Night feedings...

suitern

Someone talk to me about how you weaned these.  Lately L has been going backwards with how often he is waking up (used to be only 1, now it is usually 2).  The only way to get him back to sleep is to nurse him in the middle of the night.  When you decided to wean them how did you KNOW that your LO wasn't hungry?  I can't tell if L is actually hungry and that is why he is awake or if he just needs me to help him go back to sleep.  I have tried letting him fuss/cry a bit.  Last night he fussed for 15 minutes, fell back asleep for 20, woke up pissed and hysterical. So I fed him and he slept another 4 hours.  He takes a pacifier but while he was fussing and crying he had it in his mouth...so that route doesn't work. 

jldubb0626

Eli was weaned from nighttime feedings around 3ish months. My pedi told me to just push back the feedings by 15 minutes. So, if your LO is getting up at 1am, do everything possible to get him back to sleep. If nothing works, feed him at 115. Once 115 becomes the norm, push back another 15 minutes to 130. Yes, he may be hungry, but it's only out of habit that he's hungry. If you woke up at 3am every morning and got a snack, your body would get in the habit of waking up at 3 hungry, ready for a snack.  I'd say unless you know that he isn't eating enough during the day, you're safe to cut these feedings out.

FirstSchatz

I'm having the same "issue" with Logan right now.  He's waking up a couple of times a night to eat, but I know he's hungry.  Logan has been making huge leaps and bounds in his development, so I figure he needs the extra nutrition to help him along.

As far as how to tell if he's actually hungry...  I can usually hear or feel his tummy rumble.  If I can't, I try holding him and playing some lullabies while I rock him, then go on to changing him.  If those don't work, he's definitely hungry.

Sleep issues seem to come up a lot...  I have done quite a bit of reading and asking around about it, and the consensus seems to be that babies will change their sleeping patterns depending on their physical, mental and emotional development needs.  It is not unusual for them to start waking up multiple times a night, and it's not really necessary (or practical for them) to try and change that.  Of course, us parents need sleep too, so it might be a good idea to figure out a "schedule" with your SO, so you can both get a decent amount of sleep.  My husband and I just get up together, so it's "fair", but we used to trade off; whoever went to bed first got up first.  Do what works for you, but try to remember that babies wake up for a reason, not just because they don't want to sleep!  And, as an added bonus, we get more cuddle time!

NatesLady1309

We got rid of the last night feeding about 6 weeks ago (I think...). I was convinced she did not nutritionally need that feeding (5AM). It took less than a week for her to stop waking up at that time entirely. I did a combination of decreasing the amount of time I let her nurse for a while, got fed up with that, and then just cut her off cold turkey. It took 2 tough nights of trying to get her back to sleep just by soothing her instead of nursing and she was pretty much broken of the habit. She wakes up SLIGHTLY earlier than she used to as her "up for the day" time but it's worth the trade-off. And she's not screaming bloody murder from hunger when she wakes up or anything either. She does eat a lot at the first feeding for sure but that's to be expected IMO. 

A couple of months before that when we eliminated the 2AM feed it was harder to get rid of, took a little longer, but it still worked. Might have been because she was younger, I'm not sure.

She now STTN from somewhere around 8-8:30 until around 7:30. I think we both are a lot more rested because of cutting out the night feeds and she's still growing and developing well, no issues.