Is this normal? Re: sleep schedule

hollster8 · April 2012

I've been stressing out about DDs sleep schedule and weaning her from the bottle.

Right now she goes to bed at 8:30pm, wakes up at 5am, wants a bottle, then goes back to sleep until 8am.

I feel like sleeping 8 hours before needing to eat is fairly normal behavior. Am I wrong? Should I be expecting her to sleep from 8-8 without waking to eat? Should I just start offering sippies at the 5am feeding instead of bottles when I make the switch?

I've just been trying to decide if I need to cut out this "night feeding" or not. Like I said, I feel like sleeping 8 hours, eating, then sleeping 2-3 more hours is okay, but I have no clue.

Thanks for any input/advice!

LollyBug18 · April 2012

Emma seems to have regressed in this department. She has pretty much the exact schedule right now as your LO but I used to be able to get her to go back to sleep at 5 and sleep until around 7, a more reasonable wake up time IMO. But now she expects to be fed. I don't know if I need to give it a few horrible, scream fest mornings for her to learn she doesn't get a bottle at 5 am or if she really does need to eat then. So we're in the same boat! I hope someone else has some insight.

march2008 · April 2012

I don't know what's "normal", but DD still wakes up once during the night to BF 99% of the time. It's not at any one particular time, though, like yours is doing. Some nights it's really early on (2 am) and some nights she makes it until 4 am before waking up to nurse.

It's been working so far for us, so I don't have any plans at the moment to try to wean her from the one nightly feeding. I'm crossing my fingers that she will grow out of it ....eventually....

hollster8 · April 2012

march2008:
I don't know what's "normal", but DD still wakes up once during the night to BF 99% of the time. It's not at any one particular time, though, like yours is doing. Some nights it's really early on (2 am) and some nights she makes it until 4 am before waking up to nurse.
It's been working so far for us, so I don't have any plans at the moment to try to wean her from the one nightly feeding. I'm crossing my fingers that she will grow out of it ....eventually....

This is me, too. When I give her the bottle, she chugs it down and then falls right back to sleep. To me that makes it seem like she really is hungry. I don't mind waking up with her if she goes back to sleep. Especially now that she's on a bottle, DH can help me out (used to be EBF). I just wanted to make sure I wasn't helping her develop any bad habits.

mom6311 · April 2012

I'm no expert in this area, but just wanted to share our schedule. DD sleeps from 7:30ish-6:30ish without waking to eat (we feel truly blessed!). I EP, however, so am able to give her a bigger bottle at night (I know my last pump of the day is the smallest amount). Is there any way you could add a few ounces of BM at night before she goes to bed to fill her tummy more? We also started offering a snack before dinner and then her last bottle about an hour after her full dinner. This seems to help her become more full to STTN. I don't know...just some ideas. With that said, however, I think sleeping 8 hours straight is great! I imagine once she eats more and more solids and you introduce WCM, she will sleep even longer! Sounds to me like you're doing great!

hollster8 · April 2012

We've tried giving her a snack before bed (baby cereal bars, oatmeal, something filling) and it's helped a bit. I could add a bit more to her bottles, I bet that would help. We're also slowly beginning the switch to WCM and plan to have her on it by her birthday.

Thanks! I feel silly that I didn't think to add more to her bottles, lol.

cassoppea · April 2012

I dont know whats normal but we cut out night feedings when we sleep trained at 7 months. The dentist in me says to cut it out ASAP for her teeth. Since she's going back to sleep, it's no different than waking up in the middle of the night for a feeding. That puts her at higher risk for cavities unless you are brushing after the bottle. The mommy in me says, maybe she is hungry and needs it. But my guess is that you can drop it and she will adjust her eating to accommodate going longer stretches. It just might be a rough few nights.

MrsI · April 2012

DD was doing the exact same thing. We tried weaning that feeding by offering less and less each night, hoping it wouldn't be "worth it" to wake up for it. That didn't work. I decided to attempt a dream feed just before I went to bed around 9-9:30 hoping to fill up her belly and she dropped that first feeding. This week we have regressed but she is teething something terrible and I'm pretty sure that is why.

You could see how a dream feed would work for you, I figured I had nothing to lose. If she still woke up it was 'normal' to me.

AshleyPT · April 2012

I don't know what is normal but Zoe goes 12 hours at night without eating, and isn't really wanting to nurse for another 30-60 minutes after she wakes up in the morning.

gymnst1013 · April 2012

N goes to bed around 8 and usually wakes up around 6 or 6:30. I nurse him then and always put him back to bed. Sometimes he'll fall asleep for another hour or hour and a half and other times he'll babble for a while, maybe sleep for 20 - 30 minutes and then babble some more until I get him up. I usually let him go unless he starts to cry.

I'm so torn on feeding him at 6 or 6:30. On the one hand, I'd like to be able to drop that and have him sleep straight through but I don't want to leave him crying in his crib because it's not that early. I also sometimes wish he'd wake up a little earlier even - maybe 5:30 - so I know for sure he'd go back to sleep. I honestly don't mind the 6ish am feeding but I would be miserable if he stayed up then because I'm desperate for another hour's sleep at that point. I can never make it to bed before midnight.

amberpro · April 2012

That's exactly what Carter does- up between 5:30-6:30, sucks it down in no time, right back to sleep. I figure I'll need to do something soon, but I'm not messing with his schedule until I'm off for the summer. Right now, it really seems like he's hungry. It's been on my mind, but I'm not too worried. I'm still trying to decide how to go about the switch to WCM. I'll probably deal with it then.

hollster8 · April 2012

gymnst1013:
N goes to bed around 8 and usually wakes up around 6 or 6:30. I nurse him then and always put him back to bed. Sometimes he'll fall asleep for another hour or hour and a half and other times he'll babble for a while, maybe sleep for 20 - 30 minutes and then babble some more until I get him up. I usually let him go unless he starts to cry.
I'm so torn on feeding him at 6 or 6:30. On the one hand, I'd like to be able to drop that and have him sleep straight through but I don't want to leave him crying in his crib because it's not that early. I also sometimes wish he'd wake up a little earlier even - maybe 5:30 - so I know for sure he'd go back to sleep. I honestly don't mind the 6ish am feeding but I would be miserable if he stayed up then because I'm desperate for another hour's sleep at that point. I can never make it to bed before midnight.

This is my problem, too. Haha. I think I'm going to stop stressing about it and ask the pedi at her 12 month check up. I feel like 8 hours, then two more hours after the feeding is pretty dang good. I am worried about cavities/teeth problems, but I'm not entirely sure what to do about it if she's hungry and goes to sleep shortly after finishing the bottle. I don't want to wake her up to brush. I always make sure to brush her teeth really well in the morning after breakfast, hopefully that's enough for now.

CarlaAndJames · April 2012

we're in the same boat. I'm hoping I'll benefit from being a late June mama and yall will all figure this out and then I can steal your ideas.

She nurses for that early morning feeding, so I'm kind of thinking I'll just let it continue for as long as she wants it and it isn't making her cranky/overtired. We've weaned during the day, so those moments are so precious to me!

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Is this normal? Re: sleep schedule

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