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Austin Babies
Cutting back on night feedings?
Preface/Disclaimer: This is not a discussion/debate on CIO or sleep training methods.
A has never slept all the way through the night. I don't expect it to start any time soon & I'm okay with that. It is what it is. But, we are still waking up 2-3 times a night for feedings. It doesn't matter if I "cluster" feedings before bedtime, nurse her right.before going to bed, or give her a "dream feed" after she's been asleep for 2-3 hours; she consistently wakes up every 3-4 hours. We've tried to let her fuss it out hoping that she will go back to sleep, but it usually ends up escalating into full blown cries at which point I give in and feed her. (Her crib is still in our room...we hope to remedy that after Thanksgiving.)
She does have wakings between the feedings & is able to soothe herself back to sleep, so I know she has that "skill" already. I also know that she can go 6 hours without feedings; she's done it before on occasion but it never developed into a regular thing.
Like I said...I'm not trying to get her to STTN (yet). I really would like to just cut down on a night feeding or two so that I'm only having to feed her once, maybe twice. Aside from letting her just CIO, does anyone have any other tips, advice, whatever for getting her to space out her feedings?
Gracias!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Cutting back on night feedings?
Are you breastfeeding? Will she take a bottle? Do you have a bedtime routine? Sorry, lots of questions.
Maybe you could start weaning her from one of the nighttime feedings by giving her a bottle and gradually reducing the amount she gets at that particular feeding. You could also try increasing the amount at an earlier feeding so that maybe she'll skip one of the nighttime feedings. Just some thoughts...
You can also try giving her water from a bottle. She might just be using the bottle or your boobies as a way to soothe herself back to sleep. More than likely she is not hungry every 3 hrs at night - she should be able to make it through with just one nighttime feeding.
:::hoping I don't get flamed but this is just what I've read in the books that shall not be named:::
My doctor suggested this to us. We never tried it because Little Man started dropping feedings on his own, but it sounds reasonable.
We are EBF and she does take bottles, but it is nowhere near regular. We tried having DH give her a bottle as part of our nighttime routine, but he's usually cooking dinner so it ended up being a hassle with the timing of her bedtime. We do have a bedtime routine & nursing is a part of it, but it's "early" in the routine (bath, pj's, nurse, book, lullaby, bed) because I didn't want her to get into the habit of nursing to sleep.
Her bedtime routine is "spot on" because we're able to get her down with minimal fussing. She's even started self-weaning from her paci.
Thanks!!
I definitely would not give her water. Giving water to an EBF baby is a bad idea- it can throw their electrolytes off balance pretty quickly.
How long is she in bed overall at night? Like from 7 to 8? 9 to 6? There's a big difference in waking once a night over 9 hours vs 13 hours (and in between, I know those are extremes). At her age I wouldn't expect her to go 5+ hours between meals, or even to go that long between needing comfort from mama.
She's usually in bed about 12 hours. I don't mind getting up to comfort and/or nurse her, it's the eating every 3-4 hours that "bothers" me.
Yeah, I would probably first make sure that she isn't actually hungry when she wakes at night. But, I'm not sure how you would do that without using a bottle (to figure you how much she's actually eating). When DD weaned herself from her nighttime feeding, we knew she wasn't waking because she was hungry as she started leaving almost the entire bottle. So, we started to offer a paci instead of a bottle. Again, this was only once we were confident she wasn't waking because she was hungry. However, we're cool with DD using a pacifier, so I'm not sure what you might use instead of a paci.
I just went cold turkey on S's night feedings, but he was 11 months old.
I don't know what to tell you- she will still want to eat at least once during the night for a few more months. Like I said, I just kept nursing DS whenever he woke until 11 months. Have you tried just rocking her?
ditto m&m on the water thing. if she reallllly is hungry, you don't want to replace milk w/ water, especially at this age. that could mean trouble for an ebf baby.
right now, we're in the same boat as you. i have found that if i nurse tommy at night and then immediately offer him a couple more oz. (in a bottle) he tends to do a 5-6 hour stretch. that makes me think that either a) I'm not producing as much milk in the later hours of the evening or b) he's worn out and isn't nursing as efficiently.
so, what i do is pump (after feeding him) first thing in the morning and then pull 2-3 oz from that to stick in the fridge. that becomes his bedtime milk (again, after nursing).
Now, with Jack, at just before 6 mos. I started pumping at night and had a bottle ready for him for his night nursings. Turns out, he was only eating maaaaaybe 1 oz. during the night. So (with major help from DH), we would just go in and cuddle with him to settle him back down. If I went in there, he would want to nurse b/c, well, at this age, that's what mommies are for. If Jon went in there, he would go back down with a few rocks in the rocking chair.
With Tommy now, if he wakes before 1 or 2, Jon goes in. Around the 2 o'clock wake up, I go in to nurse. Anytime between 2 and 6, Jon goes back in.
This is what we started to do about 6 weeks ago. Some how we ended up where we are today where he sleeps through the night. However he bulks up on feedings in the evening. We were never trying to feed him a lot before bed he just is insatiable at night for some reason. He eats minimally/normally all day long but after 5 he's ready for 3 bottles before bed. He sleeps about 10 hours, waking up and sucking his thumb to go back to sleep throughout the night. I still have to wake up to pump though
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