NIGHT WEANING
I have about 5 minutes before Cash wakes up for the day (sleeping this late is VERY unusual mind you) so I have to type reallllllllll fast.
Cash started sleeping through the night around like 6 weeks old. We were shocked, naive, and all like ''well that's not as bad as people say?!?!" Literally he would sleep from like 8 PM to 8 AM. Heaven, right? Yeah, until he was around 4-5 months old. Then that stopped. Out of nowhere. Isn't that backwards? I'm pretty sure I would rather have a newborn up all night and then transition to sleeping through the night because ever since that one night he woke up during the night he never stopped...here we are 5 months later and it's gotten even worse. We have 6 weeks until baby girl comes and I'm determined to figure something out. We have seriously tried almost e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. I have ordered every book off Amazon, I have met with doctors, we have tried CIO, Ferber, bla bla bla. You name it, we've tried it. One thing we haven't done yet though is ''night weaning.''
Before I get to that....Cash also has other things going on-- he does NOT like solid foods any more (minus bananas and sometimes guacamole) and he will NOT drink his bottle very well during the day. For his age and weight he's supposed to get around 24-32 ounces during the day. (Sidenote: He is on formula. I won't go into why or how or any of that. It is what it is, carry on). Anyways, I am lucky if I get 15 ounces in him. Which means guess what- he is HUNGRY at night!! He wants to eat. Most of the time anyways. That's why CIO didn't work for us. A hungry baby is a hungry baby. Especially when he's drinking half of what he needs. I am stressed beyond belief chasing him around with a bottle every day and worrying he isn't getting enough nutrition. Yes he is gaining weight and growing so the doctors aren't worried, which also means they have no advice. We meet with feeding therapists, stomach doctors, and his pedi- so far nothing has helped.
At 4/5 months he started waking up once around 4-5 AM. We'd feed him and he would sleep until 8 or 9 AM. This was NOT bad for me, I actually enjoyed getting to sleep in that late. But if they wake up at 4 AM and it's dark, how are their bodies supposed to know 1 AM, 2 AM, 3 AM is any different? And that's exactly what started happening. I think he got so used to waking up for a bottle no matter if he was hungry or not that it became habit. Well now that he won't drink enough during the day that habit has turned into 2 or 3 times at night. For a bottle, for routine, for comfort- I have no idea!!! I know that most of the time he is hungry and that tells me he's doing all his ''drinking'' during the night therefore refuses to drink a lot during the day. Have I confused you yet?
My last resort is night weaning. Where you take a little bit of formula away from the bottle at night over around 2 weeks until it is just water. If they are drinking straight up water out of the bottle and fall back asleep easy then you KNOW they are not hungry during the night (I guess water doesn't fill them up) and you can move on to other things to get them back to sleep (CIO, Ferber, soothing, etc). It's like we have to do everything backwards...again. And apparently this means since they are just drinking mostly water during the night, they will make up for it during the day...aka drink all their formula...aka PLEASE WORK. Here is the link for the plan we are following: http://www.isabelagranic.com/bed-timing/2009/06/when-the-snack-bar-is-closing-some-strategies-for-nightweaning.html
My whole point in writing this is a) to get all this off my chest b) to let you know if this doesn't work and a newborn joins our house i will literally have a mental breakdown c) to chronicle it so i can see progress/get encouragement
Last night was our first night of night weaning.
NIGHT ONE
Bedtime: 7 PM
Woke: 1:30 AM (ate 4 ounces)
Woke: 5 AM (ate 1 ounce)
Awake for the day: 7 AM
**this night was very unusual since he only drank 5 ounces during the night. Usually it's more like 10-11, but we'll see what tonight brings.
He's up, I must depart. xoxo
Cash started sleeping through the night around like 6 weeks old. We were shocked, naive, and all like ''well that's not as bad as people say?!?!" Literally he would sleep from like 8 PM to 8 AM. Heaven, right? Yeah, until he was around 4-5 months old. Then that stopped. Out of nowhere. Isn't that backwards? I'm pretty sure I would rather have a newborn up all night and then transition to sleeping through the night because ever since that one night he woke up during the night he never stopped...here we are 5 months later and it's gotten even worse. We have 6 weeks until baby girl comes and I'm determined to figure something out. We have seriously tried almost e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. I have ordered every book off Amazon, I have met with doctors, we have tried CIO, Ferber, bla bla bla. You name it, we've tried it. One thing we haven't done yet though is ''night weaning.''
Before I get to that....Cash also has other things going on-- he does NOT like solid foods any more (minus bananas and sometimes guacamole) and he will NOT drink his bottle very well during the day. For his age and weight he's supposed to get around 24-32 ounces during the day. (Sidenote: He is on formula. I won't go into why or how or any of that. It is what it is, carry on). Anyways, I am lucky if I get 15 ounces in him. Which means guess what- he is HUNGRY at night!! He wants to eat. Most of the time anyways. That's why CIO didn't work for us. A hungry baby is a hungry baby. Especially when he's drinking half of what he needs. I am stressed beyond belief chasing him around with a bottle every day and worrying he isn't getting enough nutrition. Yes he is gaining weight and growing so the doctors aren't worried, which also means they have no advice. We meet with feeding therapists, stomach doctors, and his pedi- so far nothing has helped.
At 4/5 months he started waking up once around 4-5 AM. We'd feed him and he would sleep until 8 or 9 AM. This was NOT bad for me, I actually enjoyed getting to sleep in that late. But if they wake up at 4 AM and it's dark, how are their bodies supposed to know 1 AM, 2 AM, 3 AM is any different? And that's exactly what started happening. I think he got so used to waking up for a bottle no matter if he was hungry or not that it became habit. Well now that he won't drink enough during the day that habit has turned into 2 or 3 times at night. For a bottle, for routine, for comfort- I have no idea!!! I know that most of the time he is hungry and that tells me he's doing all his ''drinking'' during the night therefore refuses to drink a lot during the day. Have I confused you yet?
My last resort is night weaning. Where you take a little bit of formula away from the bottle at night over around 2 weeks until it is just water. If they are drinking straight up water out of the bottle and fall back asleep easy then you KNOW they are not hungry during the night (I guess water doesn't fill them up) and you can move on to other things to get them back to sleep (CIO, Ferber, soothing, etc). It's like we have to do everything backwards...again. And apparently this means since they are just drinking mostly water during the night, they will make up for it during the day...aka drink all their formula...aka PLEASE WORK. Here is the link for the plan we are following: http://www.isabelagranic.com/bed-timing/2009/06/when-the-snack-bar-is-closing-some-strategies-for-nightweaning.html
My whole point in writing this is a) to get all this off my chest b) to let you know if this doesn't work and a newborn joins our house i will literally have a mental breakdown c) to chronicle it so i can see progress/get encouragement
Last night was our first night of night weaning.
NIGHT ONE
Bedtime: 7 PM
Woke: 1:30 AM (ate 4 ounces)
Woke: 5 AM (ate 1 ounce)
Awake for the day: 7 AM
**this night was very unusual since he only drank 5 ounces during the night. Usually it's more like 10-11, but we'll see what tonight brings.
He's up, I must depart. xoxo
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