question for ferber moms

9/30/06bride

We have been doing Ferber for 11 nights. It is working well and I am currently trying to space out his night feedings. On night 10 he woke twice, 5 hours apart for feedings and 5 hours was my minimum time between feedings. So I fed him, changed him and he easily went back to sleep. Last night, night 11, he slept frpm 7pm -2am, so 7 hours. I fed him and changed him and he slept until we needed to get up this am. My question is so do I now use 7 hours as his minimum between feedings? He obviously can go that long, but just wondering what to do if he wakes earlier tonight. TIA.  

Luckystar2

I dont, I just keep going with the schedule of increasing the time a half hour each night.  I know dd can go up to 10 hours, but right now the min time we're up to is 8 hours. 

It hasnt really been an issue for us though.  Last night she woke at midnight and we did cio and then she woke up at 4:30.  That was 9 hours since she ate so she went over the min anyways,

I guess you could up your min, but Ferber didnt say to do that.  His chapter said to start at the current time your dc goes in between feedings and increase a half hour each night.  So Ive stuck with that.  But like I said its usually not an issue. She tends to wake up before the min, we do cio and then she'll wake up past the min close to the max amount of time she's ever gone between feedings.  I'm hoping she'll drop the first wakeup (she did one night!)

Luckystar2

Oh and one reason I didnt up her time right away is because 10 hours is such a long stretch!  I'm just nervous that she's not ready to do that every night.  Just a week and a half ago she was eating every 2 hours!

thomas&lynn

Yeah, Ferber doesn't address that particular (probably very common) situation. I wish he'd take suggestions and then write another updated edition!!

There is another sleep method out there (can't remember what it's called.....I read way too many of them at once) that addresses that situation. It suggested to absolutley take that new stretch of time and make it your new minimum going into the next night.

I find it terribly hard to decide which is best and I have thus simply cut out ALL night feedings as of 3 nights ago. I just can't trust myself to stick with the plan and I feel that I'd do more damage that way, being indecisive HOWEVER, my baby has in fact gone 12 hrs w/o eating several times in the past so I do know she can do it and is perfectly fine in the AM. In fact, she doesn't even eat ravenously at 6am (ish) when she wakes!! Strange lol.

Luckystar2

thomas&lynn:

Yeah, Ferber doesn't address that particular (probably very common) situation. I wish he'd take suggestions and then write another updated edition!!

There is another sleep method out there (can't remember what it's called.....I read way too many of them at once) that addresses that situation. It suggested to absolutley take that new stretch of time and make it your new minimum going into the next night.

Hmmm... I wsh I knew what the book was.

Ferber really does need to address more with feedings.  He basically assumes you wont feed overnight or that wakeups will stop early on.

thomas&lynn

Luckystar2:

thomas&lynn:

Yeah, Ferber doesn't address that particular (probably very common) situation. I wish he'd take suggestions and then write another updated edition!!

There is another sleep method out there (can't remember what it's called.....I read way too many of them at once) that addresses that situation. It suggested to absolutley take that new stretch of time and make it your new minimum going into the next night.

Hmmm... I wsh I knew what the book was.

Ferber really does need to address more with feedings.  He basically assumes you wont feed overnight or that wakeups will stop early on.

I'm going to go look thru my library account and see if that'll tell me.......I do  know it wasn't one I hear about on here though. At that time, I pretty much "rented" any book with the word 'sleep' in the title lol.