Nursing between 4:30 and 5 am - what to do with 7 am feed?

[hulababysmommy]

Hi!

My LO will be 4 mo. June 12th. She is EBF. She doesn't sleep through the night yet. She wakes up to BF somewhere between 1 and 2 am and again somewhere between 4 and 5 am. The DF never really worked for us; she would still have her 2 wake ups at night. So I figured I would leave her be at the DF time and then she will actually sleep from her bedtime until her 1 or 2 am feed. So she can sleep 6-7 hrs, just at a different time of the night.....

The issue is with her second nightfeed though. She will take her time emptying both sides (during the day she won't nurse longer than 10 min., but at night she can take up to 30 min.) But when it is time to start the day at 7 am, she is not interested in eating at all. Maybe she'll suck a little bit, but she is done even quicker than normal. Her next feed will then be at 10:30 am.
She is on 3.5 hour easy, right now, but I'm thinking she might be ready for 4 hour easy. However though, I don't know what to do with that 7 am feed. Do I keep that as her first feed of the day anyway, even though she doesn't take much? Today I BF at 8 am and she still wasn't that interested. But moving it back even later makes me nervous about the rest of the day.

Should I work on implementing the DF after all? I hear it takes a while before it catches on. But I also read that it might be harder to get away from the 1-2 am feed.....
But if she just takes the DF as an extra feed and still wakes up twice after that, isn't she going to eat less during the day because she's getting this "extra" feed at night?
I go back and forth about the DF all the time. Do you have some advice for me?
Thanks!

Ankie

[grantsmom]

My LO did the same. At about the same time, I switched to 4 hour EASY. My DS dropped the 1 am feed first. If he woke up, I sent in my DH to put him back to sleep. I then realized that I was going in at 5 am (DS wasn't waking up) and doing a "dreamfeed" with my son. So, I quit going in and he slept through. He then ate well at 7 am.

[Erin M]

I would base your switch to the 4 hour EASY on how she's doing during the day.  If she's able to handle the 4 hours between feeds, then go for the switch and see how it works out.  It might get rid of one of your wakings.  If you're not doing a df, I would think that one nw is fine for now.  I shoot for a start time of 7:30ish with my dd2, if she wakes before 6:30 AM or so and wants to nurse, I will only let her nurse from one side and take her off as soon as she slows down.  I've also met with some success in getting her to drop it by trying to resettle her for a bit first.  Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes not.  If she wakes up at 6:30 and insists on nursing, I just lengthen her first EASY cycle to about 5 hours or so (of course she is a bit older than yours and can handle that better).  My first dropped that early feed pretty early on, but my second has insisted on keeping it for much longer   Hope yours drops it soon.

[lisi's mum]

You have exactly the same night cycles and "problems" I had with my dd!

Many babys have their deepest sleep phase in the first part of the night, certainly my dd did, and I found the dream feed just interrupted it, and didn't stop the 1am waking either. You know your daughter better than anybody, if you feel that the df doesn't help, I wouldn't bother implement it.

Those two night wakings are absolutely normal for a 4MO, horrid, but normal! You will probably find the 1am feed disappear by itself sooner or later - if you feel she's just eating for comfort you can try re-settling or gentle removal https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=52857.0 to get rid of it, though I find it more likely at her age that it really is hunger, particularly not having had a df.

As far as the early morning feed, what happens when she doesn't drink much at 7, can she make it through to the next feed or does she need a snack before? If she makes it through then I'd be just tempted to leave it be, if not have you tried limiting the 5am feed? I found that if I limited it too much it often backfired on me, and dd would decide it was time to start the day there and then - ugh! But eventually it did work out. I'm afraid it's a bit of trial and error, eventually she will sleep, but it seems that those early morning wake ups are the hardest to get rid of. 

[hulababysmommy]

Thanks for your replies ladies!
I guess I will work on the 4 hour EASY first and see how that goes. She might not be able to go from 7 until 11 am though, but we'll try to work with it. I will also try to keep the 5 am feeding to a minimum (even though I've tried it a couple of times and DD would just wake up an hour later again.)

Thanks for letting me know that the DF didn't work for your LO either, Katie. I kept on thinking I was doing something wrong. I can stop second guessing myself now....
I do think the 1 am feeding is one DD needs - I think she's hungry at that time. But the early morning feeding, I'm not so sure of. Thanks again for your advice on how to try to work with it!
Ankie

[hulababysmommy]

Well guess what....
I tried 4 hr EASY yesterday and after going to bed at 7 pm last night DD woke up at 11 pm (she normally sleeps from 7 pm until her 1 or 2 am feed) and then she wanted to eat again at 3 am. Both times she was hungry.

I guess we didn't get a 6-7 hr sleep last night, but I am happy that at 7 am this morning she was ready to eat again! Hopefully this wasn't a one-time- thing....
Curious what happens today....

Ankie

[lisi's mum]

11 and 3 sounds manageable! Good luck and let us know what happens. Remember, things could go a bit haywire after a couple days, but it doesn't mean it's not working (necessarily), just settling. If you feel it's the right thing give it a couple weeks to really establish, then you'll know for sure.