Does this sound right? Weaning 12-week-old from some night feedings.....

[tara72]

so after a couple few weeks of my now-12-week-old DD waking up 3-5 times a night (*occasionally* twice), my husband and I finally realized (with the help of this board and Tracy's book) that she should really only be waking 1-2 times a night for feeds (which she used to do just fine). she is almost 3 months old, weighs close to 13 lbs, and ate about 23 ounces during the day, a touch more than she usually gets in (she is usually on the low end of how many ounces she eats, but her weight was in the 60th percentile at our last doctor's visit).

so last night looked something like this:

S: 8 PM

W: 11:45 - tried feeding her, first nursing for 3-5 minutes then Formula. ate about 1.5 ounces F.
S: 12:15

W: 2:30 - tried feeding her, hardly nursed. only nibbled at formula and basically fell asleep. but when we put her down, she starts crying. this is when we realized that she's not waking when she's hungry. so basically we try to put her down without giving her the bottle again. she didn't like this and cried a lot until finally, my husband got her down.
S: 3:15

W:5:15 - tried feeding her (I thought she would be legitimately hungry). nursed fairly well. but really didn't take the bottle. after we tried to put her down and she started crying, we went to work trying to put her to sleep without feeding her again. while my husband worked with her, I read the part in Tracy's book about sleeping through the night. in this part, she mentioned babies waking for oral stimulation and then her story about sitting in the chair with the baby and using the binky instead of the bottle. so I went up and relieved hubby by taking our LO and rocking with her in the rocking chair, just like we would with the bottle, except used the binky. after a couple times trying, she finally went down.
S: 6:15

so it's taking longer than her usual 30 minutes of awake time at night for feedings, but are should we just continue by only feeding her, say, once a night? and trying to get her down using the binky, even if it means a lot of crying? does this sound familar?

I wouldn't think you'd need to see our daily routine or anything, but please let me know if it would help. oh, and we dropped the dream feed because I thought it might be waking her more than helping her, since I started it around when she started waking up all the time.

thanks in advance!

   --tara

[momofclaire]

I noticed you had another post going also.  Are you getting the answers you need there? 

[suzie767]

It sounds like your baby may have her days and nights confused. my baby is also nearly 3 months old and sleeps from 7.30pm til 7 am with only a dream feed and a feed at around 3/4 am, sometimes even 5 am. he seems to understand that night time is night time and sleeps consistenlty well every night and puts himself to sleep after each feed. its actually his day time sleep that i have a problem with.

if you post me your day time routine i can compare it with mine and see if i can be any help.

also i advise keeping night times as un stimulating as possible. i used to breast feed and from day one i fed him in the dark without even turning on the light and there is no talking. he has been bottle feed from 6 weeks and the light is on for this but by this point he knew that night was night. also try not to get her out of her cot unless she is actually hungry. her cry should begin with a cough like sound and she should be licking her lips and rooting ( turing her head from side to side) unless she is doing her hungry cues keep her in her cot. sometimes i think babys just want company and as long as what you do when she wakes is appealing to her ( nursing/cuddling etc) she will continue to cry for you. if she wakes in the night not from hunger try to calm her with a gentle pat and and your words. if this doesnt work ( at first it probably wont as she has been used to better from you) try pu/pd. im doing this for my sons day time sleep and it really seems to be working, you just need to be very consistent with it and it should work within a few days and certainly a week

i have studied tracys book and my son has really took to easy so any questions i will try to answer

hope this helps

[momofclaire]

Suzie- I am glad your little one has taken to easy so well.  It seems the two of you are getting on beautifully.  I noticed in your post that you have been using pu/pd with your baby. It is recommended that pu/pd not be used for babies under 4 months.  If you would like some additional info on this I would be glad to get it for you. 

PS, Welcome to the boards. 

[Layla]

Tara- at 3 months its normal for them to have 2 night feeds. Some are ok on 1 but not all babies are the same. The book is just a guide and some babies go all night without a feed, some need to be fed every 5 or so hrs, some even need a feed up to 9 months. You mentioned that her bedtime was 8pm - unless she is waking for the day around 8, I think that this is too late. At 3 months, she should really be doing 11-12 hrs at night. Once she is down for the night, she could be waking anywhere from 4-6hrs out of hunger. If she wakes earlier, you try to soothe her with shh/pat (or you can use a dummy if you wish). I wouldn't do pu/pd either - she's still too young for that.

You mentioned that you BF her and then attempted the bottle. Do you think she's not getting enough from you? Its just that once you've fed her, you should have put her down in cot. She would have most likely have gone down with a bit of shh/pat, whereas if you are still trying to bottle feed her and she's already had enough from the breast, you are just waking her up even more from the "sleepy state" and this is also a possibility as to why she would have been harder to settle.

Also babies are quiet restless sleepers and can cry out in their sleep (during transition period). Jasmine still does this - she'll call out in the middle of the night and just when I am about to enter her room, she's back to sleep.

hth
Layla

[suzie767]

thanks mom of clare. ive tried all other soothing methods for the first 10 weeks and they gradually have worked less and less, my son was even crying while i was shush/patting him at the end and it wouldnt even quiet him never mind putting him back to sleep. i still try to sooth him without pu/pd and would always recommend it as a last resort sorry should have said this in the first place)  the bw uses pu/pd to extend a 3 1/2 months routine towards 4 hours so i thought id give it a try and i have already seen some improvement.

it was getting to the point where he wouldnt sleep during te day at all evern with props. my friend advised me to use the cryng it out method but i thought it far too traumatic

 i ave adapted it for my younger baby where i dont lift im all the way from his cot i just cradle the upper half of his body until he stops crying then gently lay him back down, i find this less traumatic and stimulating. he now falls asleep by himself for naps and at least sleeps for 10 mins between crying bouts after the first half an hours sleep

[tara72]

thank you so much for the replies! first of all, her sleeping has actually improved. for the last 3 nights, she has only gotten up 1-2 times. of course, two of those nights, she was awake for 2.5-3.5 hours in the evening just before bedtime (one night, her grandparents were sitting and the other night, we tried putting her down at her granparents' house but then left when we couldn't get her down). but I think maybe the many wakings are just bumps in the road.

but I *do* appreciate what I read from you all. we really do differentiate night from day and have done this from almost day 1 (it took us some time figure things out!). lights are off, talking is minimal, and she is usually just up for about 30 minutes to feed and diaper changed. yes, the diaper change wakes her up a little, but it also allows her to eat more, which is good.

I start BF'ing, but she only nurses for about 5 minutes. so then I give her formula. during the day, I give her EBM in the bottle, so at night, I basiacally BF until DH brings a bottle of formula. she usually eats most of it, especially when she only wakes 1-2 times a night like she is "supposed to" (ha ha, there are LOTS of things that our LO's are "supposed" to be doing!).

our day starts between 7-8 AM. we put her down at night betwen 7-8 PM. I can't say that we are on a 3 hour EASY and my LO does 45 minute naps 3-4 times a day, so it is hard to have our day work out to exactly 12 hours.

the next time she wakes up a lot at night, I'll know better what to do. thanks you guys!!

 --tara

[suzie767]

sounds like your doing all the right things, all babies are different and have different needs- we love them all as individuals

 

[tara72]

thank you, Suzie! you make me feel a little better.

 --tara