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1st_Time_Preggies 
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 Topic: 8 1/2 months - some questions!
Posted: 23 October 2010 at 10:19am |
So I keep hoping and praying the DS will night wean of his own accord, but that doesn't seem to be happening :-( He still wakes once or twice for a feed. I wouldn't mind if I felt he "needed" it but now he has started solids I wonder if he does? Also he used to go straight back to sleep after feeding in the night (very sleepy) but has now started crying as soon as I put him back in his cot. I hate it! So I guess I wondered what all your wise mums thought:
1. Did your baby self night wean and at what age?
2. If you "helped" your baby stop feeding at night, what were your techniques? I cannot STAND hearing him cry (it kills me inside!) and every option including verbal reassurance etc still makes him cry as he is not getting what he wants.
3. How do I know if he "needs" the night feeds or not?? He hardly eats breakfast, but has lunch and a reasonable dinner, and has boob at 7am, 11am, 3pm, snack at 5pm and about 150ml ebm at 6.30pm.
4. We are doing a mix of BLW and feeding him (depending on his mood) - how do I know when to give him solids before milk as such?
5. What sort of routine is your bubs on at this age in terms of solids and milk??
Sorry for the long post! Looking forward to hearing your replies 
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nicandtyler
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Posted: 23 October 2010 at 10:42am |
I'm probably not that much help - T is still having 1 sometimes 2 boobs over night and he is 11.5 months lol, so cant help with what to do with helping him to night wean. The way I see if whether he actually needs it or not is sometimes he will suck but he's pretty much asleep so its really a comfort thing, but then sometimes he is properly feeding for a good 5-10 mins, so it changes for us, and T has a decent brekkie, lunch and dinner with snacks so he probably doesnt really need it, but he still has it lol. so our routine generally is boob in bed before we get up, then before his nap then another one in the arvo and before be(2 before bed) and 1-2 overnight, and solids at 8am snack at 11, lunch at 12, snack early arvo then dinner at 4.30-5.
Not sure if that actually helps or not sorry! 
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Kalimirella
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Location: Waipukurau
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Posted: 23 October 2010 at 1:02pm |
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Q 1,2&3
Mine was a bit younger when I weaned her off night feeds. I just started with cutting the feeds short AKA taking her off early, when she didn't complain I just decided that was it, she was obviously not that hungry if a 2 min feed was doing the job. From then on I just cut them shorter every night by roughly half until 30 sec feeds (hardly worthwhile) and then it was just cuddles and back in cot. I must admit there was some grizzling during this but no out and out screaming crying (which I can't stand listening to either!)
However cause I did this a bit earlier I avoided the separation anxiety, whereas for you that may be part of the problem. Is he good for naptimes during the day when you leave? Maybe playing lots of games of peekaboo or leaving the room while talking etc may help.
Q4&5
As for solids my baby is a bit younger , however I dissaciate milk feeds with solids. So sometimes she has before or after but one doesn't impinge on the other if you get what I mean. Like she often doesn't have breakfast just 2 milk feeds but if she does its cause she sees me having breakfast and wants some, thats often between milk feeds.
For dinner sometimes she wakes up for her nap just in time to eat tea with us so she gets that first and milk after.
Routine is 7am up, milk, maybe solids after then more milk. nap 8-10am, up, milk. down 11:30-1:30pm up milk, maybe solids, nap 3pm-5pm, up milk, tea at 6pm more milk and bed at 7pm.
But she is younger and I'm happy feeding more often seeing as she sleeps 7pm-7am.
I hope that helps, though I'm not sure just rambling in the hope of being helpful.
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Kiara is 3 and Teagan is 2, now we're expecting our long awaited 3rd! 
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Rainbow
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Posted: 23 October 2010 at 1:56pm |
On first reading I would think that if he isn't hungry for solids first thing then perhaps he doesn't need his night feed - it's like us having a big roast dinner in the middle of the night - we wouldn't really fancy breakfast.
I used the dreamfeed at around 10.30pm and used verbal reassurance type intervention when he woke - so if he woke at 4am one night then I knew that he could make it to at least that time so I set that as my marker - the next time he woke at 4am I would wait a bit before going in and I gradually stretched him out that way. Once he was sleeping fairly conistently to 6 -7am, I dropped the dream feed and he didn't miss it. This was around 5-6months.
As far as milk before solids or vice versa I think the recommendation is 8-9 months before you swap the order round gradually - maybe one feed at a time might work perhaps, as solids begin to take more importance around the 12 month mark - right now solids are still for experimenting and tasting rather than the complete nutrition.
From memory (which is really poor at the moment!!) I think our routine around this age (or a wee bit older) was roughly:
7am - wake and solids once we were up and ready
9am milk feed
10am snack (e.g. raisins, fruit)
10.30 nap
12.30 lunch
2.00 milk feed
2.30 nap
3.30ish snack
5.00 dinner
6.30-7 bath/milk feed/bed
Hope some of that helps. It isn't nice to hear them cry - my DS is sick at the moment and waking in the night but after I have looked after all his needs sometimes I have to let him cry for a bit to resettle.
Keep up the good work!
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HuntersMama
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Posted: 23 October 2010 at 7:48pm |
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My DS is about the same age as yours. We have good and bad weeks, and touch wood this is a good one! This time last week - not so good.
1. Did your baby self night wean and at what age?
DS stopped waking for a night feed at around 9 weeks, although he did wake once a night when he was going through growth spurts. This happens every few weeks.
2. If you "helped" your baby stop feeding at night, what were your techniques?
I used to get DS up every time he even sounded like he was crying! I started leaving him for a few minutes, and sometimes I would get another 2-4 hours sleep out of him. Thats how we dropped down to one night feed, then a few weeks after that he started sleeping through.
3. How do I know if he "needs" the night feeds or not?? He hardly eats breakfast, but has lunch and a reasonable dinner, and has boob at 7am, 11am, 3pm, snack at 5pm and about 150ml ebm at 6.30pm.
Hmm - not really sure on this one. DS is 8 /2 months too, and he has formula at 6.30, 10.30, 3.00, 6,00 and a little top up before bed. He has 3 smallish meals a day, mainly purees but some finger food too. A few weeks ago he was waking at night again and I would feed him (I was still BF) and he would go straight to sleep again. Not sure if he was actually hungry or if it was a comfort thing?
4. We are doing a mix of BLW and feeding him (depending on his mood) - how do I know when to give him solids before milk as such?
I have just started offering solids before milk, in the last 2 weeks. We arent in the best routine yet, as we have also just changed from BF to formula so its still a bit of trial and error for us.
5. What sort of routine is your bubs on at this age in terms of solids and milk??
General routine for us is: Wake and bottle around 6.30 - 7am. Cereal at daycare around 8ish. Formula every 3-4 hours, usually around 5 feeds a day. Lunch at daycare (whever he is awake from 12 onwards) and dinner after bottle at 5.30 - 6pm. Another small bottle after bath then bed within 20 mins.
DS has never been the best day sleeper, but sometimes will sleep for 3 hours so can go up to 5 hours with no solids or bottle, but other days he is hungry again after 3 hours.
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crafty1
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Posted: 23 October 2010 at 8:25pm |
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1. Did your baby self night wean and at what age?
Can't really remember exactly about 5 months i think - but not without a bit of encouragement!
2. If you "helped" your baby stop feeding at night, what were your techniques?
A few things helped. Letting him grizzle and then cry - listen to the cry to see if hunger or tiredness. Only fed for hunger cry not for tired cry. If he was doing his tired thing hubby would go resettle him. Worked about 90% of the time, but at times we have def let him cry as a last resort despite it being hard to do - works tho! I can't stand broken sleep going on and on and so being able to sleep through the night became a priority for me.
You can try to resettle and offer them your love and comfort without feeding or letting them cry.
3. How do I know if he "needs" the night feeds or not?? I personally don't think most 8 1/2 month olds who are gaining weight and eating well during day 'need' the night feeds. More likely to be comfort feeds, they'll make those calories up during the day. Night feeds definitely can affect the solids intake in my experience.
4. We are doing a mix of BLW and feeding him (depending on his mood) - how do I know when to give him solids before milk as such?
They say to change it around this age cos they get different minerals and vitamins from the solids - which makes sense to me. I always kept the first feed of the day a bf cos then i can go for a run straight away.
5. What sort of routine is your bubs on at this age in terms of solids and milk??
We don't have a strict routine but something like this...
7am wake, breast feed
8am breakfast
10 nap (top up bf first)
11.30 wake and lunch
1 ish breast feed
2pm nap
3pm wake and breast feed.
5pm dinner, bath etc
6.30pm breastfeed then bed at 7pm.
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HippyMama
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Posted: 23 October 2010 at 9:11pm |
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DD2 at nearly 15 months now still has the occasional middle of the night feed, it has only been in the last month or so that she has started going a 10 hour stretch and is more often than not happy to be resettled with just a cuddle / bit of rocking.
So in answer to your first question, I don't know if I'd say we've night weaned just yet as it still happens sometimes - I'm actually quite glad it's something I still have in my parenting 'toolbox' as she has also been a late teether, and that extra measure of comfort often 'does the trick' even when all the drugs and homeopathics in the world aren't helping.
At 8.5months though I definitely still would have seen my DD2 as 'needing' her night feeds, even though she too was reasonably established on solids by then - there is so much more to breast milk and night feeding than calories. It is still also totally normal for a baby of that age to wake at least once in the night regardless of whether they are thirsty / hungry or not.
As for solids before milk, go with whatever is easiest for you - 8/9 months is only a guideline, not a deadline.
DD2 still has a breastfeed in bed with us before breakfast, but won't have the next until after lunch (for naptime), one for arvo tea or sometimes not if she is too busy playing, and then one after dinner before bed. We don't have a set routine as such, she sleeps when she is tired and eats when she is hungry (her signals for this are pretty clear), and most days just has one nap after lunch for a couple of hours. Dinner is around the 5:30-6pm mark and bedtime somewhere between 7:30-8pm.
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Mama to two earth walkers & two angels.
Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience; You are raising a human being. ~ Kittie Franz
Next Slingbabies! Meet - Friday 4th May !!
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MrsMojo
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Posted: 23 October 2010 at 9:23pm |
 Kalimirella wrote:
Q 1,2&3
Mine was a bit younger when I weaned her off night feeds. I just started with cutting the feeds short AKA taking her off early, when she didn't complain I just decided that was it, she was obviously not that hungry if a 2 min feed was doing the job. From then on I just cut them shorter every night by roughly half until 30 sec feeds (hardly worthwhile) and then it was just cuddles and back in cot. |
I followed this technique to stop the 3am feed first then when that was successful I cut out the 11pm dream feed the same way too. DS would have been about 7mo.
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Bizzy
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Posted: 24 October 2010 at 8:22am |
1st_Time_Preggies wrote:
3. How do I know if he "needs" the night feeds or not?? He hardly eats breakfast, but has lunch and a reasonable dinner, and has boob at 7am, 11am, 3pm, snack at 5pm and about 150ml ebm at 6.30pm.
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this says to me that he still needs a night feed if his last milk feed is 6.30.
Sometimes too the 'need' may not be for the milk but the comfort. so its really hard to figure out if you should stop feeding at night.
Edited by Bizzy
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tiptoes
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Posted: 24 October 2010 at 1:28pm |
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Cooper was having 1-2 night feeds with maybe 1-2 sleep throughs from about 4 1/2 months. Then around 6 months he started waking more, but not with hungry cries. Just needed resettling (I preferred the 1-2 feeds TBH) so I thought he'd self-weaned and then I think around the time his first lot of teeth came in, at 7 1/2 mths he started wanting them again. Not even at specific times, maybe for comfort but he was definitely wanting them. A couple of weeks ago I was about to start to water down the formula, till he was drinking mainly water and did it for a couple of nights but then another tooth started to pop through so I switched to normal as I felt a bit mean and then since that last one came through he's only wanted a bottle about once a week. So perhaps self-weaning again?
So that long story probably wasn't much help as I haven't actually done anything to encourage the self-weaning....
For the how do I know if he's hungry part if he's hungry and I try to resettle him he'll start to get upset. If he's not he'll go to sleep or just stare at me but as long as he's getting a cuddle or I've come in to say hi he's calm. Though more recently I've given bottles if he gets all wriggly and not settling for ages. Though the second I say to DH "can you make up a bottle?" he knows what's happening and starts to get upset till the bottle arrives. So I'm guessing he knows the word and really wants it.
With the switching side of things, just before 8 months he started not drinking much of his 1st bottle (maybe because he'd had one only a few hours before) and his bedtime bottle was always after dinner anyway, so when we got to 8 months I just switched them around and he was quite happy with that.
So our routine was something like:
6-6.30ish wake up
7ish Breakfast (didn't seem like he needed it before then)
8ish Bottle
9ish Nap
11.30ish lunch
12.30ish Bottle
1pm Nap
3.30ish Bottle and maybe a little tiny snack
5pm Dinner
6.30ish Bottle.
I don't remember when we dropped the afternoon tea bottle, but he stopped wanting it and would either only sip a tiny bit or push it away right at the start so I stopped offering and just gave a bit more afternoon tea (but still not all that much).
I've done dreamfeeds a couple of times but never really gave it a proper chance to see if it made the difference in getting him through the night. Could be worth trying that if you haven't already done so?
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8 1/2 months - some questions!
April '11
