sleep/feed poll-quest for Goldie in this :)

Re: sleep/feed poll-quest for Goldie in this :)

• Temp159135562506975 member

  December 2010

  we didn't drop the 10pm feeding until about 5-6mo... when we switched them from the bedside cosleepers to their cribs.

  Until then we fed them at 7pm, and they'd usually fall asleep shortly after - but downstairs with us.... then at 10 we'd feed them and change them, swaddled and lay them down to sleep for the night.... sort of a dream feed, but usually they'd wake up b/c of being changed... and go back down fairly easily b/c then they were swaddled and they LOVED that.

  at 5w we started to stretch out their time between feedings at night - by giving the paci... patting their bellies, etc - anything to keep them from really crying and needing to be fed. Since they were in bedside cosleepers, this was really easy to do - we didn't have to get up -- we'd just reach over.  We slowly stretched out the time between feedings and the night they turned 8w old they both STTN from after their 10pm bottle until their 7am bottle.

  so - i would keep giving the late bottle - and try stretching out that time like you are doing with the binky, etc... try to really learn their hungry cry vs. "i woke up a little and i'm not that good at falling back asleep on my own yet" cry .... they might need a little help learning to fall back asleep (paci, patting, etc)... but not need a bottle.

  good luck - it's a lot of trial and error... eventually success

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• caden member

  December 2010

  Personally I'd rather stay up til 11:30 than wake up at night so I'd work on/pray they STTN before dropping the dream feed. If you're down to 1 feeding at night I think it's only a matter of time before they sleep til morning. GL!

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• hopeful34 member

  December 2010

  Thanks Ladies! How will i know they are ready to drop the dreamfeed? Are they hungry when they wake at 3am because they keep waking up every half hour or just the needing the binky thing because they usually fall asleep again.

  

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• Temp159135562506975 member

  December 2010

  we just gave it a try now and then- dropping that last bottle at 10pm, if they were REALLY sleeping well - or if we decided to go to bed really early (there were many 8:30 bedtimes for us back then!)... and just saw how they did - and eventually they just kept sleeping well and not needing that 10pm feeding. Trial and error

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• hopeful34 member

  December 2010

  I hope you don't mind me asking you so many questions about sleep but you have had such a great success with your babies that i want to learn from you. i bought the babywise book and i'm trying to implement that so we'll see how it goes. I guess if they sleep from the dreamfeed til morning then i'll move to 10pm from 11pm and so on and hope that works. Thanks for your advice!!

  

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• caden member

  December 2010

  hopeful34:

  Thanks Ladies! How will i know they are ready to drop the dreamfeed? Are they hungry when they wake at 3am because they keep waking up every half hour or just the needing the binky thing because they usually fall asleep again.

  I don't know when mine will be ready, but I know I'm not ready at this point. While I'd love to sleep more I want them to have 6 feedings still. I'm going to ask my pedi at their 4mo appt about how much they need to eat in 24 hrs. If I can get them to do that in 5 feedings we'll try dropping it and seeing what happens.

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• hopeful34 member

  December 2010

  caden:

  hopeful34:

  Thanks Ladies! How will i know they are ready to drop the dreamfeed? Are they hungry when they wake at 3am because they keep waking up every half hour or just the needing the binky thing because they usually fall asleep again.

  I don't know when mine will be ready, but I know I'm not ready at this point. While I'd love to sleep more I want them to have 6 feedings still. I'm going to ask my pedi at their 4mo appt about how much they need to eat in 24 hrs. If I can get them to do that in 5 feedings we'll try dropping it and seeing what happens.

  It's wierd because some days they only get 5 bottles and they do great. Other days they get 6 and don't do as well. Ugh...I guess just like Goldie said..trial and error. We'll try on the weekends to drop the late feed and see what happens. I'm back to work now so doing it during the week isn't appealing lol....

  

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• jroady

  December 2010

  Coming out of lurkdom to chime in:

  Our babies are about the same age.  Mine are 11 weeks today.  With my older daughter, we loosely followed Babywise and she began STTN around 8 weeks and was doing 12 hour stretches at 12 weeks, so I was naively expecting the same with the boys.  However, they are not STTN but unlike with our DD, we have eliminated the 10pm feed and put them down anywhere between 6:30 and 8:30 and are just letting them sleep.  At first they were waking up around 12 or 1, but now Z can go almost to 5am and R (smaller boy) goes until about 3.  I'm hoping we are moving towards 7pm-7am.  We found that we were really struggling to get them to take that 10pm bottle and that they were really, really fussy between 7 and 10, which is why we started implementing a much earlier bedtime.  Now this wasn't the case with my DD, she always woke for that 10pm bottle.  I guess this is a long way of saying that it really depends on the baby.

  If you find that they aren't taking much and it's taking a long time to get them to take that last feeding, I'd eliminate it and just roll the dice.  It definitely sucks still getting up in the middle of the night, but I've just started going to bed around 8:30 and it's not so bad.

  Hope that helps!   

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