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

[*Natasha*]

Hi Jennifer,

At this age it is common for babies still to wake once a night for a feed, you will generally find if they wake about the same time every night then it is not out of hunger but habit.
Anyway it sounds like you have increased the amount he is havng during the day which is great. The reason he isn't hungry when he gets up in the morning is he is still full from the night feed. If you want to eliminate this feed try decreasing the amount you give him every few nights by 1oz. So soon he will only be down to 1-2ozs which hopefully he will find is not worth waking for and keep sleeping. When he drops his night bottle you will find he will take all the bottle first thing in the morning.

[jsorrow24]

Natasha, thanks for the advice. I will try tonight. Last night was crazy though. I thought I would try not dreamfeeding just to see what happens. Not such a good idea. He woke at 11:30 anyway, so I fed him. Then he woke at 3am, wasn't sure if I should feed so I put him back to sleep. He slept until around 5am I think. So I asked DH to feed him. I had fixed a water downed bottle and he only took 2 ounces. Then he woke a few minutes after dh put him down and was wide awake at 5:30 so I let him lay in the crib to see if he would put himself back to sleep...no doing. 6am starts crying so I do the thing you shouldn't do and brought him to bed with me. I know wrong, but we had to get up in less than an hour anyways to get ready for work. And on top of all of this, our 3 year old dd does not want to sleep in her bed. She says she can't sleep by herself. So, with her in the bed it was a long night. She was tossing and turning and all of us in a queen size bed. So when I brought Jacob in, my dh and her ended up going to my stepdaughters bedroom to sleep so we could at least get some kind of rest this morning. It was just a lonnnng night.   I am going to post something on the toddler board to see how I can ease my 3 year olds fears to get her back into her bed. It all started when the our ds arrived 3 months ago.

Anway, ds woke up at 8am this morning and did not want to eat so I went ahead and took him to my aunts and we arrived there about 8:45am and he still did not want to eat.

I guess all you can do is roll with the punches and look back on this one day and laugh. 

Wish us luck on getting back on track.

Jennifer

[The Vern]

I have a couple of questions along the same lines.  My 13 wk old dd wakes up at 3 am every night and takes a full feed. She then sleeps until about 7 am (except when she breaks out of her swaddle1), and again takes a full feed.  My question is: so long as a lo still takes full feed at night and in the morning, can one assume that the waking is out of hunger and not habit?  Also, when counting how much formula she takes 'in a day', so I count all feeds, including night feeds?

[jsorrow24]

Well, so you are saying if LO takes morning feed and middle of night feed then they are waking from hunger? Then if that's true, my ds is not hungry when he wakes, he just can't be because I have the hardest time getting him to eat when he wakes. We usually have to wait a good hour before he will take anything. Then by that time he is ready to go back to sleep.

I love this, I really do... I know it's going to get better. 

No wonder there is not an instruction book for babies, they would have to revise daily and make one specifice for each child...lol

[LŠuren]

jsorrow24
My Lo at 3 months was still waking twice a night (with no d/f ) at 2am and 5am at each feed he got 3 or 4 oz, his 7am feed was sometimes slightly less than the rest of the feeds in the day.

DS actually instigated and dropped the 2am feed himself when he was just under 4 months - his 5am feed moved to 4am, so I was only getting up once. The one night feed lasted another month, again he fed him 3 or 4oz before I realise he wasn't hungry anymore i.e. it took 20mins to take 1 oz. After that when he woke out of habit, I put him back to sleep, he then started sleeping through himself.

I strongly believe that LO's should be instigating the drop in night feeds and I say this to any mum/dad who asks me - your baby sounds genuinely hungry and is not able to settle as a result - I remember sittine at the end of my bedding after getting up every 3 or 4 hours, head in hands thinking when will this end? It is still far too early to water down feeds, as he is obviously not getting enough during the day - Natasha's plan looks good to increase the day time core feeds. The night will look after themselves.

[jsorrow24]

Thanks Calums_Mum, I will just keep doing what I was doing then. I don't want to deprive my sweet ds if he is hungry. I know he will adjust when he needs to. As far as daytime feeds, I have been able to get him to take 7oz at most of the feeds, but sometimes he will only do 5 maybe 6. So I will keep offering to him. At least it's more than what he was taking. And I am sticking with the dreamfeed it works well.

I do think last night had a lot to do also with me not swaddling him. I have decided to wean him from it...he just breaks out of it anyway.

You guys have been great, thanks for all the help.

Jennifer

[LŠuren]

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=57448.new;topicseen#new - have alook here about your swaddle

[LŠuren]

Have you tried a faster teat? Not sure if your still using a slow flow or have you moved to med flow - just a thought 

[jsorrow24]

We use the medium flow nipple. I have tried the fast flow and it's too fast for him, he doesn't like it. Maybe next month he will be ready.

On the swaddling, he manages his hands pretty well. Not as much flailing as in earlier weeks. Yet, he does scratch his face from time to time. I will try wrapping those up tonight. He can break out of the miracle blanket with no problem. Really, he seemed to sleep well without being swaddled especially when going down, he didn't wake at all and I think if I would have done the dreamfeed he would have slept right through until 3am.

I am really not worried...I know this will all get better and then there will be some rough times. Been there done this once. lol. I wouldn't know what to do if he wasn't here...sleep more I guess, but then I wouldn't get to see his smiling happy face everyday. He is just a joy to me.

Love this website...all the info is great!! Thanks ladies.

Jennifer

[jsorrow24]

Update on ds night waking. I don't think it was hunger last night. Woke at 3am, offered him a bottle and he just rolled it around in his mouth and spit out the milk. So I gave him a paci and he went back to sleep until 6:45 am this morning. He ate a full bottle at 7:45am and did so at his next feeding. He is consuming around 6.5 ounces a feed and sometimes 7. I guess that's all he wants and he is content with that. I think I am going to have to try wake to sleep again. I am going to see what time he wakes tonight. If it's 3 again then I will try the next night.

Last night I also swaddled only his arms and this worked well and he did not break out of it. I think his legs were too long for the miracle blanket and when he would kick it was loosening the upper part of the swaddle.

Just wanted to give you an update and see if you had any thoughts.

Jennifer