Night feed conundrum- what would you do?

[aimee-lou]

HI all,

I've been trying to get Earl to drop his night feed - he normally has a Dream Feed at about 10.30-11pm, then wakes at about 4am for another feed.

I know he doesn't need that 4am feed as he then doesn't need another bottle until 8am, having woken up at his normal time of 6.15am.

I had been cutting his 4am feed back by 1oz every few days and we had successfully got him down to 4oz and he was still waiting until 8am to have another bottle.

Last night however, with the clocks changing I decided not to give him his dream feed (we had to put the clocks forward before bed and it mucked us up big style lol) so I just left him to wake up. I've done this before and normally around midnight he'll wake. Last night though, he had 8oz at 7pm GMT then didn't wake until 3.50am BST. He had 6oz here, then woke for the day at 6.15. Had a 2 hour nap from 7-9, then had a 7oz at 9am.

This has really confused me. It would say to me that he doesn't need the dream feed. Rather selfishly though I would rather he cut out the 4am feed rather than the 11pm one. I'm going to try the dream feed tonight and see if we still wake up at 4am, but it would strike me that there is an extra bottle in there that he really doesn't need.

What would you ladies do?

Extra info - Earl normally has a total of around 40oz a day, so dropping a bottle is not a problem at all, in fact it would be good all around as he also has 3 meals a day lol. He goes to bed at 7pm every night following a Bath, Bottle and Bed routine, and is offered 5x8oz bottles (8, 12, 4, 7 and 11) plus, atm, 4oz at 4am. He is 5 months, weighs 20lb 4.

Thanks everyone

 

[Vicks]

If it was me, I'd try carrying on the DF at 11pm and seeing what happens.

Also, could it just be habit that he wakes in the middle of the night, or is he draining that bottle too? I've read on here that some people offer water in the middle of the night and that has helped drop that feed, but haven't any experience of that myself

x

 

[aimee-lou]

He wakes, drinks all 4 ounces. When that's gone he will cry for more, but all I have to do is give him his dummy and he's ok until his normal wake time around 6-6.30. Thing is, he wont entertain water, or just a dummy. It has to be milk, which is why I was gradually cutting down the milk in the hope that he will just stop needing it and therefore stop waking. (maybe an exercise in futility but you never know lol)

Thanks for your response. I think just carrying on as we are is probably all I can do. I know he's not bad compared to some as he's VERY predicatable indeed.

 

[aimee-lou]

Just wondering whether if I pick him up, give him a cuddle, then pop him back down with his dummy rather than feeding him. He wont take his dummy straight off, but I'm wondering if, like you say, it's a habit thing for comfort. Testing that I'm still there kind of thing......

Hmmmmm may try that tonight.

 

[Vicks]

It might be worth a go hun....Joe sometimes wakes in the night and his dummy seems to be what he wants. Maybe give him a cuddle, a little song or quiet chat and then back down with his dummy??

Has his milk intake dropped since you started weaning?

 

[aimee-lou]

It might be worth a go hun....Joe sometimes wakes in the night and his dummy seems to be what he wants. Maybe give him a cuddle, a little song or quiet chat and then back down with his dummy??

Has his milk intake dropped since you started weaning?

A little bit but not a great deal.

He used to have 7x7oz in a day and drink virtually all of it, but with having 3 small meals he's dropped to a feed every 4 hours during the day, rather than every 3. This makes a difference but he's still a gannet! lol. His weight gain has slowed too as he's only put on 1lb this month compared to his normal 2lb - and this would coincide with this change in appetite. I've been offering him 8oz at a go recently (again becuase I'm cutting out food during the night, I don't want him to be hungry) and he has started to take it. All very confusing.

I'm thinking that maybe he's just got used to waking up, getting a cuddle, then going back down. The milk is just a bonus lol. We shall have to see how we get on tonight.

Thanks

 

[Vicks]

Good luck hun Let us know how you get on x

 

[Lullaby2009]

I found that by cluster feeding Ruby by adding an extra feed at 6pm then usual feed at 7pm just before bed she started sleeping through the night till 6.30 / 7am ish. She doesn't even wake for a dummy. Before that she was having dreamfeed at 11pm and waking at 3.30am. Not sure if your lil one will do the same but might be worth a try?

 

[history_girls]

You could be brave and go for cuddles at 4am instead of milk and try to settle him without milk. Might take a while but it may work!

This was my plan for this weekend until LO decided to take 3oz a feed rather than 8oz during the day, so now I'm giving the 1 am feed in our case as its the only bottle she drinks more than 3oz from!

The monkey.......

 

[jen26267]

We had a similar issue. Olivia would have a feed at 12am then 4am. We decided to dreamfeed at 11pm so as not to get woken up 1hr after going to bed! She began to take less and less in he dreamfeed, so when she was only taking 2/3oz, we just didnt wake her and she slept till 4am. One week later she slept right through the night from 7.30-6.30!

I actually think she would have done this sooner. I got into the habbit of hearing her stir and getting a bottle ready to feed her before she started to cry. The first night she slept through I heard her stir, but just left her to see what she would do - and she just went back to sleep!

 

[aimee-lou]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Re; cluster feeding....we used to to this (well he did lol) then he reached 3 months, decided he didn't want that extra feed (would simply look at me blankly with this 'nice bottle, shame I don't want it' kind of expression lol) and he was sleeing through anyway. Then the 4 month growth spurt hit at about 3.5m and has lasted until about 5 months (maybe a week ago his eating slowed down). With having solids now, there's no room to put in an extra bottle (I think he'd burst...he's already on 40oz! lol) but I agree, that would normally work.

Last night was a minor league success. He had 6oz at bedtime (his bedtime is 3 hours from his last bottle), 6oz at dreamfeed at 10.40, then when I woke to him crying it was 5.30! Excellent. I have a rule that I wont get up for the day before 6am. Even if he's awake I'll continue to try to get him back to sleep until then. I picked him up, gave him a cuddle, put him on my shoulder to put back in bed and he was gone lol. Popped him down and got a further 20 minutes out of him so 5.50 and I think sod it, lets get up lol. He still wasn't crying for food though (has a specific hunger cry) so I just left him. He had his normal 'I've been up an hour, I need sleep' nap at 6.40-7.20 then started to cry for food. So he went from 10.40-7.20! We have officially dropped a bottle! Just got to persevere now.

It's weird though. Prior to his 4 month growth spurt starting he was sleeping through til 6.30ish then his waking time crept slowly earlier and earlier until eventually I got fed up and started to feed him back to sleep - I was NOT getting up at 4am! lol. He definitely needed the food though in those days as he was polishing off 7oz at 4am and still wanting 7oz on waking at 7ish . Nowadays it seems like we're sliding the other way. Maybe in a couple of weeks we'll start to wake at 6.30 again!!

 

[Vicks]

Yay!! Sounds like last night went well hun 10:40 - 7:20 is fab!