awake
            Activity
7am     Eat (10-15 min)(he is a quick eater)
7:15  Activity
8:45  Diaper Change before Nap
8:50  In crib (soothes self to sleep)
8:55 Asleep
10:30  Awake
          Activity
11:00  Eat (10-15 min)
11:15  Activity
12:50  In crib (soothes self to sleep)
12:55 Asleep
2:15 Awake
        Activity
2:45 Eat (10 min) (I find his meals get shorter later into the day...should I try to increase them?)
3:00 Activity
4:45 (starts to show signs of tired: usually cranky) PreCatNap Routine
5:00 ATTEMPT catnap. The past week he has been resisting. However, when he does CN it's usually for 20 min.
5:10/5:23: Quiet Activity
5:50 Prebed routine (bath, storytime)
6:00 Eat (5-10 min)
6:10 Prebed routine (change into sleeper, change diaper, sing bedtime songs)
6:20-6:30 In crib (he either soothes self to sleep or 5 min PU/PD)
6:40 Asleep
10-10:30pm  Stirs/Wakes for DF (eats 10-20 min) (he eats ALOT at the DF)
11 In crib and soothes self back to sleep
2-2:30am Awake (usually needs an outfit change due to leaked diaper)NF (2-10 min...this week has been on the shorter end) But I find that I want to nurse him
                because if I don't, he is diffficult to settle after changing his diaper. If I nurse him, he goes back to sleep easily.
5:30-6:00am Awake and making noises and playing in his crib. I usually try to leave him in there until 6:30
6:30 Awake for day

I feel confident in the process but I am still a bit anxious...so any encouragement is greatly appreciated! Also, any tips or advice is more than welcome! I have never done this before so I am open to suggestion.

Thank you in advance and I will keep you all posted!

Cross your fingers!!!

[Bex09]

Hi sorry you didn't get any replies before last night, how did things go? Well I hope.

Just a few questions to see if we can get you some help. Are you just dropping the NF but keeping the DF? If he isn't feeding for long at this NF then you are probably right that he doesn't actually need it. Does he eat well the rest of the day? Has he started on any solids yet?

Have you tried putting two nappies on to prevent the leaking? It could well be this that is waking him and then all the changing etc is getting him quite wide awake and then hard to settle.

[Lincolns_Mommy]

Hi...well the "eminination" got postponed. My LO has had a couple of "off" days so I didn't feel it was fair to try to cut out the NF. He actually has been feeding weird the past couple of days. Normally he (BF exclusive..no bottle) eats very well at each feed but yesterday and today he has been barely eating for his 3pm and 6pm feeds. Last night I was really stressed about it, but during his DF he ate like crazy and then he ate alot during his NF and his morning feed. Today was the same as yesterday. I know he will eat if he is hungry so I a trying not to worry too much. Maybe he is teething? Any thoughts?
Anyways, hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get his feeds back to normal and then we can try to eliminate the NF.
We have not started solids yet...we are starting next week.
We have tried 2 nappies...doesnt work.
I purchased a washable cloth diaper that is known for its absorbancy power so I am going to try it only at night.
I will let you know how it goes.

[Erin M]

It sounds like it could be teeth.  If they're bugging him too much to nurse during the day, he'll make up for it at night.  Sounds like a good decision to hold off for now.

[Lincolns_Mommy]

I think he IS teething. Last night he woke up at 9:30 (an hour before he usually does) and he was screaming and inconsolable (he barely ever cries so this was concerning for us right away). We checked his diaper and took his temp. and he was good. So I tried to nurse him and he wouldn't go near it, which is unusual for him...he nurses to comfort when he is really upset. Finally we decided to just try to get him back to sleep. When we put him in his crib he was trying so hard to sleep but couldn't and was sucking desperately on his fingers. He finally fell asleep. When he woke up at 10:30 for his DF he was all smiles and ate for a good 20 minutes. Today he is happy as anything.
I was concerned that he might be suffering from an ear infection...or teething. But I think it is teething because it is not constant. And during the day when he wont nurse, he isnt always unhappy or crying.
What do you think?

[Bex09]

Hi again, totally agree with Erin that while your DS is not himself best to hold off on dropping the NF, especially if he is not taking too much in the day.

It does sound like teeth to me. Have you tried giving pain meds or teething gel/powders before bed? You can also give the gels/powders 15-20 mins before he is due a feed, often this numbs the pain enough for LOs to be able to have a good feed.