To feed or not to feed

julieb00lie

DD's longest sleep stretch is currently 2.5 hours on average.  It's been like that for weeks.

When she starts to stir and I pick her up, I soothe her a bit before the diaper change.  Lately when I do this, she looks like she's still half-way asleep (eyes closed) and could fall back to sleep easily with a bit of rocking.

My question is....do I try and put her back to bed in an effort to help her sleep longer stretches?  Or do I take her waking up as a cue to diaper change and feed?

livinreality

I would test it a couple of times, watch her and see if she wakes up or goes back to sleep...

juliane2004

livinreality:

I would test it a couple of times, watch her and see if she wakes up or goes back to sleep...

Ditto. I'm trying to show my LO that just because she's awake doesnt mean she needs to eat. I'm not withholding food if she's really actually hungry, but I wont jump and make a bottle every time she wakes up, and I try to soothe her in other ways first.

MrsBatty

I think it's worth a try.  I'd probably see if I could get away with it

BeeLove

My DS still wakes for a middle of the night feeding...if I don't feed him, he will not go back to sleep but he eats completely asleep. Instead of changing her you could do a dream feed instead of just opting out of feeding all together and see if that helps too.

At that age, most babies still need to eat in the middle of the night.  But if the soothing works, that's great.  I just remember doing dream feeds which only take about 10 minutes or so and that worked wonders to help him get through the night.  He usually only took about 2 ounces during that.