dropping a night feeding

After 6 months of a cycle of progress towards longer stretches at night then regression then progress we are back at feedings about every three hours and I have had enough!

We are trying to get them to drop the middle feeding, but so far things have been rough. First we tried just nudging that feeding closer to the later feeding (soothing them for 15-20 minutes before feeding) hoping that they would wake up successively later and later and eventually only wake for the later one. No dice. This week I've gone cold turkey with one dd (it is too much to do this with two at once) and refused to feed her until 3 am (they get a dream feed at 10ish, although dream feed is a misnomer of a sort because they often wake up to demand it!). I am trying all of my other methods of soothing and trying to get her to go back to sleep when she wakes up too early.

I assumed it would be rough going at first, but it has been worse than I thought. For the past two nights I haven't been able to get her to go back to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a stretch and she often cries even when I am holding and walking with her. Last night DH got her to sleep for the last 40 minutes, but only by sitting and holding her the whole time. And after 3 nights she continues to wake up at or before 1, so I am up for two hours +.

Is this going to work eventually or is there some other approach I should be taking? I don't think CIO is going to work but I don't know what else to do. (And I might kill my DH, who is ordinarily super helpful, but has some mental block about the need for them to sleep later. He came in to take dd last night after I had been at it for 2 hours, and I said "I am pushing her to 3 am, there are 35 minutes left." Then he showed up at our bedside 10 minutes later and said "she won't go down, do you want to try feeding her?" )

Kim

 

You can water her feedings down and she might decide it's not worth it anymore. I forget how much to do, but maybe do twice as much water to formula (if you use that, if not offer a bottle of water)....

To determine if they ACTUALLY need the feeding you need to assess whether they are taking a full bottle or feeding for a full session. If the answer to that is yes, then they likely need to eat. (sorry to say)

Is it possible that they are going through a growth spurt and need the extra food for a week or two? Some babies need food in the night until they are 9 mos. (roughly). Seems like they should be out of it now, but it's hard to say without "knowing" A & C kwim?

 

I breastfeed exclusively (they refuse to take a bottle ... another issue we are working on), so I can't tell exactly how much they are taking. I've tried feeding less each time, but if I cut them off early they scream. They do seem to actually feed each time, but they are huge (over the 75th percentile for weight -- up from the 5th at birth) and my ped says she can't see any reason that they should still need to eat 3xs a night.

Growth spurt doesn't explain it. We've been on 3 hour feeds pretty consistently for a few months now.

I realize they may need to eat at night still, and I'm not trying to do away with all night feeds, just the middle one (I still plan to feed at 10 and 3ish). I dread night time and all I want is for them to do ONE 5 hour stretch.

 

I'm not a BF mommy, but is it possibly your supply is going down? Would they take formula from a sippy cup? I wouldn't have thought they needed to get up at all between 10 and 6am. It could be out of habit. My DS is waking at 4am every morning and I know he is not hungry...it's a pain. I usually just give him a drink of water and he settles back down again.

You could always try cluster feeding in the evening, perhaps at 6, 8 & 10 to tank them up to see what happens. Might also help to nurse more in the evenings to keep supply up.

I hope something changes for you soon..it's so tough when you have to get up a zillion times.

 

Mine have started waking again too, I'm just dealing with it but I think it's due to them not eating as much during the day. Though sometimes they wake and are not hungry. Last night I went to take a peek at them and when I stood next to DS's crib I hear in the darkness 'heh heh'

Sorry I don't have any advice for youbut know that you're not alone

 

When my singleton started waking up more at night, my ped told me that babies require a certain amount of calories per day. It doesn't matter what time- just that they get it. So, he recommended adding another feeding during the day (I BF as well) and it actually worked. Not quite there with the twins yet....
btw mine won't take bottles either- if you figure that out- let me know!

 

As for the bottle question... have you tried different kinds of nipples? Some babies tend to be very particular. My BF's son is a day younger than my twins, and she went through 4 bottle types to find the right one, then raided e-bay for her stock.

 

This may be silly to suggest since we aren't BF'ing anymore, but it worked with the twins and with my 3 yr old who did BF until 10 months. We dropped the dream feed first and they started sleeping from 6:30pm until 4 am in 2 days. By 7 months, we were no longer getting up to feed at night at all. Now, I didn't say we don't get up with give a paci or rock them back to sleep from time to time, because we do, but no more night feedings! It does take longer for BF babies to sleep through the nigt in general, but it's not impossible to expect more sleep by 6 months. If they are gaining weight well and eat enough during the day, they can do it.

Don't you just love how Dad always says I can't get them to stop crying, how about feeding them? I hear that a lot! We just had ear infections here and my DH could not get them to settle down and stop crying. So not sleep for me for 4 nights! Oh well, I guess they try right?!

Good luck

Kelly