Dropping the final night feed - is he ready to?

[ej020575]

Hello

Our little boy is 17 weeks old.

He goes to bed at 7pm - can't last any longer than this due to poor naps during the day, I am a regular on napping board as well! Has always been a good night time sleeper.

We DF at 10pm and we are now down to one waking at 4am now. A couple of times he has lasted through to 7am on his own and we have been of the opinion that if he can do it a couple of times, he obviously doesn't need the night feed - providing he has fed well during the day (he takes 36 floz a day including DF and is 17 pounds!). No crying is ever involved in night wakings - just stirring until he wakes himself up and we go in at that point.

For the past week we have been trying to resettle him at this 4am wake up without giving him a feed. He does resettle, but not back into as deep a sleep as he would do if we were to give him a feed. We are basically up and down from 4-7am as soon as he stirs trying to resettle him in the hope he won't wake completely!

My question is do we persevere with this resettling in the hope that he stirs later and later (it was 4.30 am this morning)/gets used to not having a feed until he gets to the point where it's time to get up? Or do we take the fact that he doesn't resettle into a deep sleep to mean that he is hungry and needs a feed? 

I don't know what to do! I am quite happy to do either really as I realise we are very lucky to have such a good night time sleeper but would just like some advice. I don't see the point of giving him a feed if he doesn't need it and the fact that it's at the same time every night (prior to this morning!) suggests it is a habit but at the same time I don't want him to go hungry and have a rubbish 3 hours sleep for the remainder of his night sleep. He gets enough of that during the day

Thanks

 

[macsmum]

well the general rule is if they wake at the same time every night it's a habit so not hungry, but if you manage to resettle and he wakes again within the hour then the general rule is he is hungry, how much does he eat if fed??

Emma

[ej020575]

Hi Emma

Interesting about if they re-wake within the hour. I forgot to put that! If we resettle him at 4, he will then wake up again at 5. So that would suggest he's a bit peckish??

When we were giving him the full feed proper, he would take 6floz. Then he would feed badly at his breakfast feed. So we started to give him 4floz, which he would also drain. This still affects his breakfast feed, although not as much. Prior to just trying to resettle him without a feed, I was letting him take a couple of floz's until he started to drift off and then just putting him down.

Forgot to also mention, the times we've resettled him without a feed when he wakes at 7am, he is not crying for feed and is quite happy to wait and watch whilst we prepare his bottle etc!

Thanks for your help

[macsmum]

if feeding in the morning is being affected then he isn't hungry at that 4am wake up.....
my ds went through this so rather than remove bottle at night cold turkey i diluted the feed over about 10 nights till it was 7 oz water to 2 scoops of milk, by then his breakfast feed was back up to a full bottle so he was having all his calories during the day he did continue to wake for 3 nights but i resttled with pat shush and he slept great for 3 months solid... of course that was at 6 nonths old he is only just back to sleeping all night over the last 10 nights, but we had holidays and some serious accidental parenting came back in with illness....
but we are there now and soooo happy

hth
Emma