Eliminating the night feeding - help!

Smooshie

I'm looking for advice.  I want to eliminate Annora's 2:30 feeding (her only night feed) and I'm not sure what the best method is.  I've heard of giving her water instead of the boob, or giving her a pacifier instead of the boob.  A friend told me to have dh go in instead of me... what did you find worked the best?

MrsLana

I am probably not of much help since Haden is bottle fed. But I was worried for the longest time that he was going to wake up for a bottle in the night for the rest of his life. I only give/gave him 4oz. Some night he would down the entire bottle and some nights he would only drink half. About a month ago I started putting 1 scoop of cereal in his bottle and getting Ian to put him to bed. He started STTN. He continued to STTN even when I put him to sleep. I don't put cereal in his bottle anymore and he is still STTN. He usually drink ~8oz. before bed time. But not always. It depends when he has ate dinner and how much dinner he ate. He still sometimes wakes up in the night. I don't know if it's because he isn't feeling well, teething or hungry so I usually will get up and give him 4oz. and he goes right back to sleep.

I honestly think that they (babies) will start STTN when they are ready (and with a little bit of help).

boo-bitz

When Madi wakes up in the middle of the night I bring her out to the living room, give her some room temp water and cuddle with her till she is ready to go back to sleep. I have heard that it is hard to break the middle of the night feeding, but I do find Madi is pretty ready to back down for the night after our routine

Smooshie

Thanks girls! I decided to try getting rid of it cold turkey on Friday night.  Last night was night three, and Annora woke up an hour later than usual, cried for a bit, and zonked out again once I gave her the binky.  I'm pretty sure she was cutting another tooth though - she won't let me look in her mouth to confirm - so that may have been bothering her too.  But overall the cold turkey method is working so far.