Night feedings

Hi everyone,

My guys are 8 months old and still wake up once or twice a night to nurse. I was reading in HSHHC and HSHHT that you can expect them to stop waking to eat at 9 months. Unfortunately, that's all that it says. I don't know if my guys still need the milk, although they seem to nurse pretty well at night. So I have a few questions for you:

Until what age did your babies wake up for night feeds?

When they stopped, did they just stop waking up? Or did you have to intervene? If you intervened, what did you do?

Thanks!

 

We finally stopped night nursing at 13 months. Up until that point I dont think I was ready to say no more night nursing.
Night nursing is the best way to boost your supply or keep it going and some estimate that babies that night nurse take in up to 50% of their calories at night.
Remember babies dont read the books and every baby is different!

When I finally stopped night nursing I sent DH in for every single night waking for 2 nights in a row. He patted, shooshed, sang, rocked, offered a sippy of water etc. We made it clear that mama wasnt coming. Finally by the 3rd night DS wasnt waking to eat at night anymore. I think it was harder on me than him but I was TIRED.

You have to decide whats best for you and the babies. If they still nurse really well at night, then they probably do still need it especially at 8 months because they are so distractible and busy during the day!

Hope you find something that works for you!

 

Sarah started sleeping 12 hours at 4 months (yay Sarah!), but Amy had a night feeding (we FF) until 13 months.

At 9 months I tried to wean her off it (by a combination of watering down the bottle and CIO) and she outlasted me. She was drinking that whole thing every night and I just felt like she really was hungry. But by 12 months she would sometimes just drink half of it, so I started watering it down again, and then reducing the overall amount. By 13 months, I was offering 1 oz formula and 2 oz water and she still wasn't drinking it all, so we did CIO again at that point and she quit waking in about 3 days.

Since you are nursing, obviously you can't follow this exact strategy (although you could try sending DH in with a bottle), but my point is just that it's totally possible for babies still to be hungry at night after 9 months. HSHHC might say that's a reasonable age to expect them not to wake, but some babies are always going to be outside the norm. Personally I'm often hungry at night -- I'm an adult and I usually just ignore it, but I wouldn't expect a baby to do that.

 

Danika stopped waking at night on her own at 6 months. i did some sleep training with Riley to eliminate night wakings at about 7 months. with Riley, i started by getting an idea of what her average nursing time was at night (active nursing, not just hanging out on the boob) and it was around 8 minutes. then every couple of nights i reduced the time she nursed by one minute. when we were down to 2 minutes, i stopped nursing her & instead would pat & shush for a minute or two & then leave for 15 minutes, then repeat until she fell asleep. we had one really rough night & that was it. i liked the idea of doing it gradually so that she could switch to getting what she needed during the day.

i think you know your babies best & you should trust your gut on whether you think they're ready to night wean or not. there's no right or wrong way to do it, there's just what will work for you & your family. GL!

 

Mine woke to eat until they were 9 months old. Once I knew they didnt really want to eat (playing on the nipple and not seeming to interested) I would just put them back in their cribs awake. Then I took a little bit longer to go to them each time and they dropped the night feed all together. GL! I know I was so happy to not have to get up at night for feedings.

 

R stopped waking for night nursing at about 5-6 months old. He gradually woke less and less, then down to once a night, then that one waking got later and later until he got to the point where he now sleeps right through until 6 or 7 in the morning (that was at about 6 months). W, on the other hand, has more severe reflux, burns a lot more energy, just generally naps less during the day and sleeps less at night. My boys are evidence that all babies are different with different needs and as the pp mentioned, babies are not textbook babies, they may fit some textbook models, but they are unique.

My W still wakes once or twice a night to nurse but I am noticing his patterns are becoming like that of his brother when he nursed less and less. W now wakes around 2-4 in the morning, nurses, sleeps, then wakes around 5-6 and will nurse and sometimes sleep another hour and sometimes stays awake. He's getting more and more independent at night and I can see that he is on his way toward sleeping all the way through to morning, just like his brother. It may take a month or two, maybe more, but I think those special sessions we share will be no more sometime soon. When we are ready, we'll do as the pp did and have dh handle the night wakings sometime over a weekend when dh doesn't have to work. It will break my heart, but on the other hand, I'll relish the sleep!

 

I didn't nurse, but I had one baby still waking at 9 months drinking two full bottles! My ped told me he didn't need the nutrition and suggested CIO. It worked!

 

Once I made sure they were getting enough during the day I stopped feeding them. I would get up and soothe them back to sleep, and eventually they stopped waking. Never had to CIO, but I would have.