My almost 6 month old still wakes up twice a night to feed. I am essentially a zombie after six months of no sleep and would like to encourage him to drop down to one night feeding. He's a big healthy boy (18 lbs) and I feel he's waking to eat out of habit. He only goes 2.5 - 3.5, sometimes 4 hrs between feedings at night.
Advice? I'm feeling desperate.
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We used ferbers method to get down to 1 night feed.
I picked a time 2 am, and didn't feed him before that--I just did checks at 3, 5, 7 etc minutes.How long do you wait before going to feed him?
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@hilsy85: lately I don't really wait. I'm in a bad cycle of sleep deprivation and I'm in my 23rd consecutive day of work with no break. So I have been in a survival mode fog for a while.
I want to go at least four hours before his first feeding and that seems perfectly reasonable at his age and weight. He has gone 5,6,7 hours in the past. -
@cmomma17: gotcha, then u might want to try giving him like 15 min before going in, he might settle himself!
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@hilsy85: he's also right beside me in bed, lol. Another survival mode tactic.
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@hilsy85: I don't think Ferber would approve of my choices!
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@cmomma17: ha understandable! He actually does discuss how to sleep train while co sleeping in his book-- I really recommend it! Lots of good info.
Personally I think I would have to move LO into his own room/space if I wanted to attempt cutting back on wake ups--if he saw me, he would want me all night long.
Or you can try the no cry sleep solution, I've heard it works but takes a longer time.
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@hilsy85: I think LO will be four or five years old before I find the time or energy to read a book about sleep
I just have a mommy hunch that I'm reacting to his cries by feeding him, when I could probably just soothe him back to sleep in other ways.
I have to turn a lamp on when I nurse, so the two times a night is driving my hubby insane too. -
@hilsy85: I went with the "pick a time advice" and chose midnight which was 4 hrs and 15 minutes since his bedtime feeding. He woke up about 10 minutes prior and I bounced him to pass the time. We made it to exactly 12:00 as he was starting to throw a fit.
Nursing him now, going to encourage a second stretch of sleep by not feeding again until 4 am. Thanks for your help!
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@cmomma17: Hope you get some sleep!
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@cmomma17: How'd it go? Will your LO take a pacifier? That's how we were able to get Xander to drop a MOTN feeding - he really just wanted to comfort suck, so as soon as he'd make a peep, I'd pop the pacifier in his mouth before he could become fully awake. And then he eventually stopped waking up at that time!
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@T.H.O.U.: thanks!
@Adira: he does take a pacifier, so I have been shoving it in there every time he wakes
If he wants to eat though, there's no convincing him to just take the paciI managed to get him to go 4 hours 12 minutes the first stretch and 4.5 hours the second stretch. I was still awake a lot because I did some bouncing, shh'ing, paci'ing, etc. But it's progress I guess. Maybe after a week or so solid of 4 hours I'll try to move him closer to 5 hours? I'm not sure what the best next step is. We are going to start solids on October 18th.
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@cmomma17: I hear that! If Xander was actually hungry, a pacifier would not work!
I've also heard it's pretty common for breastfed babies to wake up more often and need to eat more in the MOTN - they supposedly process breast milk faster than FF babies so they get hungry more often. We just got lucky with Xander, so I really have no advice on how to get your LO to sleep longer!
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@Adira: I just feel stupid because when C was maybe 2 months old the pediatrician gave us advice of "the first time he sleeps 5/6/7 hours straight, from then on never feed him until it has been 5/6/7/ hours" Well C did sleep long stretches so many times and I was always too tired to remember to do that!! So now he sleeps 2.5, 3, 4.
I'm just tired and overworked -
@cmomma17: That's interesting advice! And I'm not sure if you can really trust that. Maybe he slept longer because of a growth spurt or being sick or maybe he happened to get more milk during the day so didn't need to wake up as much. But assuming that every thing is equal, if he CAN sleep those longer stretches, it does seem wise to try to encourage it! I just don't really know how.
I'm just tired and overworked Reply
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