Dropping the last night feed

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

Medi is 9.5 months. Once she has sttn from 7-7 and maybe 10 times from 6:30/7 till 5ish without a feed. If I feed her then she does not go back to sleep. More often, she wakes at 3-4am, and I will feed her pretty much straight away and most nights she goes back to sleep for a few hours. It is not unusual for her to be awake for an hour though. She is breast fed and on two meals and one snack per day. She's 16.5 pounds so not big and she is hungry at 3 but not when we get up at 6. She also has a dirty nappy nearly every morning and I never know if it's the poo waking her up or she's waking up and then pooing. Lol.

I'm too scared to tackle this!!

[katie80]

She also has a dirty nappy nearly every morning and I never know if it's the poo waking her up or she's waking up and then pooing. Lol.

LOL, that's a bit frustrating, isn't it?!

Do you feel like you 'need' to tackle it? I don't think it's unreasonable for her to still have that feed up to a year. . It certainly doesn't sound as if it's a prop as she's slept through on her own a bit. Although, I guess if she's not hungry on wake-up...

What is the feed like? Both sides? Could you start gradually reducing the time from one side and then only feed one side and then gradually reduce the time off the other? Or, is she waking at a regular enough time that you could try w2s?

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

Idk if she needs it or not. I can't decide!  Lol. She takes both sides.  I have cut down the length of the feed and plan on cutting it back further over the next few days/weeks.
I've not had a great lot of success with w2s, she generally just wakes up when she hears me come in the room.

[3littlemen]

Idk if she needs it or not. I can't decide!

I'm with you on that one!

I know all of mine would take bf when offered, especially at night time (or anytime it's dark for that matter!) I know it sounds silly, but what would happen if you threw a df feed in there? I mean if she was genuinely starving, would that push out her ew an hour or so?? I don't know, no expert that's for sure, we're still dfing....

As for the pooing, I wonder if you could try upsetting her 'daily constitutional' - you know if she always has pear at breaky, and does a poo every morning then give it to her at lunch or dinner so that it comes out then...

is she one napping pretty good? like her nw couldn't be UT? Again, I don't profess to have any answers!

[4isstillnighttime]

Hi Sarah!

I dropped the night feed maybe a bit older than that but it was def the right thing to do for us as we have many more STTN now and they feed better in the day (well, we are weaning now but they did!). What I did was make it later and later til it got to about 3, then shorter and shorter, then just stopped. There were a few tears but not many and we got through it with cuddles, then shh pat. And I made a really big thing of the morning feed - go in, lights on, long luxurious BF, cuddles, spoiling in general. I think once they realised there was no milk at night there was less incentive to wake up IYSWIM. But as I said, mine were a bit older and were on 3 meals by then I think.

WRT early morning pooing, we have the same, and it's a pain! If I get them up to change nappy there's no chance of going back to sleep, but what's the alternative?! And mine go 3x a day so not sure it can be avoided! I'm just hoping they will start sleeping (and pooing!) later as the mornings get darker.....

The final thing I'd say is that I miss night feeds a bit - I hated waking up but it was such a lovely snuggly time and mine are not v snuggly babies in general.....I was ready to stop when I did but I don't think you should rush it if you aren't ready...

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

Oh she'd never say no to milk, she loves it so much. I can tell she's not that hungry for her first morning feed so I guess that's as good a reason as any to drop the night feed.  But I'm scared it will mean she wakes at 5 every day.
3lm, she's always pooed first thing in the morning, even before she started on solids. She goes through phases of pooing once a day or five times a day! 
I think the one nap routine is going ok, she's always had these long NW and ew, it's just her way I think

[3littlemen]

she's always pooed first thing in the morning, even before she started on solids.

Got you on that... we seem to always need to poop before going down to first nap... ugh.  I agree that if she's not hungry than maybe she doesn't need it any more, I'm much the same with our df... but then what's the alternative? As you said who wants to wake up at 5am, but then again, you can work to moving it out by a set wu I guess. I don't want to wean the df on the grounds that if he wakes is it hunger or not? Who'd know? MInd you on 3 feeds plus four bfs, (with degrees of interest in each) I'd say we're safe to lose ours...

[katie80]

But I'm scared it will mean she wakes at 5 every day.

That would be reason enough for me to keep it!