Critique my "night weaning"

[formerlyllizzyb]

Technically, Graham is night-weaned in that he's going 9-10 hours without food. But I would really like to be firm about last feeding at 7 pm and morning one not before 6 am. Currently he's waking at 4 am for a feeding.

Last time we "night weaned" we just cut out all feedings btwn 7-4. We knew he could do it bc he had done so before the 4 mo wakeful, so DH just did Ferber check ins if he woke and cried before 4.

G is ebf. I'm thinking DH will go in with a bottle and do 4 oz one night, 3 oz the next, and then 2 oz. Then on the 4th night we will just soothe if he wakes, but no feeding.

Thoughts? Experience? Or do I just need to wait for him to drop this on his own? He's been waking earlier and earlier wanting to have this nursing, so I think it's becoming more of a habit thing than hunger thing.

I just dread having this backfire and go through a week of crying for nothing.

[Deleted]

The way we did it was to push the feeding back. So, if he woke at 4, he would have to wait until 415 to eat, and every night push it back 15 more minutes. It was rough at first, but since he is conditioned to be hungry at 4, you need to uncondition that. Now, he goes 8pm to 6am with no issue.

[laurack]

Mine also is "night weaned" but wakes at 4 ish for a feeding. I've started letting her cry but just for a few minutes. I'm not opposed to CIO but I don't want to listen to it for an hour when I could just feed her in 5 minutes.

The last couple of nights she's woken at 4ish and cried for only a couple of minutes. I could tell from the crying that she was still sleepy/probably not standing up. She fell back to sleep and woke at 530 when I fed her. Still a LITTLE early but at that point we're close enough to the alarm going off that I'd rather just doze with her.

However if mine cried a lot at 4am I'd probably just feed her. We've come so far here from how bad she used to be that I'm delighted on the nights when I don't hear anything from her until 4am. I'm hoping she just sort of drops it on her own, but if not I will revisit stricter methods when she's one perhaps.

[formerlyllizzyb]

Feb 27, 2013 11:59:15 GMT -5 laurack said:

Mine also is "night weaned" but wakes at 4 ish for a feeding. I've started letting her cry but just for a few minutes. I'm not opposed to CIO but I don't want to listen to it for an hour when I could just feed her in 5 minutes.

The last couple of nights she's woken at 4ish and cried for only a couple of minutes. I could tell from the crying that she was still sleepy/probably not standing up. She fell back to sleep and woke at 530 when I fed her. Still a LITTLE early but at that point we're close enough to the alarm going off that I'd rather just doze with her.

However if mine cried a lot at 4am I'd probably just feed her. We've come so far here from how bad she used to be that I'm delighted on the nights when I don't hear anything from her until 4am. I'm hoping she just sort of drops it on her own, but if not I will revisit stricter methods when she's one perhaps.

Yeah, I don't necessarily rush in there. But I'm exactly like you: I don't want to listen to it for an hour when I could just feed him in five minutes. DH works long hours in surgery, so he especially doesn't want to listen to it for hours.

I agree, 5:30 IS early, but if there haven't been any night wakings beforehand it's totally doable in my book. I am not okay with 5:30 if there are night wakings, lol.

I'm not opposed to CIO/strict methods at all, but I don't want to do them unnecessarily and I want them to work. Kiddo is genuinely hungry, I am too if I wake up at 4 am, but my body knows to go back to sleep until breakfast, ya know? I just don't know at what point to expect that of him.

[formerlyllizzyb]

Feb 27, 2013 12:25:55 GMT -5 jamaicam said:

formerlyllizzyb we did what you are proposing - I was still BFing and we swapped to a bottle for nights and DH went in and did the feed. We cut by a little each night until we reached nothing and then DH just did check-ins.

Glad to hear it worked for you. DH isn't thrilled with the idea, but he's also not thrilled with the status quo. I think he expects me to be able to work some mommy BFing magic, lol.

He's all "we have to break him of this" and then I get silence when I suggest the plan. He doesn't have alternative suggestions