Author Topic: how to stop nightime snacking  (Read 5961 times)

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Offline whereissusan

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how to stop nightime snacking
« on: May 08, 2007, 01:09:48 am »
cosleeping with an 11 week old and she as gone from two night wakings to five or six.  she is snacking for sure and i try the ignore method but that isn't working anymore as she starts to wake up and cry.  if i give her a boob right before i think she is going to really fuss she settles quickly and gets back to sleep.  but isee how this can create more wakings.  i am just afraid to have her wake up totally and then spend an hour resettling her in the middle of the night. should i let her cry if it's been only and hour and try to shhh/pat her back until it's been at least three hours inbetween feeds?  she had gone 4, 5 and once even 6 hours in a row.  i miss those nights as 2 and 1 doesn't get me any rested sleep.  also, shuld i be dreamf feeding her now.   her long sleep spells are generall between 9 to 2 a.m.?   she generally gets shut eye around 8:30 oor 9pm....

Offline SarahMksm

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Re: how to stop nightime snacking
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2007, 12:23:06 pm »
I'm having exactly the same problem you are.  In "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems," Tracy tells the story of a 5-1/2-month-old who is snacking every two hours, and her solution is to just start one night and not feed her.  It'll make for a tough night, but the next day she'll be hungry and eat lots, and she should start waking up less.  She does say something about the baby eating for a whole half hour at 5am, so I guess by "all night" she means from the dreamfeed to 5am.

The thing is, that's an older baby than mine (mine's almost four months), so I'm not really sure if I'm supposed to be doing the same thing or not.  I've been trying not to feed her every time she gets up, just feed her once between the dream feed and the morning, but she still gets up at other times, and that doesn't seem to be improving, even if I don't feed her.  Maybe because I *sometimes* feed her when she gets up during the night, she isn't able to understand that I'll feed her once during the night, and she sort of thinks that sometimes I'll feed her, sometimes I won't, and so I would be better off going cold turkey?  I'm not sure.  It's frustrating, because she used to be a great sleeper, going 8-10 hours at a time when she was two months old.  Right around three months (maybe because of the three-month growth spurt) it all changed.  I've been sort of trying to make her go half an hour longer every day or two.  But sometimes it's hard to stick to, as I'm not getting much sleep and I don't have anybody else to help me at night most of the time.

I do think that you should try to do a dream feed around 11.  I think you also might need to put your baby to bed a little early, between 7 and 8 instead of 8 and 9.  You could at least try it, see if it makes any difference.  I'm not sure that you could go cold turkey, though, because an 11-week-old might need at least one feeding between the dream feed and the morning.  But I'm not sure.

Offline whereissusan

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Re: how to stop nightime snacking
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2007, 14:41:18 pm »
so the question is do i only feed her every three hours during the night as well and let her cry and soothe her down the other times she wakes up to snack or just give in and let her snack until she is older?  she use to go at least two to three hours in between wakings (or more accurately she woke and put herself back to sleep) but now if i ignore her as i tried last night she just cries and then i am up two hours trying to get her to sleep.  it's seems to be confusing for a baby to know mommy is only going to feed every three hours in bed as we cosleep...it's inconsistant but feeding everytime she asks just makes the problem worse.

Offline SarahMksm

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Re: how to stop nightime snacking
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2007, 16:08:53 pm »
Exactly.  I guess the idea is that you want to get her to eat more during the day, but that's hard with breastfeeding.  You could try what Tracy suggests about pumping an hour after each feeding and giving the little bit you get to your baby after her next feeding to top her off... that is, if she takes a bottle.  I've sort of tried that, although it hasn't worked for me yet.  I agree that it seems to me to be confusing to sometimes feed your baby when she gets up and sometimes not.  I don't know what to tell you about that.