Nighttime Feeding and Wakeup Time

periwinkleblue

DS is 5 months and used to eat 6oz of formula every 4 hours. We upped his formula intake to 7oz in the daytime so we can try to reduce his nighttime feeding to 5oz each bottle (then 4oz, then 3oz.. until he weans off).

He sleeps around 7pm and usually eats once between 9-11pm and another one between 2-4am.  We would like to try to wean him off his night feedings (or reduce them to one), but we're not sure how. We read the sleepeasy method, but lately, he started waking up at 4-5am, but we're not sure if it's related to the reduced amount of formula or not. He would go back to sleep at 6am for another hour though.

What are your experiences? Should we just wait for him to sleep through the night? Right now, we're proactively feeding him (an hour or so before we expect him to cry for food) just like what sleepeasy says... but we're not really sure if that's the way to go. 

Anyway, we're so confused we don't know what to do with his nighttime feedings. At this point, we just want him to wake up at least at 6am (no earlier) so we can get a little bit more sleep. Weaning nighttime feedings will be a plus. 

How much does your LO feed at night? 

 

 

 

 

periwinkleblue

I guess that part that's confusing is whether to wait until he cries for food at night or proactively feed him (which is the sleepeasy method -- feeding one hour before the expected time frame). If we go with the first way and wait for him to cry, sometimes we don't know if he's crying for food or just needs help falling back asleep.

We're not expecting him to STTN, but we're just wondering how others are handling nighttime feedings and how their LOs eventually wean. We're not in a rush, but just trying to figure out what to do. We will feed him as long as he needs to be fed... but sometimes, I'm not even sure if he needs to feed or not (because right now, we're following the sleepeasy which is feeding one hour before the expected hunger cry). Perhaps we'll try to be reactive and just feed when he cries.... one day, he might just not ask for it anymore

Thanks for sharing! 

nicole0066

theresat858:

Feeding more during the day may reduce waking for hunger at night, but there are many other reasons babies wake up at night.

I'm very confused by the waking him to feed, though...maybe just let him sleep and see what happens?

This.  Why don't you just let him sleep and see what he does?  If he wakes up you can try and either leave him or put him back to sleep without food before feeding him to see if he really needs the food or not.   

acaudill75

This is what we did with DD2. When we get home from day care @ 5 pm, I give her some baby food or mum mum, and then she usually wants to go to sleep. I put her in her crib and she usually just goes to sleep. I should say her last bottle of 6 oz is usually 3-4 pm, and she usually gets 5  bottles a day, 6 oz each. Then, we wake her around 10-10:30 and give her a 6 oz bottle and she sleeps until about 5:30-6 am. So from 3-4 pm until 10-10:30, she gets only some baby food and then sleeps about 5 hours. We wake her to give her a bottle because normally she will wake on her own around 1 am if we don't, because she is hungry. If we feed her at 1 am, she will wake around 4:30-5 am because she isn't as tired for some reason. Some people will say to not wake a sleeping baby, and I would agree with that, but I don't want to wake up at 1 am anymore. We did something similar with DD1 and she sleeps from about 7pm-7am now at over 2 1/2 yo, and most of my friends don't get nearly that amount of sleep out of their kids. I don't think it really matters how much you feed them during the day, because if they are hungry, they will cry for food regardless. DD2 is over 22 lbs at 8 months (!) and she eats probably less than a lot of smaller kids, so we aren't starving her!!

PinkPeony6210

I would just feed him, and he'll eventually wean himself off and start STTN. It may not be for a couple months (DD2 just started and she's 8 months), but it will happen at some point.