Night feeds

Another request for help from me

My darling 8 MONTH old still wakes in the night and I feed him. Bad habit we have both gotten in to I know.

I obviously want it to stop. I know that he is a healthy weight and old enough not too need feeding during the night.

He has a normal bed time of around 6.30 then wakes up anywhere between 9.30 - 10.30. No chance of a "dream feed" as he's already awake!

My thinking was to stretch out the times between feeds. eg if he woke at 1.00am try to stretch it to 2.00am before I feed him.

Thursday night I was with him for an hour while he screamed the house down cause I wouldn't feed him last night I got to 40 minutes before I gave in.

What do I do in between if he is screaming like Thursday??? Do I just rock/pat/stay with him? I don't do CIO or CC.

I haven't had longer than 4 hours sleep in a row for about 3 months now and it's definitely taking it's toll

Maybe try a smaller time. Like try 15-20mins first before doing a whole hour?

Otherwise what we did was cluster feed him in the evening. Went down at 6;30pm, fed again at 8:30pm then again before DH went to bed around 10:30. He was so full that he didn't bother waking up in the middle of the night. Then we reduced the amount he fed until he no longer needed it.

Or you could try just weaning him, if he wakes, time how long he feeds for and reduce that time each time. Example: if he feeds for 10 mins, the next night only let him feed for 8mins, the following night 6mins until you get down to nothing.

Hi Sparkle we have the same problem with Ella and I have tried several different methods to get her to drop the middle of the night feeds. Have tried patting/shhhhing her to sleep- 1 1/2 hrs later she finally went to sleep. I tried doing that for several times, but it didn't really make much of an impact. Have also tried leaving her to cry (while I am in the room), but that didn't work for her either.

What we are slowing having success with is sending DH to see her in the middle of the night with a bottle. We have split the night into 2 shifts- he sees her up until 1.30 and then I go to her after that. This has worked well for us, we have got her to down from 4 feeds down to 2 and sometimes 1 feed. At least way she isn't as tired during the day (when I tried patting her to sleep, she was so tired during the day because of missing out on sleep).

I have heard (but never tried it as Jack didn't wake at the same time every night) of waking baby 15mins earlier than they would normally wake themselves and feed them, then after a few nights/week wake them another 15mins earlier etc etc until you get close to their bed time. Apparently this works. I suppose you wouldn't necessarily need to wake him, you could dreamfeed him.
Good luck as unfortunately I still know how it is with not much sleep!

Good progress last night.

Coop went down at about 8.00 (we'd been out for tea) He woke at 11.10 and I went in and had a cuddle etc for 10mins then put him back down. He lasted till 1.00am. I fed him then and he went back down till 5.00am. After trying cuddles at 5.00 I noticed that he was wet thru . Not enjoying his sleeping on his side and tummy!

Anyway, litle by little. I've stretched it from 3 hours to roughly 4 so fingers crossed it continues!

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.