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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Anyone else doesn't/didn't do the 10.30pm/11pm feed with their young lo/s?

14 replies

MabelMay · 06/04/2008 20:55

I'm just curious really. Who else doesn't/didn't do the late night feed, and how old were your los when they slept the full 12ish hours?

Everyone I know with similar aged los (my ds2 is now 9 weeks old) wakes them up to give them the 10.30ish feed. I'm starting to feel like I should follow the crowd, but I like my early nights (my ds2 currently goes down at 7pm and wakes around 3 to 3.30am for his night feed, then I get him up at 7am).

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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latchmeregirl · 06/04/2008 21:01

Don't wake him up! If he's sleeping that long, that's pretty impressive - my standards of what counts as good sleep are quite low as both of mine are appalling sleepers, but I think one night waking at 9 weeks is amazing. We did always wake ours but only because if we didn't they'd wake anyway - nothing worse than being woken half an hour after you've gone to sleep - but it becomes an entrenched habit quite quickly. We've only just got ds out of the habit and he's 10 months...if you can bear being woken at 3, I'd go with that. And hope, in time, it gets later and later.

Elasticwoman · 06/04/2008 21:02

I never woke mine if they were asleep. Can't remember when they slept 12 hours. Not sure if any of them ever have tbh.

I know I can't get them up in the morning now though!

Unfitmother · 06/04/2008 21:09

If you can cope with night feeding than do. I'd have rather died, I always bathed, then fed mine around 10:30 - 11 so that they slept through till between 6 -7am. I'm no good in the wee small hours!

Araldia · 06/04/2008 22:11

Unfitmother, I'm with you on that one, night feeds scare me in a way as I'm worried I would not be alert enough.
DS3 has his feeds at 8:30, 12:30, 4:30 and 8:30 approximately, and then decides to go to sleep around 10pm, he wakes at about 8 but doesn't want his feed till he's had cuddles and changing. He has been doing 10-12 hours through the night for quite a while though, and none of the other 4 were like this!

Original poster

MabelMay · 07/04/2008 09:26

There's a bit of a temptation for me to experiment with giving my ds a 'dream feed' at around 11ish as he obviously can go 8 hours without a feed so that would mean an 11pm to 7am sleep. But at the same time, I'm worried about disrupting his natural/established sleeping and eating pattern and still risk having him wake again in the night for another feed.

Perhaps I should stick to what I'm doing and hope that my ds will gradually keep extending the length between 7pm and 3am feeds until it turns into a whole night...?

OP posts:

FrannyandZooey · 07/04/2008 09:27

I never woke my ds up for a feed
I let him find his own pattern

SoupDragon · 07/04/2008 09:28

I fed my babies when they wanted feeding.

SoupDragon · 07/04/2008 09:30

I do think it's far better for them to "learn" to sleep longer naturally. How will you know when to stop that "artificial" feed time? In fact, I remember seeing a fair number of threads about "when to stop the dream feed"

jingleyjen · 07/04/2008 09:30

I made a HUGE mistake with DS2 he had the same pattern as your little one at about the same age, I really wanted a nights sleep so I started the dream feed thing but it just switched him from sleeping 7.30-3am then getting up at 7 to
sleep 7.30 - dream feed 10.30-11ish
feed 2.30-3am
up at 7am

I couldn't get him back to where he was until he was 7 months old. I wish we had just left him as he was!!

cmotdibbler · 07/04/2008 09:35

I just fed DS when he wanted it - and he dropped feeds all of his own accord with no hassle.

DJCod · 07/04/2008 09:36

young lo?

Original poster

MabelMay · 07/04/2008 09:48

Thanks all. You've mostly convinced me to stick with what I'm doing. Jingleyjen, that's exactly what I'm afraid of, so I don't think I'll risk it!

DJCod - I'm not totally au fait with MN acronyms etc but isn't lo "little one"? And "young" is "young" (as in 9 weeks). Did I do something wrong/make some awful MN faux pas?

OP posts:

Original poster

MabelMay · 07/04/2008 09:50

cmotdibbler, just out of interest, when did your DS drop his night feeds?

OP posts:

cmotdibbler · 07/04/2008 10:05

I honestly can't remember in detail, but certainly by 4 months he was going to bed at 7 ish, and I got to sleep until 1 ish, when he then joined me in bed and then woke up another time between then and getting up time at 7. He didn't sleep through 7 till 7 until 18 months, but really needed that night time feed until then - but also has been at ft nursery since 4.5 months, so did a bit of reverse cycling in terms of bfing. Since he dropped that final feed at night, he has been a totally bomb proof sleeper, so I'm happy with our decisions to just go with the flow.
He dropped all daytime feeds at 14 months, and at 22 months is down to just a morning feed.

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