Gearing up to Change Babies Night Time Feeding Routine

Can you pump? And you and your husband split a shift. Say he takes 7pm-1am and you take 1am-7am? Switch it around to be fair. or you each take all night, every other night.

I didn't do this because I felt guilty that my husband might lose sleep and have to go out and face the world, and I was mostly a SAHM.

In hindsight, I wish I had. I mean, Everybody deserves a decent sleep from time to time, you know?

Anyway, to answer your question. No, I never actually weaned any of my three kids. They did it themselves. I had one awesome sleeper, one terrible sleeper, and one inconsistent sleeper. It just seemed like right at the moment I was going to drop dead from lack of sleep, the baby started to sleep better.

I remember how hard it is. Probably this isn't much help, but I hope it ends for you soon.

Be good to yourself.

:)

Can you pump and have your husband feed 1/2 the time. DH took from our going to bed (after last regular feeding at 11 p-12 am until 3 am and I took from 3 until we got up. We did this from day one so even with q 3 hour feedings it was just one night time feeding each. And yes, we were still exhausted. But both able to function at work. And yes, he will sleep through the night when he is ready. Sorry :(

He shouldn't need to eat at night at all and certainly not more than once, which seems to be your thoughts as well. So I do agree that you need to eliminate the other wakings, if not all of them. To start, I would choose one time a night that you're willing to feed. For example, anytime he wakes up before 2:00 a.m., do not feed him. The first time he wakes up after 2:00, feed him. Then, don't feed him again until at least 6 or 7:00 a.m.

When he wakes up before 2:00, your husband needs to be the one to put him back to bed. Yes, I understand that if your husband works it can be hard for him to get up at night (not sure if that's true for you but it's an argument I hear often), but your baby won't expect to nurse if he's the one that goes in when he cries. So, anytime you don't intend to feed, make your husband get him. Do Not Cave In to feeding him when you weren't planning to.

Also, don't ever have him sleep in your bed anymore. Because you do it sometimes, he knows that enough crying will get him there. If you cut that off completely, he'll figure it out within a week or two that no amount of crying will get him back in your bed - he sleeps alone in his crib and that's that.

Along with that, don't nurse him in your bed. Choose another spot - a glider/rocker, the couch, etc where it isn't as cozy for him. I know it'll be harder on you to have to get up, but it will teach him that your bed isn't for nursing and that he doesn't get to nurse while sleeping.

Finally, if he doesn't have a lovey of some kind (blanket, teddy bear, etc), get him one now. Having something nice to snuggle with in bed may help soothe him as well. Both of my kids had their little blankets by this age (small ones, not big enough to smother).

I feel your pain. good luck!!

Will he take a pacifier? If so, maybe try putting him in bed with your husband and a paci, and then you go sleep in another room or on the couch for a few nights. Then you are weaning him from sleeping/nursing all night before you are weaning him from having a warm body next to him.

In the meantime, can you get him to go to sleep the 1st time without nursing to sleep? If not, that is another place you might concentrate your effort. Start out with him nursing until he is 99% asleep, then transfer to the crib. If that's going well, then start cutting off the nursing when he is really really drowsy (long blinks but still eyes open) and put him into his crib (it will take a few tries the 1st few nights until he gets tired enough to go to the crib without waking completely up again). But once that is going ok, put him stop the nursing and put him in the crib when he is sleepy, but not long-blinks drowsy. So over time, you are putting him in bed more and more awake, and he is learning, slowly, to self-soothe and put himself to sleep without warm boobie in his mouth. It can take a while, but you can slowly get there.

(on a tangent, he's not a reflux baby is he? If so, all bets are off, because reflux can get worse at this age before it gets better. If this is the case, then the constant nursing a pain management solution for him, and not just convenience. And that's a whole different ball of wax.)

Have you tried teaching him to sleep without nursing? If I was you, I'd try this during nap time during the day. Get him settling himself, and then maybe pick up/put down for the first waking? And then for the second?

have hubby do it.