Going cold turkey on night feeds?

[NoMoreWineForMeThen]

I feel like saying "me again" as I've been asking for so much help on MN recently! Well here goes...

DTS (9 months) are well established on solids now and having 3 meals plus snacks. I've now dropped the mid-morning BF so am only BFing mid-afternoon and during the night. They have 7oz formula before bed at around 7pm.

I've noticed during the last wk or so that the boys are not really interested in BFing when we start the day 6.30-7.00am and I'm sure it's because they are having their fill during the night. Also I'm so freaking tired now and really want to stop feeding at night.

Any advice/comments/warnings on just going cold turkey and not offering them the breast at all until 6.30am onwards?

Thank you (again!)

[Sleepybunny]

Sorry no advice really just wanted to salute you for BFing twins for so long! I'm having a nightmare with just one!

[steppemum]

well I did it. dc2 woke up every 1-2 hours during the night to feed, but wasn't taking a proper feed, was just a bit then falling asleep.

At 7 months I stopped. When she woke I cuddled and settled and then she cried and I shhud and settled. Basically controlled crying. She cried for 30 minutes first night at 1 am (I went in lots to shh and settle) but she didn't wake again that night until 7 am.
Second night was better and again she only woke once. third night she slept through. and that was it, no more night time feeds.

I think you are amazing to have done so well with bf twins for so long

[NoMoreWineForMeThen]

Thank you

We're trying tonight but DT2 is really upset. He's been crying on and off for nearly 2 hours now. DH is soothing him.

Surprisingly DT1 is still asleep!

[Jellybellyrbest]

Hi NoMore!

Congrats to you for BF twins full stop!!! Never mind this long.....

Very interested as my 9.5mth DD is still feeding once or twice a night despite eating solids well during the day & often being pretty disinterested in BF now. Still having 3 BF but now 3-4 mins. Night feeds however can be 8-9 mins!!

I'm back at work & pretty tired. Kept hoping the night feeds would tail off, but they're more frequent this week!

Hope tonight goes well for you.

[NoMoreWineForMeThen]

Jellybellyrbest I almost can't believe it but last night the boys slept from 7pm until 5.30am. Twin 1 woke, grizzled, and then fell back to sleep so his first feed wasn't until 7am. Twin 2 fed and fell back to sleep and I had to wake him at 7am. We didn't have to settle them at all during the night.

Of course it's probably a complete fluke and they'll be upset again tonight but I feel like a new woman today!!

[Nancy54]

I'm also having this prob with my dts but they're only 4 months so I can't stop night feeds. They previously slept reasonably but are currently waking 3 or 4 times each and thus do not want a morning feed cos they have filled their boots during the night. Bloody nightmare!

[NoMoreWineForMeThen]

Well I can let you know how it's going for us so at least you know there's a little light at the end of the tunnel.

We had 'fluke night' when both boys slept all the way through. Since then they've each gone down at 7pm, woke once at around 4am and then woke again at around 5.30am for a feed (no way they'll settle at this time without a feed). T1 will then stay awake but T2 will fall back to sleep for 1 1/2hrs.

Of course a 5.30am start is not ideal and neither is the boys being out of sync first thing but dear God it's so much better than the 2 hourly feeds all through the night that we had previously and I do manage to get the boys to go down for their morning nap at the same time (although T1 is extremely tired by this time).

T2 seems to be napping better in the day too but T1 doesn't sleep any longer than 45 minutes at a time during the day - in fact it's often just 30 mins.

Our next step is to try to push that 5.30am feed back. Anything after 6am is morning, 5.30am is just a little too early for me!

[Nancy54]

hey glad it seems to be going well!!

hope you're managing to get them to sleep a little longer in the morning. i agree that 5:30 is just too early to start the day! by the time you get to 9am you feel like it's already lunch time! i have a rule of not getting out of bed til 7, so even if they're awake i just keep them in bed with me.

How long have you had them napping at the same time? i try to get them to nap at the same time and would say they do it about two thirds of the time but my little girl is just tireder than the boy so i sometimes have to put her down before him.

We put them in their own room this weekend -they were sharing a side car cot attached to our bed til then and they actually slept much better, so here's hoping!!

[NoMoreWineForMeThen]

Hi Nancy54

No, they're pretty set on 5-5.30am start but we do seem to be skipping the 4.30am wake. The odd morning they will go back down again but after an hour or so of fussing by which time DD is starting to wake anyway. I should be grateful though as we are at least getting a full 10hrs now....12 would be amazing though wouldn't it (greedy I know). They aren't really crawling yet so I'm hoping that once they are a little more active, they might sleep a little longer and we'll get to the magic 7am.

I lose track of days/weeks but I'd say they've been napping at the same time for a month or more now. DT2 always appears less tired but always seems to sleep a little longer. I do have to shoot up to their room to scoop DT1 out when he wakes before he wakes DT2 up.

If you'd have seen any of my posts at 4 months, it was quite a different story. I called it tennis napping - one goes down and just as he wakes, the other goes down, repeat. I spent my whole day just going up and down the stairs! Once we moved on to solids, we started to follow a bit of a routine and at nap time I pop both boys into their cots awake. They often fuss for a couple of minutes but by the time I've made a cuppa they're asleep.