STTN WWYD (long! but with clicky poll!)
So, I have written bits and pieces about this in various other sleep posts, but I'd like to get some opinions. I'm conflicted every.single.day. and need some outside advice.
C has been sleeping pretty well since we Ferberized at 5 months. He is down from 7:30-6:30/7ish, with one night nursing. In the past month, he's been pushing that till 3 or 4 am and last week, he went until 5:30 twice (for my purposes, I'm going to call that a STTN success!).
DH and I have been talking about weaning him off the night nursing. Not by CIO, but by switching to bottles and slowly decreasing the amount. DH gave him a middle of the night bottle once last week and he only drank about 2.5 oz, so I really think the nursing (and perhaps even his hunger) is out of habit more than physiological need.
Why I am conflicted: C has never been the best sleeper and has been doing so well lately. Do I dare mess with it? Also, every day it seems that he is on the edge of getting teeth and I worry that if we're successful in this experiment, it will all go to hell when the damn things actually come in.
I would seriously love him to STTN, but the night wakings only take about 15 minutes and he goes back to sleep perfectly. Plus, it's the only time he ever falls asleep on my shoulder anymore and it's kind of sweet and nice to rub his back and listen to his little sighs.
But! If it is a habit, when does he break it? When should we finally say, "Enough, kid"?
Anyway, to reward you for reading all of this, you get a clicky. But I would love to hear your thoughts below, too.
[Poll]
Re: STTN WWYD (long! but with clicky poll!)
While I think you want to start thinking about weaning him, I don't think it will hurt to stay with what you have for a bit longer--I'd wait another month/6 weeks before weaning.
don't mess with it, sooner or later something will happen (teething or something else) that'll throw him off anyway and you'll miss these STTN nights. I do consider 7:30-5:30 STTN.
Our pedi told us BFed babies may need to wake up and eat until 9mo old and so we Ferberized at 9.5. Yea, it was a really rough almost 10 mo but I agree with waiting.
In a few months, you'll be lucky have him stay in your arms for even a few seconds w/out squirming away so I say - enjoy the closeness!
(I voted for the 1st choice)
I could have written this EXACT post. Word for word - from the later feedings to the shoulder sleeping sweetness. And I have no ideas.
Honestly, I talked to my pediatrician about it and my current plan is to wait until he's 9 months. She and Weissbluth say breastfed babies (can) need to eat at night until then. So, either he phases it out on his own before then, or at 9 months we will try what you suggested.
And if the bottle-weaning idea doesn't work, we will then try a Ferber/HSHHC approach. Because 9 months of not sleeping straight through (for ME) is too many.
ETA: EWCM! Ha. Ahh, memories.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
I voted for weaning but I don't think you need to start right away. You are right that you will miss the falling asleep on you BUT sleep is a very good thing for both of you. If it were me I might string it along until 6 mo or so.
Also both of my kids did that tough transition of waking at 4-5:30 in the morning for about a month or so. Is that a night wakeup or is it the morning wakeup? I tried to treat anything before 6AM as a night wakeup and tried to get her back to sleep. That might mean both of us sleeping for an hour in the rocking chair but I felt like I had to draw a line at some imaginary time in the morning. it was often tougher than a middle of the night waking because I got so little sleep (and crappy sleep in the rocking chair) after the 4-5AM wakeup.
I think he is transitioning to do it on his own soon with these wakeup times and very soon he will be sleeping through to 6 or 7am on his own. Good luck - breaking up sleep sucks!
I voted for the third one, but I was only kidding.
With both my girls, when they both were getting to the stage of only needing one night feeding (it would be like 1:00 am or 2:00 am) I did influence it by putting them down on time around 7:00, then doing a - oh, what do they call it, a "sleeping bottle" or something like that? - at 10 or 11 pm. That is, I'd pick them up, give them a bottle while they were mostly asleep (though they'd still finish it) and then they'd make it through to morning. So they'd still get that food at night, but it was before I went to bed, and not the middle of the night.
What is the term they use for that bottle, I don't remember?
Then eventually I just stopped doing that bottle, and they both STTN no problem, I assume it was when they were old enough to not need the food.
Both my kids are fantastic sleepers though. We're really lucky.
the dream feed
(didn't work w/ our horrible sleeper of course)
Dream feed - yes, that's it!
We had a very similar situation to yours. Our pedi recommended that we switch the nighttime feeding to a bottle of water, given by DH (so as not to make her too mad). Within a couple of days, she was sleeping through the night not getting up for a snack and has been a 12 hour per night sleeper ever since.
If he is gaining well and eating fine, our pedi recommended to give her a little extra during the day to make sure she didn't need it at night, but at the 6-7 month mark, the extra, uninterrupted sleep is more important for them than the extra calories which they could make up for during the day anyway. I say to go for it!
Interesting! Thank you.
And Artslvr - we have tried with dream feedings in the past, but they were kind of a failure. He was annoyed to be roused and refused to eat!
Maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt for the next month or so and then re-evaluate. I think the fact that I'm conflicted about it means I'm not quite ready to do anything yet. When we Ferberized, I had very little doubt that it was the right thing to do.
We are also gradually reducing the night feeding as well (started Friday night). Although DS has never been an enthusiastic eater, it was OK with the pedi b/c he'd make up for it during the day. He's ramped up his daytime eating and we're getting more sleep. Whew.
There's nothing wrong with continuing if he likes the snuggles, though! For my DS, he'd just move the night feeding earlier and earlier, not later and later, so we needed to cut it down.
ETA: Ha! Just read the poll acronyms and now get the EWCM joke.
OMG. I just re-read this and actually got tears in my eyes. Either I'm finally about to get my period back, or I'm really, really not ready.
Awwww. It's a sign! I'm sure at some point the annoyance of getting up will outweigh the enjoyment of the nighttime cuddling. I bet you'll know when you're ready (I hope I do).
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
