3 month old - too early to wean night feeds???

[jsorrow24]

I have stopped giving my 13 week ds a bottle when he wakes at night. Reason is he is usually waking at around 5am then up at 7am. If I feed him at 5 then it messes up his morning feed. But last night he woke at 12:30, but more restless it seemed. Then at 2:30 and then at 4am and then slept until 6:45am. But he doesn't want to eat when he first wakes. He usually waits a good 45 min before he will take his bottle. He has been on 4 hours EASY going on 2 weeks now.

Should I feed him if he wakes earlier than 5am? He really wasn't fully awake any of the times he woke last night. I think he might have had some gas...he tooted one of the times he woke up.

Jennifer

[jsorrow24]

I forgot to mention that my ds is over 17lbs too. Don't know if weight makes a difference in his feedings at night.

 

[teezee]

well at three months lo's have a growth spurt so i would suggest if lo is waking at random times 12 or 2am whtever - then feed.  my lo fed at least 1 to 2 times/night until 6 months.  at that age lo's are growing so fast they need all the calories that they can get!

[estherofi20]

I stopped feeding my DS his 4-5ish am feed at 3 months, what i did was try for one night to give him a bottle of water instead, if he is really hungry he will be hungry in 30min or so, if he is not then you can start weaning that night feed! My DS took the first night i did that like 3oz of water, the second he took 1oz, and the third he took nothing at all! And if your LO weight that much, i think its OK (IMHO). And he has been sleeping through the night since then  . I do give him a DF too at 11pm. Hope this helps, and good luck!

[jsorrow24]

I think he might be going through a growth spurt too now, because he has just started doing this the past 2 nights. Other nights he goes until 5am and I just give him the paci for a few minutes to suck on and he sleeps until 7am. If he wakes erratically tonight I will probably feed him.

Thanks for the advice.

Jennifer

[teezee]

you could try getting lo to take more calories during the day to try to deter the night wakings also..

[jsorrow24]

Hey Stacy, remember we were talking about how I thought I wanted to do pu/pd? Well, I figured if it ain't broke don't fix it. My ds goes down so easy after his bedtime routine that I am not even going to think about pu/pd until absolutely necessary. I mean, ds knows that after his bath and lotion massage it is time for bed. If I try to do anything else like lay him down for a minute to go do something or go to a different part of the house, he starts getting fussy. All I have to do is give him his paci and swaddle him and he starts to relax. Again, I do take the paci out before he goes to sleep and I just pat/sssh him to keep him calm. Works like a charm.

Anyway, back to this post. After last night, I really had a feeling he was hungry. But the only time I don't think he wasn't, was when he woke at 12:30am. He had a dreamfeed at 10:15p. But when he woke at 2:30 and 4:30am, I was thinking this morning he may have been hungry.

During the day he is taking around 6 ounces every 4 hours, so in total consuming 30oz  with 5 feeds (that includes dreamfeed). I offered him 7 tonight at his 7p feed and he drank it all. Do you think that 30oz is enough for him? He is 17lbs or more.

I dreamfeed every night especially since we have moved to 4 hour EASY.

Let me know what you think.

[jsorrow24]

Well, the first feed of the day he plays around with. He will drink, but it takes a full 30 minutes. It's like he trying to talk and eat at the same time, lol. I will try offering 7 ounces and see how that does. Usually he would stop at 6 ounces and sometimes 5. If he only takes the 6 or less then I will start feeding him again if he wakes at night again. I had a feeling he wasn't getting enough.

Let me ask you this. If he wakes at 5am, I should feed him right? If he eats a little, should I try to feed when he wakes after 7am? He usually is ready to eat around 7:45am. Do you think he would take a full bottle then? I guess the only way to know is to try it. I know that before he wouldn't take his bottle if he ate at 5am. I will see how he does tonight.

Thanks!

[teezee]

the only thing that i could suggest - if lo is waking a couple hrs after feeding than it's a really good chance that lo is not hungry and i would shh and/or pat back to sleep. i really think (from experience and b/c tracy says so too ) that three months is really too early to start pu/pd as it is way too stimulating for a lo that age.  if lo is waking at around the 3 - 4 hr mark you could try resettling and if it takes a long time and lo keeps crying - probably hunger. if lo does settle at this time but wakes within an hour than feed b/c that would indicate that lo is hungry. hth!

and i would def try putting more oz in the bottles - if lo ate 7 than go for 8 and see how much he will actually eat - if he's not hungry he will turn it away - may be a little waste but worth the chance if he actually takes it imho!

if lo is waking at 5am and then not taking a good feeding in the morning you may want to try extending the feeding by a few minutes every few days til you finally get to the 'wake up' time (very very slowly though for a lo that young!).  have you tried resettling a the 5 am wake up and see where that gets you??

[jsorrow24]

teezee, up until a few days ago he was sleeping until 5am and I would resettle him with a paci and he would sleep until 6:45 or 7am. But the past few days he has woken up several times and I would resettle with paci, but then he would wake up about an hour later. So after that happened I was thinking he was probably hungry and hitting his growth spurt this week instead of at the 12 week mark he is doing this week at 13 weeks and it was just the past few days. I fed him last night and he drank 4 ounces. He also had a little gas that was waking him up, so I went ahead and fed him. Then he woke close to 7am and I waited until 8am to feed and he drank 6 ounces. The other bottles I fixed today have 7. The only reason I fixed 6 this morning is because I usually have a hard time getting him to focus on eating and he usually will only take 6. I will try the 8 ounces.  I will see how he does with 7oz this weekend. He is with my aunt during the week so I really don't know if he takes it all.

When he does wake earlier than 2am or so, I do ssh/pat him back to sleep. And like I said when he was waking at 5am I used to feed him then when I saw it messing up his morning feed, I started giving him the paci and he would go back to sleep for 2 more hours. But I really do think this week is a growth spurt period so I am going to feed him if he wakes earlier than 5am.

Thanks for all the advice...I love this website!! 

Jennifer

[jsorrow24]

Well, my lo is now waking again 2 times a night! First at around 2:30 and then again at 6:30 (not so bad though then). I fed at 3am last night because I am thinking he is going through a growth spurt. So when he wakes up this morning we didn't go in until 7am. I figured he would be hungry...not a chance. So we try again at 7:30...again no. Finally at 8am I feed him and he takes the bottle and then is ready to go back to sleep since of course he has been up since 6:30am. I didn't put him directly down. I burped him and then changed his diaper so he wouldn't associate the bottle with going to sleep. He slept for 1.5 hour but it wasn't time to eat again, so then about an hour before he was supposed to eat again I let him go back down til the next feed. Trying to stay on EASY is not so easy sometimes. But he is such a happy baby.

I just don't know what is going on with the night wakings. He busts out of his swaddle everynight and I think it wakes him more. I am going to try it without tonight. Both naps today I didn't use and he slept very well. And I may try wake to sleep again tonight. It has worked the other times he was waking at 3am on the dot. Also, I think I may be going in to early.

Andy advice??

[brightside]

If your lo is 17lb then I wouldn't think that 30oz is enough. My DS is 16 lb and takes 35-38oz every day. Every baby is different of course but I think he would need more than 30oz. Just as another side  note, my DS also started waking a lot at 3 months. My Health Visitor told me that it is very common at 3 months because they are starting to get more active and can wake themselves up. He did calm down after a couple of weeks and we even managed to get a couple of weeks of solid sleep but now the wakings seem to have started up again! 

[jsorrow24]

Stacy, the feedings are not watered down at night...I only will offer him 4 ounces. Should I water them down? Also, he has begun taking 7 ounces a feed so now he is taking in about 32-35 ounces now a day.

I guess we will just see how tonight goes.

[jsorrow24]

Let me know what you hear....and refer them to my email address here at home. jamby24@earthlink.net

[jsorrow24]

Stacy, one more thing to mention to add to the bottle feeding questions..he will not take more than 7oz at each feed and sometimes only 5oz. I have tried, but I am not going to force him. Usually for the dreamfeed he takes 6oz.

Jennifer