Stopping BFing what to do about 4:30 wake up?

[expatnow]

My DD is 1 and I am starting to think about stopping BFing. She does not take a bottle, but eats really well and drinks water and now a bit of milk from a cup. I usually only BF twice a day now having tried to stop a night feeds over the past few weeks. So I BF in the evening and first thing in the morning. We have decided the morning BF should be the one to stop first. But she often wakes at 4ish and DH tries to settle her until 5ish when I feed her. So... should we just get her up and give her breakfast? Will this teach her that 4:00 is a decent time to wake up????

Have you tried not feeding at this time and just shushing her back to sleep? Or bringing her in just to sleep with you in your bed from that time?

What do you do if she wakes in the middle of the night? You'll have to pretend when you go in at 4 that its not morning.

what's your daytime feeding/napping/bedtime routine? You may need to address this to reach the reason for the early waking. the sleep board has lots of useful info.

the early waking may not be related to a want to feed, but hard to comment without knowing your schedule.

here's a few weaning techniques you could try as well: kellymom

Thanks for the responses. I've tried shushing her, but she gets distressed and just tries to feed and claws at me. MY DH will shush and settle her relatively effectively if he is around, but he is only around 50% of the nights as he works away. If I bring her into our bed she just tries to feed and again won't relax until I feed her. She goes to bed around 6:30 so is it too much to ask for her to go until 6ish without eating/ drinking?

As for daytime routine- she has breakfast at 6:60/ 7 and then naps at 9:30 for 1 1/2 hours. Then has a snack, then a big lunch at 12. She then has a second long nap at 1:30 or 2 (1 1/2 hour- 2 hours). She then has a snack and then a big dinner at 5. She doesn't have a BF in the day, but I was BFing just after dinner although she has become less interested in that feed. Then bath then bed.

Last night she was up 2-4 on and off. My DH shushed her and stayed up in her room, but she just kept waking. I didn't feed her and he got her up at 5:30 for breakfast. There was a lot of crying, but he felt she could manage. But it did mean he was up for much of the night.

I can't comment on the BF as I FF but re the naps I think she is getting a lot of sleep for a one year old. Could you work on cutting down or cutting out the morning nap and putting her own earlier for her main nap.

My DTs are almost one and the day goes like this:

7am wake and breakfast with small amount of formula from a beaker
930am nap till 10am
1145 lunch
1230-1300 nap till latest 1400
1700 tea
1830 8oz formula from a bottle
1845 bed

We had issues with early waking and by gradually pushing back and cutting down the morning nap this hs been resolved. They were up at 5 for a few weeks before that.

I agree about the amount/length of naps.

My DS moved to one nap a day around this time. he started taking it at around 9.30/10am and i've been stretching it out to a lunchtime/post lunch nap. he'll sleep for about 2 hours or so.

dinner is at 5 ish and bedtime is 7pm. he sleeps til 7 ish.

i bf him first thing, before a nap and before bed. he's 18 months.

the other thing you might want to try is giving your baby a hot meal at lunchtime and "tea" sandwiches/fruit/yoghurt etc for the later meal. depends on how well that fits with your family life though.