Night feed

Hi everyone,

The girls are into the first week of CIO and have been doing amazingly well, no more crazily intense crying for long periods of time, no more 20 min wakeups and one of the 2nightfeeds has been ditched by the babies not us, they just stopped waking. So we are still feeding once through the night and one of them always wakes between 12-4am, so they both get fed at this time.
Last night Amber woke up but was just squealing happily to herself at 3.30am, we left her half hr but then decided to feed as DF was leaving for work at 4.30am so thought as we were up he may aswell help me feed them. Amber had her usual 4 1/2 ounces and Ruby refused her bottle for ages but then drank 6ounces. The girls rarely drink more than 4//5 ounces through the day, how do i help them to drink more through the day to stop this last night feed? I don't hink Amber was all to hungry as she didn't demand it she was just having an early morning giggle? Ruby confuses me even more, she didn't wake up for it, refused it but then demolishes the whole lot? I think if i can get them eating full bottles in the day i would be more willing to do CIO to try an stop this nightfeed. They also have cereal and vegis or fruit. I am sure they can't be hungry, i think they are just used to waking at this time. Any thoughts please? TIA

 

Have you tried just not feeding them? Just give them a paci or something to soothe them back to sleep? Its annoying at first bc they may only sleep 1 hour longer and then you are still up early to feed them but eventually (at least for our boys) they push that time further and further back. Good luck!

 

Have you tried stretching their feeding time? Are the on a 3 hour schedule?

 

how much do they weigh? if their weights are good & they are gaining well, i would say drop the feeding cold turkey & just keep an eye on their weights. when we started dropping night feedings i weighed my girls weekly to make sure they were still getting what they needed during the day. it was very reassuring to me & let me know they were doing fine without the night feedings.

 

Thanx ladies,

Mrs wright - paci's don't work with our girls, they wont take them anymore for some reason and since doing the CIO we don't go in unless it is to get them for that one feeding so not sure how going in to soothe would effect the CIO iykwim?

Christine they still eat every 3hrs through the day and have 2 solids. Do you mean stretch there feeds? to say 4hrs? No i haven't done this but sometimes they make 31/2 if they have a long nap.

Missybossy - i like the idea of weighing them wkly to ensure they aren't missing it. I haven't had them weighed in ages but they have caught up in weight just not height. I will get them weighed next week and see where we stand in view of doing this.

Thanx again everyone as always a great help!

 

Yes, stretching them to four hours might work. When my girls were on a 3 hour schedule last month they couldn't finish all their bottles throughout the day because they weren't that hungry, so this messed with them waking during the night. When this was happening we tried the dreamfeed again and they ate at about 11:30, but it was affecting the way they ate first thing in the morning. Once we stretched their feedings to 3.5 - 4 hours they started eating more. they went from 5 to 7 oz. we ultimately dropped the nighttime feed just a week ago and they have been sleeping through and eating their bottles during the day. it's worth a try if they are willing to go that long without eating.

 

QUOTE(orangeyaglad @ Jun 17 2009, 04:22 PM) [snapback]1357941[/snapback]
Yes, stretching them to four hours might work. When my girls were on a 3 hour schedule last month they couldn't finish all their bottles throughout the day because they weren't that hungry, so this messed with them waking during the night. When this was happening we tried the dreamfeed again and they ate at about 11:30, but it was affecting the way they ate first thing in the morning. Once we stretched their feedings to 3.5 - 4 hours they started eating more. they went from 5 to 7 oz. we ultimately dropped the nighttime feed just a week ago and they have been sleeping through and eating their bottles during the day. it's worth a try if they are willing to go that long without eating.


Oh right i see that's a good idea! They can get to 3.5 easily nowadays, i do find that they aren't asking for it at 3hrs much anymore. Just hope i can time it ok, there naps range anywhere between 45mins and 2.5hrs, so it will be tough to feed every 4 if they only take a 45mins nap. Will give this ago tommorow Thankyou and ocngratulations on your little one's sleeping through!

 

QUOTE(mummy2ambernruby @ Jun 17 2009, 01:41 PM) [snapback]1358134[/snapback]
Oh right i see that's a good idea! They can get to 3.5 easily nowadays, i do find that they aren't asking for it at 3hrs much anymore. Just hope i can time it ok, there naps range anywhere between 45mins and 2.5hrs, so it will be tough to feed every 4 if they only take a 45mins nap. Will give this ago tommorow Thankyou and ocngratulations on your little one's sleeping through!



Thanks, but now they aren't sleeping through the day, so I don't know which is worse. I would try stretching their time and letting them CIO during their naps so they sleep longer. I know what you mean about feeding every four hours and only sleeping 45 minutes. It does make the day rather hard.

 

QUOTE(orangeyaglad @ Jun 17 2009, 07:09 PM) [snapback]1358191[/snapback]
Thanks, but now they aren't sleeping through the day, so I don't know which is worse. I would try stretching their time and letting them CIO during their naps so they sleep longer. I know what you mean about feeding every four hours and only sleeping 45 minutes. It does make the day rather hard.



Oh well that's just typical, If i had to choose i would definately sacrifice the day sleep for night sleep! Is it that they don't need a nap or do they just not want to take one now?
We are also doing CIO for naps, we aren't going to them for 1hr30mins whether they sleep or not. Today i got a 45min nap this am, then for the first time ever i had to wake them after a 2hr30mins nap but then they all out refused a 3rd nap so not sure what it going on with them lol It is early days on the CIO for naps so hopefully the next week or 2 they will get it. It's usually1 long nap and 2 short one's so maybe i will try and get a 4 hr feed and the rest 3.5hrs.

 

QUOTE(mummy2ambernruby @ Jun 17 2009, 02:21 PM) [snapback]1358215[/snapback]
Oh well that's just typical, If i had to choose i would definately sacrifice the day sleep for night sleep! Is it that they don't need a nap or do they just not want to take one now?
We are also doing CIO for naps, we aren't going to them for 1hr30mins whether they sleep or not. Today i got a 45min nap this am, then for the first time ever i had to wake them after a 2hr30mins nap but then they all out refused a 3rd nap so not sure what it going on with them lol It is early days on the CIO for naps so hopefully the next week or 2 they will get it. It's usually1 long nap and 2 short one's so maybe i will try and get a 4 hr feed and the rest 3.5hrs.


I just started a topic about this a second ago. I will gladly take 2 naps a day from them. I know my girls need to at least sleep 2 hours or they are a mess! Anything less is just wasted time. They definitely need the naps and beg for them. I tried CIO two weeks ago and it worked within 3 days. Then something happened during this past weekend and they just refuse to take naps. I tried the extinction thing, but what if they are poopy? IDK, I'm not ready to give up and tomorrow is another day.

 

QUOTE(orangeyaglad @ Jun 17 2009, 07:28 PM) [snapback]1358235[/snapback]
I just started a topic about this a second ago. I will gladly take 2 naps a day from them. I know my girls need to at least sleep 2 hours or they are a mess! Anything less is just wasted time. They definitely need the naps and beg for them. I tried CIO two weeks ago and it worked within 3 days. Then something happened during this past weekend and they just refuse to take naps. I tried the extinction thing, but what if they are poopy? IDK, I'm not ready to give up and tomorrow is another day.


Thats the spirit! Don't give up, hopefully they will fall back into there old routine as easily as they have fallen ot of it. Has anything changed lately that has thrown them off? Maybe they are already overtired by the time you get them down? Our girls fight it till the end if they get overtired, 1 hr 40mins iseems to be the time where they will go to sleep peacefully withing minutes. Re: extinction and poop i change them before nap time and hope for the best lol they have normally pooped during awake, so far it hasn't been a problem but like i say i'm only at this a week. Hopefully some of the veteran twin mummies will be able to give you some tried and tested advice on your topic.