Question about decreasing overnight feeds

LIAngel

At what age did you start to decrease the overnight feed?  Right now A wakes up 2x for a feed.  I would love for her to drop the 2 (or sometimes 3) am feed.  She is 10 weeks, so I am guessing that she is a bit too young to totally eliminate it- besides she does drink the entire bottle.  So maybe she is hungry at that time.  But at what age do I say to myself "Hmmm she's probably waking up out of habit, maybe I should see what happens if I give her 3oz instead of 4 and then 2oz instead of 3 and then 1 oz instead of 2", until eventually she just sleeps thru that feed or if she wakes up, I can give her the paci to sleep or some other soothing technique (since she still can't get the hang of the paci. She'll do *suck suck* then it falls out).  I was thinking of starting to do this in the next few weeks (like right around the time she turns 3 months).

I'm hoping that she eliminates that feed before we go out of town (she'll be just shy of 4 months when we go-Oooh goody just in time for the 4 month wakeful).

sescms2004

How much does she weigh?  If she's in the 10-12lb range, she is probably ready.  I loved the book, "Twelve Hours Sleep by 12 weeks Old" by Suzy Giordano.  It has really great tips/advice on how to eliminate the nighttime feedings (plus it's super short/quick easy read).  It does it just how you mentioned.....you gradually decrease the first night time feed that you want to eliminate by an ounce or so at a time, until eventually it is gone and they stop waking up for it.  Then do the same with the last one.  Worked perfectly for us!  DD eliminated her night feeds by 8-9 weeks, and DS by 10-11 wks.  GL!

epphd

I don't think we dropped to one feed a night until Sam was a lot older - maybe 5-6 months or so.  And we dropped the last overnight feeding just shy of 12 months. I was nursing so it was easy to just go and feed him and put him back down, so we weren't in a rush.  And, we're big devotees of Weissbluth (Health Sleep Habits...) and according to his book, Sam's overnight feeding schedule was developmentally appropriate.  10 weeks, IMHO, seems too young to say that she should go so long with only one feed. 

GuitaristsGirl

Right around 10-11 weeks DS dropped his night feed.  I  considered the "night feed" to be the feed around 2-3 a.m., I think you're also talking about the 5 a.m. feed, which we consider morning around here   He never really "dropped" that feed, it just got pushed back by an hour or hour and a half on his own. 

eta: He still got fed between 10 and 11 p.m., so he was going about 6 hours in between.  Also, *I* didn't really drop it - I just noticed that he was less and less interested in the bottle when he woke.  I'm not sure at what age I would have tried to drop it.

LIAngel

sescms2004:

How much does she weigh?  If she's in the 10-12lb range, she is probably ready.  I loved the book, "Twelve Hours Sleep by 12 weeks Old" by Suzy Giordano.  It has really great tips/advice on how to eliminate the nighttime feedings (plus it's super short/quick easy read).  It does it just how you mentioned.....you gradually decrease the first night time feed that you want to eliminate by an ounce or so at a time, until eventually it is gone and they stop waking up for it.  Then do the same with the last one.  Worked perfectly for us!  DD eliminated her night feeds by 8-9 weeks, and DS by 10-11 wks.  GL!

At her 2 month appt she was 9 lbs 9 oz, so she's just about at that 10lb mark. 

ladychicago

At 4 months, DD was eating at 3am and 6am (sleeping until 7 or 8am). By 5 months, she was just eating once at 3amish and then up for the day at 7am. By 6 months, she dropped the 3am feeding on her own and slept 12 hours straight. She sounds a bit young to me for dropping a feeding (DD was daily still nursing 3-4 times per night at that point), but I think you are close. Good luck!