BFing and Ferber

uscalma34

So we've been doing Ferber for the past 4 nights. It's been working great and DS goes to sleep fairly quickly. He will still wake up every 1-1 1/2 hours. I used to BF him back to sleep when he would wake up. I'm now trying to wean him from that, but I don't know how to do it. Lately, I've been doing the progressive waiting, but feed him after the third time of waking up. Then he still wakes up every hour or so after that. Should I continue the progressive waiting in the middle of the night when he wakes up? How long does it take for him to SSTN?

habsoilers

When DD was 6 months she was also waking every hour or two. There is a really big growth spurt at that age so it's possible your DS is actually hungry when he wakes. For DD it carried on for a few weeks and she's now settled back down on her own to her usual night wakings (2-3 times a night as opposed to 5-6).

Luckystar2

Ferber specifically has a chapter about this.  You increase the minimum time between feedings by a half hour each night.  If he cries before that you do the progressive waiting until he falls back asleep or its the minimum time.  If he cries after the minimum time you feed him.

What you're doing now is probably confusing.

We did Ferber's method. It took a week and she was no longer eating at night, another few days for her to completely STTN.

uscalma34

Luckystar2:

Ferber specifically has a chapter about this.  You increase the minimum time between feedings by a half hour each night.  If he cries before that you do the progressive waiting until he falls back asleep or its the minimum time.  If he cries after the minimum time you feed him.

I did read this chapter, but it seemed more geared towards FF babies. I think the way you broke it down for me seemed to make more sense to me.  I guess I need the 'for dummies' version lol. My problem is he is waking more then he used to.  

 

Luckystar2

Try re-reading it, that may help.  I've had to re-read that chapter and the progressive waiting one.  The part about reducing ounces is geared to FF, but there is a part about the minimum feeding time and he has a chart, that is geared towards BFing.

And I do agree with the pp...it could be a growth spurt.  If you think he's waking up more than normal, maybe put Ferber on hold.  We did it at 7 months so we knew it wasn't during a growth spurt time.  DD definitely woke up to eat more at 6 months during the growth spurt.