How to reduce night feedings?

sunnybrook.

Please help. I am so tired. My girls eat every 3 hours around the clock....even at night. Here's what happens every night:

4:30- BF

5:30 - rice cereal mixed with formula

6:30 - bedtime

They then wake at approximately 9p, 12a, 3a, and 6am to eat. They generally don't wake at the same time and I'm too tired to deal with waking a sleeping baby to feed them at the same time, so I'm waking 4-8 times a night. 

I try to not feed them, but they scream and cry NONSTOP until they're fed and then they happily go back to bed and put themselves to sleep. My DH is working a string of nights, so I have no help. I haven't slept more than 3 hours at a time since they were born. I am exhausted. I've read HSHHC and it works for getting them to sleep, but does not prevent them from waking up every 3 hours. Please help. I'm ready to check myself into a hotel when DH is off just to get some sleep.

Flower2005

I wanted to let you know that I'm curious to hear your response because I've heard that around 8 weeks, a feeding can be dropped but my babies also have an internal clock that sets off every 3 (or 2.5) hours.

My babies are 7 weeks....if they still wake every 3 hrs at 6 months, I might skip checking into a hotel but might check into an institution.....I'm dying with 7 weeks of this.  You are a rockstar for keeping at it for 6 months.  Best of luck my dear!

pea-kay

The boys were strictly FF, so this may be different than nursing, but at 6 months, they were still getting up once to eat. At that point, it was habit, so I had to break them of the habit. But if your girls are getting up that many times, they may need to eat more during the day.

And I know it's hard, but it would be better for you in the long run if you fed both at the same time so you can get some longer chunks of sleep.

Good luck!

Ms.Priss

I knew my DD would STTN but I was getting her up b/c my DS would wake up, but around 9-10 weeks what I did was see how far I could push DS...when he first cried I would put the pink in his mouth this would hold him off for about an hour, then I would feed him. The next night I would hold him off for two hours by putting the bink in his mouth! By doing this I finally stretched him to about 9pm to 4 am. We are 3.5 months now and my DS STTN from 8:30-7 and she doesn't wake, DS sleeps that same amount of time but I do have to put his bink in his mouth 1-2 times a night....but I am not feeding anyone!!!! They are EBF babies!

Soooo my problem is not the night time, but my babies are horrible nappers!!! They will fall asleep for a nap and wake up in 20 minutes and they are cranky and crying b/c they didn't get enough sleep! Any suggestions

jenn_darrin1515

I would wake them up when the other one wakes up...keep the 9pm & 6am feeding as scheduled... and I don't know if you are offering formula or breastmilk during the 12am and 3am feedings...if it's formula start dropping the amount you are offering them (start with the 3am feeding)...so if you give them 4 oz...drop it to 3, then 2, then 1...this worked for us for eliminating that 3am bottle...

If you are bfing during the overnight I would probably start with switching hte 3am feeding to formula and drop the ounces donw and then once you eliminate that one focus on the midnight feeding....GL!!!!

regenab

I recommend the book A Baby Sleep Solution by Suzy Giordiano. I used this book to train my babies to sleep through the night without getting up to eat anymore. She does not use CIO to train. It is an easy read, designed to be read in 2 hours so you can start working on the plan right away without having to spend days reading a book.