I've been feeding my LO twice per night. She goes to bed around 7 and I usually feed her around 10 pm and 2 or 3 am. She's almost 5 months old and 17 pounds, and I've read that by this age they can go for 8 hours without eating. She was sleeping 8-10 hours at a stretch when she was 2-3 months old, then stopped sleeping well. Would you continue feeding her twice and see if she will drop a feeding on her own, or would you try to get her back to sleep without eating? She eats every 2.5-3 hours during the day. Thanks!
Re: Night feedings - WWYD?
I would for sure. Can you give her a paci instead? There are other methods like decreasing the amount you give, or watering it down, but I don't know how those work.
We would just insert the paci instead of doing the night feed. It was gradual over a period of about a month that he finally stopped waking for it. A few times along the way we would feed him but only at a set time and only after a certain number of hours. We sometimes camped out on his floor to reinsert the paci on those nights when he woke a couple of times. We knew to feed him if the paci didn't work after plugging it back in several times over the course of a couple of hours. It was a grueling month, but it worked. He was about 3 months at that time.
BFP 1/18/11, EDD 10/1/11. Born at 37w5d on 9/15/11.
***BFP Chart***
"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
Her baby is almost 5 months -- they can have water. My pedi said up to 2 ounces...although I'm not really sure what the point of giving him water is...unless you think he's waking up thirsty?
That is the same schedule as LO. When she was adjusting her sleep schedule to account for an earlier wakeup for daycare, I would send H in to give her a paci when I knew she wasn't hungry. This went on for about 3-4 nights and finally she stopped waking up when she used to wake up pre-daycare. I still feed her if it has been at least 4-5 hrs since she last ate.
She is only 12.5lbs now so I don't want to cut out the night feeding yet. It takes me 10 minutes to nurse her and get back in bed. If I need to wean her off the night feedings, I will slowly reduce the time I nurse her each night and then start offering the paci instead of nursing.
Our pedi gave the okay because he stays constipated. Sometimes all it takes is a sip of it for him and he's back to sleep. I figure I wake up thirsty sometimes so why can't he. Yet all parents and babies are different so I would definitely talk to your pedi before trying water.