Time to wean NF at 7 months?

[Mandy.kamal]

My LO will be 7 months next week. How common is it for babies to still be 'needing' a night feed?

Teething, discomfort from solids, and reflux wakes her up at night at random times but she either puts herself back to sleep or cries/fusses and a paci replug gets her back to sleep quickly

But around 4:00-4:45 she seems hungry still. She will nurse from both sides and then fall right to sleep. No clue if it's a prop or legit hunger.

She's never hungry in the morning though. I just feed her anyway around 8:00ish

[Haribo2012]

My DS2 is 7 months 1 weeks and still generally had 1 NF, he's the same wakes around 3.30/4.30 has a feed goes straight back off. For me whilst he's still draining his feed I'm happy to give it.

My DS is hungry after an hour of being up but as soon as this stops I'll prob try and wean NF x

[lolsyb1982]

Yes agree with Zoe that I would start weaning when that morning feed becomes a struggle.

[Mandy.kamal]

Thank you both!!

I'm okay with it too but just wasn't sure if my feeing her at night is taking from her day (mainly morning) intake.

Also, do you still do a DF?

She's having an odd 2:00am NW too. Right around 2:00am every night for the past few. Wondering if she needs a routine tweak. She has never STTN without a feeding. She would go to 5:00am and that would be her only wake up (hunger) but that was at 5 months and only lasted a week or 2.

[lolsyb1982]

I dropped the DF just over a week ago at 9 months and that was because she had no interest in her morning bottle (or any of the others really)
After a couple of nights of no DF I've managed to increase her first bottle by an oz so it does make a difference.

What does your EASY look like?

[Haribo2012]

No I don't DF anymore as it wasn't making NF any later.

[Mandy.kamal]

I stopped writing things down because she was horribly sick. Now that things are back on track I'll begin jotting things down again. Here was today:

Up at 6:35
9:45/50-11:50
2:56-4:12
BT 7:08

DH does a DF around 11. Usually 4oz

[lolsyb1982]

That day looks good. Log a few more and we can see if there's anything which might be causing the NW. How is she when she wakes? How long is she awake for?

[Mandy.kamal]

I'll keep logging and will post them. She's up now, happy at 5:40am so I assuming she was UT?

Her NWs last night were 10:30, 3:45 (did not feed because she fell right to sleep after I gave her the paci) and then EW of 5:35am but happy

So good news is she did fine without the NF last night! That's usually not the case so I'm hoping we continue that but need to stop the wakings and today's EW

[lolsyb1982]

I would say if the EW isn't a one off then you will need to push that first A. Any signs of teething?

[Mandy.kamal]

I fed her at 6:00 and put her back in bed. She fell asleep around 6:45am and its 7:15 now and I'll wake her back up soon.

She was consistently doing EWs but stopped once we got past the 3/2 nap transition. We struggle with too much day sleep because she takes amazing naps and I hate waking her....

[lolsyb1982]

That was going to be my next suggestion that you may need to trim back the amount of day sleep as it could be robbing her nights now 

[Mandy.kamal]

Thanks Lauren! Xx

I'll track her these next few days and post them. Hoping it's just a little tweaking. I know the paci is a prop too but if she's perfectly tired (not UT or OT) then she resettled beautifully on her own. It's just not realistic in this house

[Mandy.kamal]

Sorry for the delay. I have been testing out how she does without the night feeding and she just really seems hungry around 4:00-5:00am. I can hold her off until 6:00 but it just seems silly if she's hungry- I'll just nurse her and we can all go back to sleep after.

But that doesn't fix all the other NWs which are so confusing. She seems to be needing paci replug a way more than normal so I'm not sure if it's because she's OT or UT and struggling resettling herself.

Here are the past few days that I've jotted down:

EW 5:40 (happy) b2s at 6:40am
Up (woke her up) 7:20
Nap 10:20-12:15 (woke her up)
Nap 3:15-4:22
BT 7:40
NW 3:17 (paci), 5:21 (paci but still crying so fed) b2s at 6:00

Up 6:54
Nap 9:54-11:09
2:05-3:00 b2s until 3:45
BT 7:00
NW 2:00am she was hard to resettle and really upset so I just fed
Up 6:20am

Didn't write down that day- forgot but
BT 7:45
NWs a few early on but she resettled herself with paci
3:00ish paci
5:00ish paci
6:00 really hungry- fed and she went right b2s
Had to wake her at 7:10am

Up 7:10
Nap 10:20-11:24
Nap 2:40-4:45
BT 7:50
NW 10:50, 1:32 (resettled herself quick), 2:30, 4:08, 4:23 (fed)
Up 6:36am

Today nap at 9:45 (she was falling asleep in the car and rushed her to bed when we got home)

Any ideas?? Night feed still okay? All the paci replugs an issue? Too much day sleep? Too long or short A times?

It's not horrible and she's so happy- I just want the NWs to be far less frequent and only her waking once to eat preferably. Trying to see where I'm going wrong?

My biggest concern is that I'm AP with the nursing and paci replugs. I want her to be confident and able to self soothe and I'm afraid I'm failing her in that aspect. I did a lot of shush pat and PU/PD with my first and he was extremely independent. This being the second child I just haven't had the time to really teach her and worries my AP is a big problem.

[lolsyb1982]

I think 1 NF at her age is perfectly acceptable so I would keep going for now.

My DD2 didn't really start re plugging herself until 8 months. Can she do it during the day herself?

 I know she's giving you a really long nap in the morning after 3hr A but I'm wondering if you need to push it a tiny bit. Had she been on 3hrs for long? It's hard to say if those EW are truly from hunger or if she needs an A push and that's just a way to resettle her yk? Maybe try 3hr 15 for a few days.

I'm thinking you might need to try cutting one of those naps back a bit as well (maybe by 15 mins to start) That 2nd day you posted looks like she had a little less day sleep (maybe 2hr 45) and only had the 1 NW where as that last day she had just over 3hr day sleep and had quite a few NW.

What do you think?

[Haribo2012]

I think 1 NF is ok at the age. Ds2 has his best nights on a little less then 3 hours day sleep so might need few mins shaving off x

[Mandy.kamal]

Ah...I see. I didn't even catch that.

So I won't nap her before 3h 15min for the first A. Then leave the second A at 3 hours if nap is at least an hour?

Maybe not letting her sleep more than 3 hours total for the day but closer to 2h 45?

Will the next step be one short, one long nap? And should I be moving towards 3h 30min A time?

Just to add...today I noticed I did do more than 3 hours and she short napped?? I was able to resettle the second one though.

Nap 9:45-10:22 crying and couldn't resettle
1:45-2:25, back to sleep, up at 3:30

Going to do BT at 7:00