Author Topic: 4-5 NW in a BF 9.5 Month old and EW..OT? Hunger? EASY wrong? Major Confusion!  (Read 1151 times)

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Offline mishayl

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Hello! I just successfully got my DD to SS using PD but the NW wakings haven't stopped and I feed her when she wakes up (although dramatically reduced from every hour after teething, growth spurt etc) She's never been a great sleeper and we would co-sleep before PD. Her EASY is getting tweaked and she's also been EW at 5:30 AM eep! More I read the more confused I get! Here are my questions:
1) NW: Wean her off night feeds? Whats the best advice for a BF baby? She's not the best day eater and feeder and considered underweight so i worry about stopping NF. But viscious cycle obv as she's feeding at night and not hungry during the day. The other posts said to slowly reduce the amount of milk she gets over night?
2) EW: Is this because she's over tired or too much sleep? her A time is around 3.5 hours and total nap time of 3 hours (but thinking of reducing to 2-2.5 hours now). I'm trying to get a longer morning nap and will today give her a short CN in the afternoon (30 mins). She gives me her sleepy cues but won't settle down in crib and wants to crawl and play and then becomes a sleepy mess like this morning (woke up 5:30 am and went down crying for nap at 9 am).
Advice guys? You've been miraculous with helping me stop the rocking/walking/feeding to sleep mess! I feel like I'm almost there but need just a little more help!

Thank YOU!!

Offline Layla

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Hi there,

With regards to BF at night, how many night feeds/how often do you feed her at night? Ultimately the idea is yes, to increase daytime feeds so that she's not hungry at night and you would need to reduce how much milk she's getting overnight for her to be hungry during the day. With DD2, from what I can remember, we were down to 1 NF at around 9 months and soon after that she weaned off night feeds but she did it on her own and I didn't have to do anything :-\.

With regards to EW - would you please post what her day looks like - from wake up; when does she nap and how long, etc...




20/06/2012 - my angel baby

Offline mishayl

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Hello! She's having around 3-4 feeds a night :( unfortunately almost every time she wakes up :( I need to break this/reduce the feed slowly but am a zombie and just feed on auto pilot. Her days have been like this:
5:30 AM wake up and feed
Activity
7:30 AM breakfast
Activity
9 Am Sleep and small feed before
10:30 AM wake up and feed
Activity
12:00 lunch
1:00 Nap and a small feed before
2:00 wake up and feed
Activity
5:30 Dinner
Activity
6:30 night feed
7:00 BT
Then she's up a couple of times before 5:30 :(
I'm actually tweaking the  EASY so any suggestions would be great! Thank u!!!

Offline Layla

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(((hugs)))

With regards to your routine, the last A time (before bedtime) seems quiet long for her age so I would actually be putting her down for the night earlier, especially since she's waking up so early. Try putting her down around 6.30pm for about 3-4 nights to see if that will make a difference to her wake up time. Once she catches up on some sleep, you could probably look at moving her morning nap by 10-15 min increments until it is closer to 10am and that way the pm nap will move too, along with bedtime, which should help with the wake up time. You might also need to look at more A time before the 2nd nap (you should be able to stretch it to at least 3 hrs to even out the A times a little) and that was her A time before bedtime won't be so long, which only leads to overtiredness.

With regards to feeding at night...she probably doesn't need 3-4 feeds but you will probably have to slowly wean. So I would pick 2 night feeds (say midnight and early morning) and for all the other times she wakes, you would try and settle her without feeding. Would your DH help out at all? She might settle easier if he tried to settle her since he doesn't have the milk ;). And then over time you could look at weaning the midnight feed the same way and then work on the early morning feed.

What do you think?



20/06/2012 - my angel baby

Offline mishayl

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Thanks Layla :) sorry I had totally given up and let her feed every hour and was back in my bed 4 am onwards... today i started PD again this morning (she screamed her head off for atleast an hour and i gave in a little and fed her.. napped for 2.5 hours and then awake for 5 hours! bed time 6:30.. lets see if this 2:1 nap transition is what was needed)
I wish i could have someone else settle her in by as a single mom theres just me :( and why I'm desperate for DD to sleep cause mama needs her energy.. I'm ready to give it another go but something or another.. i think maybe teeth again.. always seems to set us back :(

Offline Layla

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Hugs again, it must be very hard to do it on your own. I would work on settling her for all those nightwakings because she really doesn't need to be fed on an hourly basis and it sounds like a prop to me. As I mentioned earlier, pick 2 night feeds which you are going to feed her and try and settle for the others. It won't be easy though because she's so used to it and it will be a hard habit to break but well worth it in the end (for you and for her) because she's not getting a good nights rest, if she's up every hour... and neither are you, iykwim.

You obviously have to be ready for it though because there is no point in trying it one night and not the next, it just prolongs the process and she'll be teething for a while....

Have a look in the pu/pd section and check out the FAQ's when you're ready to sleep train

Let me know if I can help you with anything else  :)



20/06/2012 - my angel baby

Offline mishayl

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Thank you!! i completely agree I need to mentally prepare and just stick to it! I'll start out fine and then lose the will after 2/3 days :( thank you for the support <3