Dropping 8pm feed for a 8 week old

[Sara1001]

Hi, my lo is 8 weeks tomorrow. We've been loosely following easy since birth (feeding every 3 hours with the eas order of things) and at 6 weeks have tried to implement it a bit more rigourously. The routine is going well, we're pretty much doing 7-7, she can wake in the night anytime from 3-6.30am (this morning was 6.30am, pretty amazing I think!) Sometime if she's had a 4/5am waking then we may start the day closer to 8am but then we always feed every 3 hours or adjust each feed by about 15 mins through the day so we are always on track for the 4/6/8pm feeds. Her naps are OK, sometimes they come up a little short and getting in a quick nap between 5-6pm is hard. Her Activity time tends to be 1.5 hrs, nappy change followed by a chat or time in the bouncer.

She was half way there with settling herself to sleep but since 6 weeks I've tried ssh pat to try and implement nap times but I get the feeling this was more of an annoyance to her, sometimes I would try for 45 mins and she wasn't happy. I then left her a couple of times to see what she would do and she went to sleep by herself so now for her naps I put her down, she fusses for 5-10 mins and then falls asleep.  The 6pm feed followed by bath, songs and sleep in bedroom has gone very well and thd last few nights she has been asleep 5 mins after being put down.

She then wakes for the 8pm feed so how do I cut this out if she wakes up for it?

Also I think i have to add that she's awake then til 9.30-10pm. I suspect that this may have something to do with the fact we keep her in the living room so my oh can do the dream feed later whilst I get some sleep upstairs. We've never made the effort to get her back to sleep then though, just waited for her to do so by herself. I assume i may need to repeat the songs and bedroom scene setting at this time to get her back to sleep again why do you think?  Of course if she didn't wake up for the 8pm feed by herself though then I wouldn't have this problem...

Thanks for any advice.

[creations]

Hi Welcome to BW forums

Looks like you're doing great!!

How about doing another feed just before she sleeps, so in addition to the 6pm feed before bath you also do one after bath, then song and sleep?  The two feeds will be quite close together, maybe consider it a split-feed.  It might help her to tank up rather than wake for another E at 8pm.
If she does wake though, personally I'd just go for the NF at 8pm as the rest of routine and the journey towards self settling sounds like it is going great so I probably wouldn't want to disturb that.

There's a chance that if you do the 8pm feed in dim light and take her straight back to her cot she will go to sleep again rather than treating the 7pm BT as a nap.

There's also a chance (especially if she takes another feed just prior to sleep) that you could try a W2S before 8pm, so just slightly disturbing her to start a new sleep cycle. This could help her to stay asleep through the 8pm wake up but it's important to note that as a result she may wake at another time and need a feed.

It sounds like she is already going as long as she can overnight between feeds so if you could get that last feed closer to 7pm, then the DF at 10pm then hopefully she will do that long stretch to 3am or 6.30am (both considered as "sleeping through" which is a 5hr stretch).

I hope this helps.

[Sara1001]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try the feed after bath and see how that works tonight, adding in a w2s tomorrow if she still wakes tonight at this time.

Thanks!

[creations]

You're welcome.
Might take a few nights for her to realise the change in routine and start taking more at the BT feed so I wouldn't give up after just one night if she isn't keen but see how it is over a week. If she still isn't into it we can look again as any other possibilities.

You're really doing great with such a young baby