night time bottle help

phishgirl29 · February 2014

So I'm in the process of weaning now and I'm down to only nursing in the morning and at night. Well the last 4 nights, O has been waking up 2-3 times very hungry. I'm thinking that I'm not making enough milk for him to keep up so its probably time to drop that night feeding. The thing is, I've nursed him to sleep every night of his life so I'm not sure how to go about this. Do I give him a small bottle (3-4 ounces) then top him off with the boob, or do I drop the feeding cold turkey and give him only a bottle? How much do babies eat right before bed? I just got him to take 6 ounce bottles during the day this week. I guess I'm just confused and a little sad to give up this night feeding earlier than I expected. TIA!

lioness13 · February 2014

I give her 4oz 30 min before bedtime.

HeartLikeMine3 · February 2014

We are having a similar issue. For two weeks straight I was feeding him a 6oz bottle at bed 4oz BM and 2oz formula. Those two weeks he STTN because he was getting full enough to make it till morning. I was pumping and only getting 3-4oz. Well he started cutting his top teeth refusing bottles all together and now we are waking again to eat in the MOTN. So my guess is you may get to STTN if you give him a bottle. If you don't want to wean before bed do nurse/bottle and pump after to get your supply up. While LO was taking bottles before bed and I was pumping every night I started getting 7oz after 4-5 night pumping sessions. Hope that helps!

WasNotWas · February 2014

Sorry that this is happening earlier than expected. I gave B a bottle to sleep before bed until we switched to WCM and it was always 6-8oz. I'd say do 6 oz

[Deleted User] · February 2014

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JessicaKS · February 2014

When I was still nursing at night, but working on weaning, I was giving a bottle of maybe 3-4 oz and then nursing. Technically nursing first would be better so your supply is not affected. The reason I nursed second is because A was used to nursing to sleep and i was trying to wean. By upping the bottle amount over time, she self weaned from nursing by going shorter and shorter amounts of time. Eventually she would just fall asleep after having the bottle. That was my goal - I was afraid she would be über dependent on nursing to sleep. It's worked out great and helped me wean easily.

phishgirl29 · February 2014

Here's what I've done so far in terms of weaning. Figure 4 feeding plus 1 MOTN on occasion.

Feeding 1: 7:00

Feeding 2: 12:00

Feeding 3: 4:00

Feeding 4: 8:00

Feeding 5: 11:00 (sometimes)

Week 1&2: dropped feeding 2&3 but pumped once.

Week 3&4: dropped 2&3 but didn't pump. Notice a big supply hit these weeks.

Week 5: we are in it. I did a Thursday start so on Thursday, I'm planning on preparing a 5-6oz bottle at night (thank you those that replied) and seeing how it goes. DH wants me to be done because he thinks I'm dragging it out and making it harder to stop (aka driving him crazy) which I totally am, but I'm holding on to that last little carrot that I have to comfort him that no one else has but me. I know I'll be able to work more efficiently at work, and try and get pregnant again without IVF (

) ) but it's still sad. I think I'll be finished by March 1st. I say this knowing that my boob may still leak and my period might still be MIA, thanks to @JessicaKS.

This is tl;dr but it's been working so far so hopefully it will lead me to a painless end. I'll keep you posted on if it works as planned.

numbersgirl08 · February 2014

I have no help but we are one step behind you. Dropped to 3 nursing sessions yesterday - 7 am, 2, and 7 pm at bedtime. Curious to see if my supply takes a hit. I guess that's the goal... Keep us updated!

phishgirl29 · February 2014

I should also add that I pumped a ton while I was home up until the end on January. I have so much frozen breast milk and my kid turns his nose up at it. He prefers formula or fresh BM. As a result, I've been putting BM into his food and an ounce and a quarter into every bottle and his morning oatmeal. He'll definite have enough now to last him until he's one.

[Deleted User] · February 2014

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JessicaKS · February 2014

@phishgirl29 - I was also worried about what would happen when I no longer had nursing to comfort her. Honestly, by slowly having her drink larger and larger bottles at night she chose to nurse less and less because she was less hungry. Eventually the comfort of nursing seemed to be replaced by the comfort of drinking a bottle. I was SUPER worried that she'd never sleep again after I quit nursing, but that hasn't been the case at all. She will now take a bottle from anyone at bedtime and fall asleep. In the past couple of weeks she has been put to bed by a friend of mine, our babysitter, and my husband. Zonked out every time immediately. Its crazy I had put her to bed every. single. night for 7.5 months!! She has also been sleeping better than ever now that I quit nursing (STTN most nights), and I wonder if its because its the first time she has been getting a large amount of milk before bed. I never had a super supply!

@libberluru - glad to help!

LBeez13 · February 2014

I have been pretty similar and I have been slowly giving about 4.5 oz at night and am now at about 5 oz. Mind you this has only happened for the past 4 nights but the one night that I nursed him to sleep he woke up almost every hour. I think dropping the pumps at work really hit my supply and now I am weaning completely even though I wasn't entirely ready for that either. I have only been nursing him when I feel really full. It has been nice to not pump at work though and I am finally feeling like I have a lil more freedom.

Like @jessicaKS said it is crazy that I was the only one who put him to sleep for almost 8 months.

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night time bottle help

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