Night feedings - WWYD?

lorelei11 · January 2012

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!

pr1ncess1 · January 2012

I would see if instead of eating if you coule give her a pacifier or soothe her another way before feeding her. My DD is the same way. She goes down around 730 and when she wake at around 1030 I give her the pacifier and she goes back to sleep at least until 230. If I cant soothe her again with the pacifier, then I go ahead and feed her. She was getting 3 feedings a night and now does either 2 or 1 if I'm lucky. She's 14lbs

noahchristopher · January 2012

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.

babyAutumn · January 2012

DS#2 is a bit younger but has been waking up 3-4 times a night to feed. I finally realized that sometimes he actually feeds and others he suckles for 2-3 minutes and falls back asleep...hence I have become a human pacifier. The last two nights, I've felt out when he's actually eating and when he's not. Tonight I'm going to try soothing with a pacifier on the occasions when I really don't think he's hungry. DS#1 got up twice a night to feed until he was 13 months and he was a little barracuda so he really did need the middle of the night feeds. Good luck!

Pineapple2744 · January 2012

DS is almost 5 months and he goes to bed about 9:00 and up around 2 and 5. We cosleep and I keep water handy at the bed, and try that without getting him up. If it doesn't work, we get up and I feed him. I'm starting to decrease his bottles ounce by ounce. So far, only one ounce is missing so I can't say it's worked just yet.

HappyAardvark · January 2012

Pineapple2744:
DS is almost 5 months and he goes to bed about 9:00 and up around 2 and 5. We cosleep and I keep water handy at the bed, and try that without getting him up. If it doesn't work, we get up and I feed him. I'm starting to decrease his bottles ounce by ounce. So far, only one ounce is missing so I can't say it's worked just yet.

You're not giving your baby straight water, are you?!?!

IlliniQT · January 2012

HappyAardvark:
Pineapple2744:
DS is almost 5 months and he goes to bed about 9:00 and up around 2 and 5. We cosleep and I keep water handy at the bed, and try that without getting him up. If it doesn't work, we get up and I feed him. I'm starting to decrease his bottles ounce by ounce. So far, only one ounce is missing so I can't say it's worked just yet.
You're not giving your baby straight water, are you?!?!

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?

mvl1212 · January 2012

I am going through the exact same thing, but we do use the paci. He slept through the night around 2mos until Thanksgiving (3.5 mos). We traveled and then he started daycare, then got sick and we all had colds for most of Dec. We have all been well and he is on a schedule now, but still wakes up at 1:30 after going to bed at 8 and wakes up for the day at 5am. Sometimes he wakes up for the pacifier, but when he wakes up at 1:30 he is truly hungry. We have started getting him full just before bedtime and I nurse at night. Maybe yours is ready for cereal? We just started that and it helped him go to just the one wake up. We will probably try another cereal feeding in the evening. My pedi said that his stomach may not be big enough yet to hold him through the night. All my friends said to just keep hanging on and he will eventually not need that extra feeding. Crossing our fingers. Good luck!

OUKap · January 2012

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.

Pineapple2744 · January 2012

LStorms:
HappyAardvark:
Pineapple2744:
DS is almost 5 months and he goes to bed about 9:00 and up around 2 and 5. We cosleep and I keep water handy at the bed, and try that without getting him up. If it doesn't work, we get up and I feed him. I'm starting to decrease his bottles ounce by ounce. So far, only one ounce is missing so I can't say it's worked just yet.
You're not giving your baby straight water, are you?!?!

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?

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.

Night feedings - WWYD?

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