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Do I just need to be brave?

Right ladies this is a question for the Feb mummies whose babies sleep through the night or those with older children.

DD is such a good baby. Has never really cried except when she's hungry (or having jabs!), Has been waking only once in the night since she was 5 weeks old and has been going to bed at about 7pm since she was 7 weeks old. However....I think I'm wimping out of encouraging her to sleep through the night,

At the minute we do the following:

- she goes down at 7pm (or sometimes 6.30pm if she's tired) and normally won't finish her bottle but instead only takes about 3ozs
- we give her a dream feed at 11pm (again she'll normally only take 2-3ozs)
- she then wakes at about 2.30am and has recently starting taking just 1oz at this feed
- then sleeps til 6-7am

I'm starting to think that if I just bit the bullet and tried to settle her at 2.30am without feeding her that she might sleep through after her dreamfeed. The problem is every night I'm so tired I just think, "oh she's obviously hungry I'll have to feed her" where as in the cold light of day I think I might just be doing it for an easy life....

So my question is...does anyone think she might drop that 2.30am feed on her own (she used to take up to 4ozs but its now so much less I wonder if she's slowly dropping it herself) or am I completely deluding myself and really she needs me to take the hit for a few nights and settle her without it even if it takes lots of crying????

help!!

MN and DD 14+1
xxx

Replies

  • Hi

    Adam does not sleep through yet - he feeds at 7pm, 3am (ish) and then 7am. He used to also feed at 12.30/1am, although fairly half-heartedly.

    So one night when he woke at 1am, I just shushed him, popped him dummy in and he went back to sleep fairly quickly. He never fed at that time again!

    You could try offering her cooled boiled water at the 2.30am feed and see if that dissuades her? I did try this with Adam but he *hated* it - preferred no feed at all!

    Also - is there any way you can get her to take more at the 7pm or 11pm feed? If you woke her up a bit before the DF do you think she'd take a bit more?

    Adam has learned to 'tank up' at 7pm - he'll take 8oz at this feed but never takes more than 6oz at any other time of day.

    Hmm - I don't think I've been much help - sorry!

    Good luck and let us know how you get on!

    xx
  • Alfie was similar with his 3.30 feed and just playing with it, so I tried giving him his dummy and seeing how he went and after about 15mins grizzling (not properly crying when he woke up like he normally does when hungry) he was back off to sleep. He was like this for a few nights and then stopped waking altogether. Though the last few mornings he's been thinking 5am is play time lol
  • thanks girls I think I might try a combination of those - have decided to dedicate the weekend to giving it a bash!

    I might try and wake her a little bit more for her DF and then see if I can settle her at 2.30 without milk. I am SO convinced I could crack this if she'd just take more milk at 7pm but she always falls asleep before she's finished it. Have tried bringing the feed forward but she just falls asleep even earlier!!! thanks girls xx
  • It's still really early for our LOs to be sleeping through, so don't worry if it doesn't happen just yet.

    Adam always falls asleep half way through his last feed too. We give him a five minute snooze break then bang around loudly to wake him up, and 9/10 times he'll finish the bottle off!

    xx
  • oooh good tip Cath - might give that a try! she completely outwitted me last night anyway by taking 4ozs at 2.30am so was genuinely hungry. I fear I may be on to a losing battle with this one!! x
  • Nancy has slept through completely for the last 5nights, but she was just waking once a night at about 3ish, she was only having about 3oz of it and i think she was just waking out of habit and not hunger! this happened with my eldest but went on till she was 13 months old once a night she woke for a bottle but because i left it so long to stop the habit it was bloody hard to get her out of the habit, so this time iv learnt my lesson.
    all i do now if she does wake is give her a dummy back and sometimes it can take half hour for her to settle herself, but its easier now to get them out the habit.
    My HV said if she is having 30oz of milk during the day she doesnt really need a feed during the night and she has 7oz bottles 5times a day!
    good luck.
    xxx
  • That's interesting. Adam has about 30oz in total, including the night feed, so I guess he still needs it...

  • Hey
    I think maybe try to settle her at 2.30 am and see how she goes, it could just be her coming out of deep sleep and going into rem sleep?

    With Lily, we noticed she had dropped her feed right down from 5oz at night to only managing 3oz, she would never cry at this time, we would just here her making noises and moving, so we use to get her up and giver her a bottle. However one night i left her in her bed and waited to see and she went back to sleep. The same the next night and since then she hasn/t woken up since. She is now in her own room.

    Lily does manage 30oz or more from 8am until 9pm, she has either a 6oz bottle or a 7oz bottle, so sometimes she does go over 30oz these times are when she will sleep longer, she always does a 10hour stretch but sometimes we get 12 hours, like last night.
  • I am very jealous of all you ladies whose babies are sleeping through!! Adam has done it twice, so I know he *can* do it - but he'll always take a big feed at night so I know he's genuinely hungry! Tricky.

    xx
  • MN, i would wake her up more at 10.30. I dont believe in the dream feed thing,. I've always woken up my kids properly to feed them at that time,
    When they were really small i would wake up and feed them and when they doze off, change their nappy to wake again and feed again.

    Arran now has been going down at 6-30-7pm, getting woken for a feed then sleeping till 7-8am. Now i wake him, change him and then feed him and when he falls asleep i put him down, He should be able to sleep through but i would rather give him a small feed at that time than risk him waking at silly o'clock,

    I've done all the same things to drop the night feed. Try and settle for 15 or 20 mins before i feed them. With both my breast fed kids it took 2 or 3 nights of rocking trying dummy or cuddling to get them to go back to sleep and they dont wake up again

    Go for it MN!!!

    Gemm x
  • Well ladies so far so wimpy!!

    night number one of the new Lets Get Some Sleep Campaign was foiled by her being starving in the night and taking nearly a full feed.

    Last night was foiled by her deciding that bedtime was 5.30pm (just would not wake up again!) so she missed her bedtime bottle and took 3/4ozs at 10.30 and 2.30....

    and tonight was fully intending on following Gemm's suggestion of waking her more at 10.30 (it's funny I'd dismissed that idea as we tried to wake her at that time when she was really little for a feed and she just would NOT wake up but now she's a bit bigger I might give it another go) and she's just put paid to all that by waking up starving at 9.30! Cannot imagine she'll make it through to the morning now. Bugger - will have to try again tomorrow!

    xxxxx
  • morning hun!

    Am sure she's been sneaking on the computer when I'm not looking and has decided that mummy is getting too big for her boots and needs to be shown who's boss.....!:lol:

    Tried to wake her at 11pm but after her 9.30pm guzzleathon she wasn't interested! Then ended up waking at 1am and 4.30am.... back to square 1!

    Think I'll just perservere and keep trying to wake her a little more for her dream feed - will keep you posted!!!!!

    xxxxx
  • she might n eed more due to the heat too
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