When does the insane cluster feeding in the evening slow down so I can start working towards an earlier bedtime?

[beansprout]

Ds2 is 7 weeks old and up until now has just stayed up with us in the evening and cluster fed, eventually going to sleep at about 10.30-11pm. I want to start trying to bring this forward a bit. Is there anything I can do or will ds2 just start to adjust at some point? I really can't remember what I did with ds1!!

This evening he has dropped off in the sling and is now asleep - should I wake him up to feed? Have got it into my head that he needs to cluster feed for about 4 hours before going down for the night and am concerned that if he sleeps now I will be up until all hours trying to tank him up!!

TIA!

bump

Just been through this and it happened about 8-9w with us, ds just went down at 9.30 one night and we kept it at that somehow (it was all his own doing really) Now its 9ish (he's 12w) and its really nice having 2 hrs on our own downstairs...bliss..

Hope this evening worked out for you

Thanks Lizzer - that gives me hope!

Evening hasn't gone so well - he woke up shortly after my first post, then puked everywhere and is now really unsettled and showing no sign WHATSOEVER of going down for the night! Arghh!!

DD started getting a little less frantic with her feeding after her six week growth spurt and started feeding earlier in the evening and stretching out he 10pm feed till later.

like swc says; put him to bed and let him tell you when he needs his next feed...or you could try waking him at 10:30ish or try a dream feed then if he wont wake.

Beansprout - I asked a similar question a while back and then shortly after (DS obviously a closet mnet fan!) DS stopped cluster feeding for so long and now we can usually get him down between 8 and 9 and put our feet up . DS was about 12/13 weeks when this happened. I would follow his lead - to begin with I kept trying to feed DS because I couldn't quite get my head around the fact that he was falling asleep so early. Felt like some kind of weirdo forcing myself on son! But he soon told me to get lost. Hope it happens for you soon.

hey just read this. DS1 stopped cluster feeding by himself, gradually, at 14wks (just when I had given up all hope of ever getting my evenings back), and I've been gradually adjusting it ever since (he's now 18wks), trying to find the bedtime that suits him. He now starts his bedtime routine at 6pm, is asleep somewhere between 7-8pm.

I do let him have as much boob as he wants from 4pm, though, so that he gets a little tanking up.

AND I am having real sleep issues with him - he used to cluster feed til 11pm then sleep til 4/5am. Now he sleeps til 11pm and then wakes up at least every 2 hours after, sometimes more. But this, I think, is more to do with a whole lot of things coming in a row to upset his sleeping patterns (stopping cluster feeding, two bad colds, vaccinations, which he reacts to by not sleeping for 1-2 days, and other developmental milestones), and I'm clinging on to the hope that this will also resolve itself in time, just like the cluster feeding did!

Sorry, long post, but they do resolve it by themselves, in their own sweet time and with no fuss from their parents!

Oh yes Sufi, just when you think you have them sussed they change the rules! I was only saying to DH last night "at least when he wakes for a night feed he goes straight back to sleep". Guess what?! His cooing is v.cute but not at 2 o'clock in the morning .

hi fellow cluster feeders!
13 weeks and still going strong here...
like sufi said it is getting gradually earlier, stopping at 10/11ish instead of 12/1ish

it's just crap when dd is such a regular/predictable 2-3hrly thing in the day, then from 5pm ish it all goes tits up!

beansprout to answer your op i would just let him sleep!! I used to worry if dd deviated from pattern and slept at a time when she'd normally be cluster feeding, now i just let her sleep (normally she's up again 10 mins later anyway...!)

Hmm, sorry guys but dd 9 months and STILL waking every half hour in the eves - habit now rather than need. am trying gentle techniques to help her sleep longer, trying to avoid hardcore sleep training...

12 weeks here and still going just settled her half hour ago

12 weeks it eased off on the odd night. We found walking her in the Pram helped as we suspect she had wind and confused the feeling in her tummy for hunger iyswim?

It helped her! DD has been a bad sleeper in general so I won't comment any further, the cluster feeds do calm down though.

For me it eased off considerably at 3 months. She still woke up at night but went straight back to sleep again, and i had my evenings back which was a huge relief!

I just saw this in last-15-minutes and oh it brought back memories.... but my little DD used to do this until around 2am!! So 11 looks quite early to me!!!

DD kept it up until about 10-11 weeks, then did two abrupt jumps backwards - one night she suddenly, for no apparent reason, decided 11pm was the cut-off two or three nights of 11pm and she was suddenly ready to go back to 7.

I did start bathing her a bit earlier somewhere around that time. I used to bath her after her big brothers were in bed as it made life a bit more relaxed, and around the time she started settling earlier, I decided to start bathing her first. But the difference in bathtime was only about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, so I still can't entirely bring myself to say that must have been the "cause" as the change in bedtime was much more dramatic.

It does get better though!

Around 10 weeks for both my two. Almost like a switch had been flicked.

dd2 from 5 weeks (she now 8 weeks) We just started giving her bath at 6.30 with other dc's and then feeding her in the dark and putting her in cot. She slept much better than downstairs in moses basket with us where she would regularly wake and feed.
She now does 7 until 11 then 3 then up at 6.30.
However depends on baby as she is my best and she no.3!
Good luck!

I was told by a friend that dd would stop cluster feeding at 3 months but she was still going strong all evening then. One night when she was 3.5 months she fell asleep on me at 8pm and DH tried putting her in her cot (I thought it would never work). I then had to wake her up at 10.30pm to feed her, which was amazing! She had another couple of evenings up after that but then settled into going down at 7pm by 4 months.

You will get there too!

Now we just need to sort the sleeping through from 7pm to 7am malarkey (dd now 6 months) .

oh canadianmum you have given me hope...3.5mths here and last night dd was down at 9.45pm - earliest ever, it was 10.30 before that, then 1am before that!

Might go back to feeding etc in the bedroom - was doing that before but it wasn't making a blind bit of difference and i was just getting depressed sitting in there alone for hours feeding!

Caz10 - my DS (16 weeks) gone down at 7.30 tonight! Earliest ever, ever. Cluster feeding well and truely grinding to a halt just when I thought there was no end in sight .

Yippeeeeeeeee! Can you get him to have a word with my dd?!

I would but he is asleep at the mo .

hee hee! well hope you are enjoying a nice glass of red or similar and basking in the freedom....or doing what i will be doing when the time comes....sleeping!

my ds is 17wks still cluster feeds in the evening but usually goes down about 10pm,he does however then sleep till 8am so im happy to feed till 10 knowing i can get a good nights sleep once he is down.

iys good to read all your experiances. my dd is 6 weeks today and has been on my since 5ish. my boobs feel like they are goingto fall off lol. at least reading this thread i know that there will be an end to it one day

IT does feel weird to begin with, I run about the house for about 2 hours just because I can! Sleeping would be more sensible Caz!