Middle of the night feed

[marleysmom]

I don't know what to do. My little Marley is know 17 weeks and almost 16 lbs!! I wrote a post weeks ago, but the problem has not resolved. She awakes between 4 and 5 am every morning for a bottle!! Her normal feed is between 6 - 7 oz, and at this feeding she takes only 3 oz. We have been watering down the formula to help get rid of the bottle, but it doesn't seem to work. Last night we gave straight water. She drank about 2.5 oz and went right back to sleep until 7:30 am??? How can I stop this habit.
She goes to bed around 8pm, drinks between 32 - 36 oz of formula a day and eats about 2 teaspoons of cereal around 7pm.
Please Help

[* Paula *]

Hi,

Can you post your routine for us so that we can see how Marley is doing?

Also do you give a dreamfeed?  If not have you tried this?

Look forward to hearing from you.

[Lªuren]

Marleysmom what is your DS doing when she wakes, does she cry, fuss or just want to play?  I had a similar situation to yours a quite a few weeks back, he was waking between 4 & 5am crying, or at least I thought it was crying until I really listened and he was only fussing, I let to him to  fuss and he fell asleep again within 5 minutes.

DS used to goes to bed at 8pm, then when he was younger wake at 2am then 5am, he then dropped the 2am when I changed to 4hr EASY and then he started waking between 4 &  5am, he did this for a while then he started playing with his feed, this is when I realised his cries where different.

If she is crying and not just fussing you could try PU/PD or Shush pat, an other option is if you know when she will wake set your alarm and go in before she wakes and place a hand on her.

Although it could just simply be that she is thirsty and she doesn't mind getting milk or water 

[marleysmom]

Thanks for the help, once we left her to fuss she would fall back asleep on her own. She would wake again shortly, but again would fall back asleep. The last 2 nights she has made it past 5:00 without a peep! We changed her am feed to 6:00am instead of 7:30, so I don't think she needs the 4am bottle anymore. The best part is after she takes the 6am bottle she goes back to sleep until 9:30!!!

[Lªuren]

sounds good! glad you've made progress 

[Ennypen]

Thanks for the help, once we left her to fuss she would fall back asleep on her own. She would wake again shortly, but again would fall back asleep. The last 2 nights she has made it past 5:00 without a peep! We changed her am feed to 6:00am instead of 7:30, so I don't think she needs the 4am bottle anymore. The best part is after she takes the 6am bottle she goes back to sleep until 9:30!!!

That sounds great - you have the identical probem we had with William.. I did just as you have a few weeks ago and William now goes to bed at 7pm and wakes at 4am for a little moan for 5 minutes, then he goes back to sleep by himself and wakes again at 6am for a bottle and then goes back down until 9am. Great isn't it!

Helen xx