How Do I Drop the Night Time Feedings

My daughter is 5 mos. My pediatrician advised (with my 4 year old too) that you cannot spoil a baby under 4 mos. Until that time you can feed them as often as they need, hold them, rock them to sleep, etc. Around 4 mos they usually don't need to eat at night and should be placed to sleep drowsy so they learn to fall asleep. If she isn't really eating, she may just need to be rocked back to sleep. She is still too young to "force" to sleep.

Good luck.

Babies (unlike adults) expend a lot of energy through the night. Growing takes a lot of energy and babies do most of their growing while sleeping.

This is roughly the equivalent of you going for a long walk instead of sleeping, and then expecting to not need any food to compensate for your energy usage.

Small babies need to eat through the night.

T., did you consult with your ped first? It seems like ages ago (my son is 21 months) but I still woke up for a feed at that time. I had to go back to work at 3 months as well and I recall getting up for a late night/early morning feed. Each baby is different, some sleep through the night at this age and some do not.

If you must, try cluster feeding (check out baby whisperer book) before bed time. To be honest it never worked for me, but I have heard success stories.

You may have to continue 1 night feed for a month. I am going to be honest, you will be tired. Once you go back to work, you will take all the snuggle time you can get so those late night feeds do not seem so bad.

I wish you luck with going back to work.

Developmentaly she may not be ready to give up those night time feedings. Even if she does start sleepling through the night she may start needing them as she goes through growth sputrs and developmental changes. That said have you tried to just comfort her and put her back to bed without feeding her? I also recomend the book "No Cry Sleep Solutions".
Good Luck
K.

I highly recommend the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth, M.D. Most of the women in my family have read it and found it very helpful. The book focuses on solving and preventing children's sleep problems, from infancy through adolescence.

Your daughter's sleep pattern sounds very normal to me (yet very tiring for you). My daughter is almost 5 months old, and I believe at 3 months she got up at least 2-3 times per night and ate. A few weeks later, it went down to once per night (and snacked) and just a week ago she starting sleeping through the night.

I hope you find the book helpful should you decide to get it.

Both of my kids were taking a bottle every 3 hrs at that age too. My husband and I would take turns for the night feedings--every other feeding. It was tough to get up for work, but the time with the baby was nice.

As she gets older she will naturally drop a feeding on her own.

Give her more food. When my son was 2 months we started increasing the amount in his evening bottle (about 8 pm) and he started sleeping 8 hours a night. You can increase from there. Sometimes babies can put themselves back to sleep or even try her using a pacifier when she first wakes up.

Hi T., At 2 months I was mixing rice cereal and formula and fed it to my daughter in a feeder bottle right before she went to bed... she would sleep for 10-11 hrs. Try this.. fill up her little tummy and maybe she won't wake during the night anymore.
Hope this works.. Good Luck!!