Night weaning

[skinandbones]

It seems a bunch of us are getting ready to do this.

Drop your resources here.

I've pulled out my copy of the No Cry Sleep Solution.

[redandblue]

Copied from my reply on the randoms thread.


As for the MOTN weaning, we just worked on this with M. What helped us was combination of sleep training at bedtime to ensure he is able to put himself to sleep, and then reducing the amount of formula when he wakes up (went from 6oz to 4oz for a couple of days), and then started to dilute the formula, so stayed with the 4oz, but instead of 2 scoops of formula, we only did 1.5 for a couple of days. Then went to one scoop. When we tried .5 scoop with the 4 oz he was like WTF?? And just took his soother. The next couple of nights he would still wake at the usual time, but settled quickly with just a quick snuggle and back to sleep.

[Deleted]

redandblue, I am trying your method, starting tonight.

[Deleted]

precious little sleep.com

I will be feeding 20 mins before bedtime, let him CIO and start diluting his bottles in tmotn. Hoping by Aug 1st he will be sttn.

[flippinchica]

Jul 26, 2016 11:16:15 GMT -5 @JanetheConquerer said:

precious little sleep.com

I will be feeding 20 mins before bedtime, let him CIO and start diluting his bottles in tmotn. Hoping by Aug 1st he will be sttn.

That website is my saving grace. They also have a Facebook group where you can ask questions if you get stuck. Sometimes just reading the answers to others questions helps.
www.facebook.com/groups/troublesometots/

[Deleted]

Night weaning sucked. Here's my night.
7:11-7:45 CIO
8:30 up hysterically crying 4 oz
9:30 repeat previous plus 4 oz
1:30 normal wake up diluted 4 oz bottle but only drank 2 oz
4 am up hysterically crying chugged the rest of diluted plus 4 more.

He never has this much during the night. Don't tell me growth spurt on the same day of weaning!!!

Should I be diluting all bottles??

[RandomName]

@janetheconquerer I'd try another night and then decide if you should change it up at all. Their sleep cycles are about 45 mins (to 1 hr) at this age. So it seems like he's struggling with putting himself to sleep without some form of comfort- and food seems to be it. Does he use a paci or have a snuggy for comfort?

Eta: I might not dilute all bottles. Perhaps only the ones that he routinely (and out of habit) wakes up for. Could be growth spurt or maybe he didn't drink enough milk to get him through the night because he knows he'll get more.

[RandomName]

Now that I posted that and thought about I can't decide whether I'd cut all at once and just rough it out or slowly cut each crutch. I may be more inclined to cut it all at once at this age and just have a few awful nights. The sleep for you payoff would be sooner. Sorry, im just thinking out loud here.

[flippinchica]

I agree with RandomName. It isn't that he is hungry. He just "needs" the bottle to go back to sleep between sleep cycles. I would stop diluting for now and pick a time not to feed before. We did midnight since I knew he could easily go 4 hours without eating. If he wakes up before that time, do what you decided to do at bedtime (Ferber, etc). If he wakes after that time give a normal bottle.

[packmomma]

Supposedly kids are really good at regulating their calories intake so c might really take smaller feeds because he knows he's going to be fed later. If you want to do it slowly we followed ferber guide to night weaning. I don't remember if we did it at thr same time. If it's any consolation w used to wake up every hour to feed (every sleep cycle) but he now routinely sleeps through the night (last night notwithstanding).

[Deleted]

Let me repeat, what he drank and demanded to drink last night is out of the norm. I'm gonna try again tonight and try to get him to drink more before bed.

[Deleted]

Thanks ladies. Last night was just so out of the norm. He does wake up other times and just whimpers and we give him his lovey and he rolls over and goes back to sleep. Last night he was up sitting and hysterically crying before we could get in there. Maybe he was just punishing us (I kid).

It's me by myself tonight so I will try harder not to feed at all wake ups.

[flippinchica]

It sucks to not do what you know will get your kid to calm down and go to sleep.
I think he really did just want his GD bottle. Like wtf is this, changing shit up on me?

[redandblue]

I agree with PP, but may also suggest looking at the whole evening routing. Is it possible for him to have supper earlier so that he is hungry for a full bottle at bedtime, instead of the 4 oz. And then if he typically only gets up once or twice, keep those bottles diluted, but no other bottles given. When we started sleep training we did focus a bit more on going to sleep independently over the weaning, but our goal was weaning. M was consistently going to sleep with a bottle, so I needed to make dinner time really early, around 4/4:30 in order for him to be hungry for another bottle but not fall asleep to it. DH and I have this conversation all the time. When M gets upset DH first response is give a bottle. Does he eat it, yes. Does he need it, no.

Hopefully it's not a growth spurt, but may very well be a reaction to the change in how sleep is being handled. It will get worse before it gets better for sure because it's a change. The few nights of upset sucked, but in the long run has been better for us.

GL, you've got this!

[Deleted]

C is asleep at school. I hope this doesn't screw tonight up. According to some of the pages packmomma posted on Ferber they suggest putting to bed later than normal at the beginning, think I should?

[packmomma]

Jul 27, 2016 15:28:46 GMT -5 @JanetheConquerer said:

C is asleep at school. I hope this doesn't screw tonight up. According to some of the pages packmomma posted on Ferber they suggest putting to bed later than normal at the beginning, think I should?

Depends on how c reacts to being overtired. We did with W but he doesn't get hyper when he's over tired so it did cut down on our cio time.

[Deleted]

He took 2 2 hour naps today, also not the norm. I think growth spurt

[packmomma]

Just your fucking luck @janetheconquerer. W was heavily teething when I sleep trained. Such an additional pita. Hopefully your plan still works though. I'm crossing all the things!

[Deleted]

I plan on feeding him 6 oz soon. Then pushing CIO back til 7:30. And I will make a 6oz diluted bottle for motn. But if he's hungry he's gonna get fed. I will keep fx that cio works and hopefully have him weaned in 2 weeks. Best I can do during a growth spurt.

[Deleted]

I know I keep posting about sleep training in here but it's kinda like weaning off the rocking/singing...us I am night weaning g too.

But he cio for 15 mins. I went into soothe once.

He did not drink his 6 oz though. I tried to feed it to him but less then shock g the bottle in his mouth and forcing it, he wasn't having it. (And I wasnt going to shove and force it)

[flippinchica]

Good luck @janetheconquerer!

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2016 20:34:24 GMT -5 flippinchica said:

Good luck @janetheconquerer!

Thanks! He's been asleep since 7:30. I'm keeping my fx for a better night!!

[ampaints]

FX @janetheconquerer! Post away, it helps to talk/type it out sometimes I think.

[packmomma]

@janetheconquerer we're definitely here to help and listen. As you can tell everyone has a different way of going about things so there's a wide spectrum of methods. I hope he continues to sleep well.

[aydee]

@janetheconquerer, It's possible that the extra sleep at school today was to make up for the lousy sleep last night. The first night after starting sleep training with my twins, my DD fell asleep while in the jumperoo. That never happened before or since. I actually took pictures of it, lol. When babies don't sleep well they're just as tired the next day as we are.

I hope things are going well tonight. Hang in there. These are tough times, but it's worth it.

[Deleted]

So he fell asleep fairly quickly and stayed asleep for 4 hours. I fed him. He slept a few more and he got the diluted bottle. Then up once more for 2 oz.

The last time he was up I tried to give him his bottle while he was laying in bed instead of me picking him up and going to rocker. This works for H. C wasn't having it. He threw the bottle down, and flipped over and was standing before I could blink. He tried pulling himself out of crib onto my chest. So to the rocker we went. He drank less than an oz and snuggled into the crook of my arm and went to sleep. I didn't get sucked into the cuteness, I put him back into the crib, he opened his eyes, and I gave him his lovey. He rolled over and went to sleep.

Up at 5:30. So I think we did better.

[skinandbones]

@janetheconquerer, Are you doing Ferber?

I've been super on the fence about CIO. But Littlest's sleep has just turn to shit in the past couple of weeks. I was just going to night wean to see where that takes me. But last night I was solo and DS2 really needed to go to sleep. With DS1 in the mix, I don't have 20 minutes to nurse and rock him to sleep. Everyone's life would be so much easier if I could do a small routine and throw him in the crib.

I had wanted to do a little sleep training when he was about 6 months since he was already a decent sleeper. Then we got hit with the ear infection that wouldn't end and sickness. Every time I thought we could start, he would get sick again.

That got long... This week has been really tough.

[Deleted]

skinandbones, yes I am doing Ferber. He's taken to it pretty well too. Maybe because he's older. The first night he cried about 30 mins and last night about 15 total.

I say go for it.

[skinandbones]

Ok if I'm reading precious little sleep right, you work on getting them to sleep on their own. Then if they wake up during the night, let them fuss up to 10 minutes (if you are ok with it), feed them but work on reducing the feedings.

Right??

[flippinchica]

Jul 28, 2016 9:31:39 GMT -5 skinandbones said:

Ok if I'm reading precious little sleep right, you work on getting them to sleep on their own. Then if they wake up during the night, let them fuss up to 10 minutes (if you are ok with it), feed them but work on reducing the feedings.

Right??

Basically. Bedtime is the key. If they fall asleep at bedtime without your help (bottle, rocking, nursing, bouncing,etc) then they can fall asleep without your help MOTN as well. That cuts down on a lot of "sleep association" feedings. Then you can gradually reduce the remaining ones.