Hi Mary, he is in a good routine so he should be starting to go a bit longer through the night. Do what you did the night before last and keep watering the bottle down and reducing it by 1oz every night. If he is looking for a prop then that will tell you. If he wakes at 5:30, keep him in his bed until 6am or he will become an early waker. Keep us posted with how its going.

reply by Mentor-Wendy - 5 weeks ago

Hi Wendy,
Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. The night before last Ethan woke at 3am, that was a first. I fed him 5oz of watered down milk and he settled back down waking again at 5:50am...I managed to fob him off with water until 6:30 when I fed him milk.

Yesterday was an odd day where he ate smaller feeds every 2hrs. He settled in the evening, took his 8oz dream feed then woke at 2:15. I fed him 4oz of watered down milk and he settled. 45 mins later he was wrestling so i picked him up and winded him again, he took a few minutes to settle, but did.

This morning he woke at 5:05, i fed him 2oz milk and he passed out. He woke at 6:45am and took 6oz. he's had a bit of a sleep and just guzzled 7oz.

I'm heartened by the fact he's not taking much feed at night. I'll try 3oz tonight. If i had to give a probability of 3oz being enough I'd say 50% chance. We shall see.

Mary

reply by sleepy3775 - 5 weeks ago

Hi Mary, that is all looking good. Keep us posted with how its going.

reply by Mentor-Wendy - 5 weeks ago

Disaster struck. At 2:30 I went to feed Ethan armed with 3oz of half strength milk. He took 2oz and was very sleepy, fantastic. Unfortunately he wouldn't settle so I tried to wind him again and when he was still agitated I gave him the other ounce. He settled at first, but after a while reached a crecendo so I pickied him up, tried to wind him, tried to settle him, but he wasn't having any of it and the more I tried, the stiffer his body became. I tried feeding him again but he didn't seem to want it. I tried and tried and eventually callled in my other half who fed him another 4oz of watered down milk, winded him and put him down. Unfortunately he still didn't settle so I got up and tried winding and feeding (didn't want it) and eventually he settled. It all seems a blur, but it was about 4:45 by now. He slept for about an hour...my other half took him down stairs.

I'm hoping this was a one off. He's slept a lot today...I wish I had! It will be interesting to see what happens tonight.

I'll be back tomorrow. Mary

reply by sleepy3775 - 5 weeks ago

Last night wasn't so bad as Friday night, but wasn't as easy as what I would consider to be normal. Ethan only took 6oz at 10:30 then woke at 1:40am, my other half fed him. He took 6oz of watered down feed then took forever to settle...he winded him 3 or 4 times before he slept, this took until after 3am. He woke again at 5:30 for his morning feed. He took 3oz of milk, settled again and we finished off the morning feed at 7:15.

Today was strange...he didn't want to sleep. we walked him in the pram in the morning and he stayed awake for the 30 mins of that from 9:00-9:30. He slept for 45 mins from about 12, he was chewing his arm so we gave him half the next feed but he screamed every time we put him down using PUPDCD and at 2:00pm other half let him fall asleep on his chest. He slept for about 40 mins. He then stayed awake until we put him down this evening.

I find all this difficult since my older boy fed better, winded easier and followed more closely to a routine. I know I shouldn't compare, but you can't help but.

I'm thinking that Ethan isn't ready to drop the early morning feed even though his weight and daytime consumption would lead you to believe it possible. His 1:30am waking is disheartening. I live in hope.

Mary

reply by sleepy3775 - 5 weeks ago

Good morning...latest update...last night Ethan took 6oz at 10:30, woke again at 3am (happy about that) and took 6oz watered down 2 scoops, but then woke at 5am. I PUPDCD until 5:35 when he was so loud I thought he'd wake my other boy Sam..so I fed him and he took 3oz before he settled back to sleep again. We woke him at 7:15 for next feed.

I've read other replies you have made to others and you say not to feed before 6am if it's within 4 hours of last feed. I'm not sure how to manage that without letting him scream. I can do that if needs be, but is he hungry?

reply by sleepy3775 - 5 weeks ago

We had a good "daytime" yesterday and another 2:15am and 5am at night. All in all no change.

reply by sleepy3775 - 5 weeks ago

Sorry you've waited a few days for a reply - we respond to threads in the order of those threads who've waited longest since their last post & because you've updated each day you've dropped down the queue each time.

It can take several days for a change in night feeding routine to have an effect so hang on in there & you should start to see some improvements soon. As a general rule, you shouldn't feed at night any more frequently than you do in the day (ideally a longer gap) so if he's managing 3-4 hourly daytime feeds aim for at least the same at night even with diluted milk. If he wakes before a feed is due, use PUPD until he goes back off or it gets as close as you can manage to feed time.

He's still very young so you don't need to be paranoid about feeding between 5 & 6am (which can cause an early waking habit in slightly older babies). If he wakes before say 5.30am & it's more than 4 hours since he last had any milk it's fine to feed him. If it's after 5.30am when he wakes, try to delay the feed a little with comforting in his cot, a nappy change, anything to get a bit closer to 6am then get up, take him downstairs & give his milk there. Although it means some hiddeously early starts it pays off in the long run because it helps to set his body clock for a 6am (or hopefully later!) start to the day.

I know what you mean about how tempting it is to compare babies but often they're entirely different. Mine are chalk & cheese!! Sometimes it's a good thing, but not always LOL!

Keep us posted.

reply by Mentor-Sarah - 4 weeks ago

Hi Sarah, thanks for your responses not only do they help me with a plan of action, they do a lot for my mental state too!!

I've left it a week to see if a pattern occurs...this is the state of play...Ethan is put to bed at 6:15-6:30 and we have to wake him for a dream feed at 10:45pm. He now wakes at 2:45 and I feed him at 3:15 when he starts to cry. My strategy has been to only give him enough milk (watered down half strength) to get him back to sleep. This is usually 3oz. He then sleeps...not for long..in the last week we've had two 5am , one 5:30, two 6am and one 6:20. For the earlier than 6 wake ups we try PUPDCD but Ethan cries chucks his head about quite violently and there's no consoling him...yet 2oz of milk and he passes out. Just in case it's relevant too, his lunchtime nap has gone to pot and he wakes early wanting food, I've fed him (6oz each feed) because I keep thinking week 9 is a growth spurt week. Daily routine gets shot too bits with his early waking too... I try and pull it back in line with a 7-7:30 top up, but doing this every day feels like it's promoting more regular 2hrly feeds.

Are we putting him to bed too early? Dream feeding too late? What should I tackle first...5 o'clock wakings, cut down on 3am feed, lunchtime nap? I'm feeling a bit lost.

Mary

reply by sleepy3775 - 3 weeks ago

Consider dropping the dream feed and see how long he goes without it. A dream feed is supposed to be given asleep and by waking him, you could be disturbing his sleep pattern. Try tonight and lets see what happens.

reply by Mentor-Wendy - 3 weeks ago

Having spoken to my other half, who does the dream feed, Ethan is asleep for this feed..at least his eyes are closed. I was reluctant to totally give up doing the dream feed since this is the only feed I can get the other half to do during the week. As it happened, on Saturday night Ethan woke up at 10:22 wanting to be fed, so I can only assume it wouldn't take much longer for him to wake if I left him.

Ethan was weighed on Thurs. He is now a hefty 13lb 11oz. The HV suggested we drop all milk feeds between the dream feed and 6am, so I'm trying that in the hope he doesn't bother to wake for water. He wakes twice in this time period which isn't the best...but I'm hoping for a change in behaviour after 7 days.

Fingers Crossed

reply by sleepy3775 - 3 weeks ago

Let us know what happens.

reply by Mentor-Wendy - 3 weeks ago

Hi Wendy

After 2 weeks on water he still wakes around 2 then 3 but settles himself, at 4 his unsettled state is more lively until he cries at around 4:30 - 5am when I feed him 4oz water. He then wakes between 6am and 6:30 when we feed him milk.

With him waking so regularly in the night I'm not sure if he will automatically push from 4:30 to 6am...it almost feels like he could revert back. Do I need to do anything different to ensure we reach 6am soon?

reply by sleepy3775 - 13 days ago

Hi, are you still giving the DF?

reply by DT-emily - 12 days ago

yes, still giving the DF at 1045pm. We were planning on waiting until morning wake and feed hit 6:30 or after and then pull the DF to an earlier time 5 mins at a time.

Any thoughts?

reply by sleepy3775 - 10 days ago