STTN and feeds

My twins are 4 months and 1 week old and since they were small their last feed hits 11.30pm-midnight. I have them on a 4-hr routine which can vary - longer or shorter - depending on their appetites, etc.

My question is: when should I eliminate this last feed? My two have 1 spoon of cereal in their bottles (I FF) morning and night (i.e. for the first and last feeds). Our pedi says they should move to 3 bottles with cereal once they´re 4.5 months old. At 5 months, we´ll be starting fruit purés.

Neither finishes a full bottle at every feed (currently 180mls = 6oz) but sometimes they do. They both have bath time, bottle and bed around 8pm and we wake them for the last feed.

I should mention that DS sttn to 7-7.30am and DD can sttn to 8.30-9am if she drinks the full bottle.

Is there anyone else who does what I do? If you did, how did you wean them off it?

Please share your experiences. Thank you

 

Are you talking about weaning off of the dream feed? You can wean them off an ounce or two at a time. We did ours cold turkey at 7 months because STTN was inconsistent before then. HTH .

 

At 4 months we were barely on a 3 hour feeding schedule. Am I reading it right that your Ped wants your down to only 3 bottles a day a 4.5 months old? Or just 3 bottles with cereal and then more as needed?

If you are asking about dropping the dream feed, I didnt do that, but I would think you could either go ounce by ounce and decrease or just go cold turkey and see where that gets you. GL!

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Oct 5 2008, 08:04 PM) [snapback]1012841[/snapback]
At 4 months we were barely on a 3 hour feeding schedule. Am I reading it right that your Ped wants your down to only 3 bottles a day a 4.5 months old? Or just 3 bottles with cereal and then more as needed?

If you are asking about dropping the dream feed, I didnt do that, but I would think you could either go ounce by ounce and decrease or just go cold turkey and see where that gets you. GL!


I would suggest the same as above. Also not sure about peds recommendations - do you mean 3 bottles a day? We had a dream feed at around 10 pm but we absolutely hated doing it anyway and the babies got less and less easy to feed so we just dropped it.

 

We just recently dropped the 10pm bottle and do it around 8pm now. We started cereal at this time too. We do 5 bottles a day and feed about every 3 hours or so. They take about 6.5-7oz. at each feed. I found that feeding them later, didn't make them sleep later in the morning. They've been sleeping until 6am to 7:30am.

 

QUOTE(SweetGirl @ Oct 6 2008, 12:00 AM) [snapback]1012712[/snapback]
Are you talking about weaning off of the dream feed? You can wean them off an ounce or two at a time. We did ours cold turkey at 7 months because STTN was inconsistent before then. HTH .


Yes, Im talking about the dream feed.

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Oct 6 2008, 02:04 AM) [snapback]1012841[/snapback]
At 4 months we were barely on a 3 hour feeding schedule. Am I reading it right that your Ped wants your down to only 3 bottles a day a 4.5 months old? Or just 3 bottles with cereal and then more as needed?

If you are asking about dropping the dream feed, I didnt do that, but I would think you could either go ounce by ounce and decrease or just go cold turkey and see where that gets you. GL!


Sorry, I didnt make myself clearer. Our pedi wants them on 3 bottles with cereal and 2 bottles of just milk (i.e. formula) so a total of 5 bottles still a day. We´re already doing 5 bottles a day but currently with 2 that have cereal.

I was thinking of going cold turkey. DS refused to eat his dream feed last night (he only took 50mls) and so it got me wondering. That would mean having to increase their remaining bottles with food (which would be hard seeing as they dont always drink it) otherwise they´d end up with just 4 bottles.

 

QUOTE(christie76 @ Oct 6 2008, 02:26 PM) [snapback]1013292[/snapback]
We just recently dropped the 10pm bottle and do it around 8pm now. We started cereal at this time too. We do 5 bottles a day and feed about every 3 hours or so. They take about 6.5-7oz. at each feed. I found that feeding them later, didn't make them sleep later in the morning. They've been sleeping until 6am to 7:30am.


That´s interesting what you say about feeding them later didnt make them sleep later. Thats great yours sttn for so long. Mine eat around 8pm too. Maybe I should just try it but I´d have to introduce an extra bottle somewhere or more volume which will be hard to do with DS.

How much do your two weigh? DS is 17lbs and DD is 14lbs. Mine are big babies! Yours are good eaters too. With DS, feeding time is a battle ground. I think it´s the gas in his tummy. We give him gripe water aswell... The pedi said he should be eating about 7oz for his weight and he rarely takes 6oz. We´ve done all the tests and everything´s fine so we know it´s not his sphincter muscle, etc. He had terrible reflux yesterday and we had a terrible day with him. I guess time will tell!

Thank you for your responses.

 

My twins are about the same age...can I ask why your ped wants 2 bottles with cereal? Do they have reflux? [I ask b/c my ped said no cereal in the bottles, unless they have reflux...]

 

My twins are a little over 4 months old and they take a bottle (no cereal in it) between 7-8pm and then we put them down for the night, they just can't stay awake past that time. They do wake up for a night time feeding at around 1:00pm then get up in the morning anywhere between 5:30 - 6:30am. We have been hoping they would STTN and not wake up for the middle of the night feeding so we didn't have to let them CIO at some point. Including the middle of the night feeding they have 5 bottles a day and we spoon feed them cereal or stage 1 baby foods twice a day.

On a personal note: Gabe slept through the night last night for the 2nd night in a row, Hallelujah!!! Don't know if it's because within the last 2 weeks we started cereal and stage 1 foods OR if it's that we tried the Miracle Blankets over the weekend or if he was just ready! Whatever the reason, we are so excited to have at least one of them STTN!Now, if his sister would just follow-along, life would continue to improve!!

 

My girls weighed 12 lbs. 3 oz. and 14 lbs. 12 oz. a week ago. They just got the hang of the cereal and they love it. We are only doing it once a day about an hour or so before their last bottle. I gave Ellie 3 bowls last night and she's the smaller one. I did notice that they started taking more in their bottles during the day when we dropped the 6th bottle at night. I make 6 oz. of water and add the powdered formula, so it makes more like 6.5 oz. We don't do cereal in the bottles. Could that be making them fuller? I assume they have reflux. Are they on meds for it? Ellie is on Prilosec for silent reflux. Before that, she was miserable to feed. I found that this age is tough. They are always pushing the bottles out of their mouths or turing their heads. Some feedings take forever. I usually put them down on the floor for a bit or change their diaper for a break and then try finishing the bottle after they forget about it. It seems to work. I also use Miracle Blankets at night. I tried the other night without them and it was a disaster. I figure I'll keep them swaddled until they grow out of them. I also put a fleece sleep sac over it to keep them warm and it has helped keep them swaddled all night. Good luck!!!

 

We are doing something similar to you. We started with a dream feed at 10 pm. We have been slowly moving it back by 30 minutes (still at 9:00 now). I know some go cold turkey, but we both work so we can't afford to have them waking up. They don't consistantly sleep now....sometimes they STTN with only the dream feed, but sometimes they wake up (not hungry - no idea why). We never feed them before 5:30 AM - even if they wake up during the night.

Anyway, we give them cereal with a spoon at 6 PM and at 10 AM. They eat about 1-2 tablespoons. They also have 5 bottles a day, but the amounts vary from 5-7 oz depending on how much cereal they have.

My pediatrician didn't want us to put it in the bottle, so that is how we do it. He told us we could start other foods and we tried fruit, but it gave them more gas so we stopped again and decided to wait a few more weeks. There is no real reason to start other foods and from our experience it is more trouble then it is worth (also from what I have read on TS).

Hope this is somewhat helpful.
Sarah