8.5 months old eating twice at night- (lost my old post)

[shirat]

my lo wakes for a dreamfeed bwteen 10:30-11:30 and since weve been trying to remove her second feed, we have seen progress, with a 5:30 waking instead of 3:30 (but now she starts her day at 5:30/45, but we'll deal with that later)
Question is, should i treat the 5:30 feed as a morning feed instead of a reduced bottle ( i have been giving her diluted bottles gradually to phase it out) because otherwise she won't take another bottle  until 9, then we can only fit 3 bottle feeds in a day instead of 4 (but if you count the 5:30 feed has feed #1 then we would be able to have 4)

[Lolly]

I would treat the 5.30 bottle as a night feed so that she goes back down straight after, if you treat it like a morning bottle you need to start the day and that's too early!

A better way to wean a bottle is to reduce the oz rather than diluting it so that they get used to a smaller amount of fluid in their tummy. You reduce 1oz every 3 days (normal strength formula) and then just offer a sip of water or just resettle once it gets down to 1 or 2oz.

Do you want to post your EASY so we can have a look?

Laura

[shirat]

i think we are hitting the 9 month growth spurt bec she is suddenly napping long on her own, which is unheard of! and woke earlier at night to eat. she is not the best sleeper, but this is her schedule : she has about a  3:15 A time (trying to increase from 3 hrs since refusing 2nd nap lately)
6:15 wake
9:30-11:00 sleep (if im lucky and i get her back to sleep after the 30 min mark she is a chronic 30 min napper since 3 months old)usually though its a little over an hour- so wake at 10:45
2:00-2:30 nap
6:00 bedtime, asleep around 6:30
wakes between 10:30-11:20 for dreamfeed and again about 5 hours later

[Lolly]

Have you tried extending her A times at all? The average A time for a 9 month old is 3.5 hours - the short naps could be because she is UT going down for the first nap which leads to getting OT during the day. You would need to extend the first A time first and if she does a decent nap then the next A time can be the same length. If she short naps you need to reduce the A time a bit so she doesn't give you an OT second nap.

Can you posy your Eat times and how much she has please!

I would start decreasing the dreamfeed too - I actually wonder if the DF is a habitual waking, it could be an OT waking from the short naps where she now needs the feed to get back to sleep. You should be getting rid of the DF now anyway, we weaned my DD's nightfeed (no DF) abou5 months by reducing like I outlines in the post above.

What do you think?

Laura

[shirat]

were constantly extending A times but its been months of 30 min naps regardless. now the problem is if i extend her A time to 3.5 hrs and get the full 1.5 hr nap then her next nap is so late into the day and a later bedtime....
i know  i need to wean the night feeds so we are working on the later one first, but she is still waking 2 weeks into weaning. i think we may need to do more drastic approach like you said of reducing ounces, not scoops. i just dont get how that would work because she wakes twice as it is, so if i take away dreamfeed shell still wake at night to eat
she is  a BIG baby. we increased her bottle to 7 ounces instead of 6 the past 2 weeks as part if the night weaning, and added an extra ounce if formula to her morning and dinner cereal. she has 3 meals a day and 3 or 4 (its hard now to fit in the 4th, so we are trying to eliminate it i guess) 7 ounce bottles and 2 at night- she finishes both night time bottles as well.

[Lolly]

Is she draining those 7oz bottles? If she is you need to add more to the bottles, if she needs the oz better to have them in the day!

i know  i need to wean the night feeds so we are working on the later one first, but she is still waking 2 weeks into weaning. i think we may need to do more drastic approach like you said of reducing ounces, not scoops. i just dont get how that would work because she wakes twice as it is, so if i take away dreamfeed shell still wake at night to eat

If you reduce the oz then she will get used to having less in her tummy. Reduce by 1oz every 3 nights and it's a gradual way to get her used to going back to sleep without a full tummy. You just need to resettle when the bottle is done and eventually just offer water or resettle with nothing. Yes, she may wake expecting to eat but she doesn't necessarily need to eat - they do learn to be hungry in the night when offered food past a certain stage when they are getting enough in the day not to actually need it. You may well have a few rough nights when she wakes and expects to be fed but she won't come to any harm not being fed (providing you are willing to stick with it and not offer milk).

When my DD was 8/9 months we had dropped to 3 bottles and she was on a pretty stable 2 nap routine. We have always done a set bedtime which was easier for us with 2 kids. She also had a first nap that fitted in with DS at pre-school. Her routine was something like

6/6.30 wake and 8oz bottle
8 solids
9.30-11 nap
11.45/12 lunch
2pm - 8oz bottle
2.30 - 4/4.30 nap
5 - solids
6/6.30 betime routine and 8oz bottle
7pm - sleep time

She was getting 20-25 oz of milk per day and 3 meals which was plenty. I weaned her nightfeed at 8.5 months, once we got to the offering water part she was seriously unimpressed for 2 or 3 nights and then stopped waking - we just resettled with out milk using PD and shh/pat.

Laura

[shirat]

you make it sound so easy and hopeful! so you thing i should start decreasing the dreamfeed first instead of the middle of the night feed? hoping that she wont wake at all after? i am so sleep deprived its ridiculous. i have 3 kids, oldest is turning 4 on saturday. my 2.5 yr old wake in the middle of the night most nights as well ( we had to take away her nap so i guess its bec of that, and she climbs out of her crib!) so we average like 3 hours of straight sleep a night!so i am willing to do what it takes to get some sleep! just tell me exactly what to do and  i will do it!

[shirat]

where has my baby gone! can i keep this new baby?!?!?!? lol all week she has been napping on her own, without waking at 30 min. last night she woke at 1am for dreamfeed! i giave 6 ounces and she slept straight until her usual 6:15 wake up! so bec she has a good night we were able to  push to a 3hr20min A time and she slept for 1hr30min  without waking or even stirring! this never ever happens. dont know why all of  a sudden she decided to nap, but i'll keep this new baby!

[Lolly]

Yeah! Good news! Long may it last!!

That's good just having the one night feed (if she woke for it, it's not a DF - the DF is only done between 10 and 11 with a baby who is asleep! ).

Laura

[shirat]

so i guess i never do a dreamfeed- she always wakes for it.
now if only she'll fall asleep by bedtime....... but thats a whole other thread

[shirat]

back again, now she is 10 months, still waking twice to eat. i listened to everyones advice and kept her first feed 6 ounces and her second middle of night feet reduced to 4 ounces, should i try just offering water?

[Lolly]

Can you post her full routine so that we can see exactly what's going on please? It will be easier to give you some help when we know what her day and night looks like for A times, eating and sleeping!

Laura

[shirat]

average day is like this
6 am- wake
7:30/8- 7 ounce bottle followed by some dry cheerios and half banana
9:15- nap usually always naps 30 min. if im lucky in getting her back to sleep she will do one long nap of an hour or up to hr and a half and then a 30 min afternoon nap
11:30/12ish- 7 ounce bottle
1:30ish- lunch- usually yogurt with fruit
1:45/2- nap for 30 min.
4:30 dinner
5:30- 7 ounce bottle
6 bedtime
wakes at night between 10-11pm and again around 3-4am, and drinks a full bottle
some days its hard to stretch to 3 bottles when she is so cranky so she will have  a bottle around 3:30 and a small bottle by bedtime- still trying to tweak dropping to 3 bottles in order to fit everything in

[Lolly]

Ok, I think you need to stop both of those bottles and increase food in the day. She is having too much milk at night which is probably having an impact on her appetite during the day but if you don't stop those night bottles you aren't going to get her to eat more during the day.

Start by reducing the bottles by 1oz then hold that amount for the next 2 nights. Then reduce by 1oz again and hold for the following 2 nights and keep going until you are down to 1 or 2oz and then just offer water for both of the feeds. Or you can do the 3/4am one and then the 10/11pm one.

You need to have her eating a better variety of foods during the day, especially offering more protein and carbs and good fats at all meals. I would also swap the bottle and lunch around so that she has her lunch first and then her bottle just before her afternoon nap. I think the 10/11 wake up could be because of her daytime naps but could also be habit. Can you stretch that first A time to 9.30 and see if that gets you a better nap?

When my DD was that age she had a nap at 9.30/9.45 and then again about 2.30. Both naps were about 1.5 hours and she had a set bedtime of 7pm with a wake up of about 6am. She was having a bottle on wake up and then cereal like Weetabix or porridge for breakfast with some fruit. Lunch was something like a ham sandwich or a cheese spread sandwich with cucumber sticks and then a yoghurt and fruit. If she needed a snack after her nap she had a small snack and then her evening meal would be something like pasta with cheese sauce or a meat based meal with potato and veg followed by yoghurt.

She is getting plenty of milk during the daytime with the 3 7oz bottles - she really doesn't need the night milk any more!

Laura

[shirat]

Last night i decided not to feed before 11pm and of course she woke at 10, so was in her room for 1hr! she did not stop crying the entire time and so after 1 hr i fed her.