Can you do CC crying but still keep one feed?

[rooibosh]

My 6.5 month old is still feeding twice a night and waking mainly at 5.30am, not hungry, (feeds at 6.30 or 7am but is up at 5.30am). We can't take it anymore. He is eating lots of food, has 4 breast feeds a day but no longer feeds for very long (I think as has too much at night). Nothing has worked to bring feeds down, though one is very brief. I'd still be willing to feed at 3am in the hopes he'd then sleep until 6.30am. Is it possible to do CC but still feed once eg at 3am, or is it too confusing?

Yes, very much possible!
We did just that and it worked fine.

About to go out with the family but
I will try and find my posts describing
what we did exactlyvand link them for you.

I'd reduce the amount of food he is having, and replace with b/feeds tbh. There is more calories in b/milk.

See how that works. I'm not a fan of CC though.

That'd be great DaddyJoseph, thank you very much.

Yes. I did CC for bedtime but still fed her during the night when she woke. She now has Milk, gets put in cot and chats away for a little while then drifts off to sleep and stays there all night (about 12 hours). However she is 15m now and we did CC at 5/6m.

Hi again DaddyJ - like the Christmas name!

We did this with dd who was waking hourly at 5 1/2 months, and feeding back to sleep. (these weren't real feeds, but 30 sec on the boob!).

She now will wake once or twice max between 7 and 7 and feeds and goes back to sleep no probs.

We figured, if she goes to bed at 7 after a full feed, we will not offer her boob before 4 hours have passed as we knew she could go this long between feed in the day (I also made a point of feeding her as much as possible during the day as well to discourage lots of night feeds).When she woke before then, we did a cc type thing. Ditto after the first night feed.

The first night was HARD, but second night much better + no problems after that, the pattern was established. We found it was worth it, she is a much happier baby now for getting longer blocks of sleep and I feel lucid again and can enjoy motherhood as a result.

We also moved her into her own room, we had had her in a bedside cot with some cosleeping previously, I think this also made a difference.

I hope this helps, good luck!

rooibosh, I struggle to find my own posts, so a quick summary of what we did:

Until dd was 4 months old we co-slept and settling her meant
my wife had to go to bed with her at 7pm to bf her to sleep,
stay lying next to her for at least an hour and usually return
before 10pm for another quick resettling bf.

So, at 4 months we decided to do CC for the 7pm settling time only.
It took about a week with crying times decreasing
from 75 minutes (first time) to 1-2 minutes (day 5).

This meant she could be settled at 7 and would sleep until about 1am
at which point she would come for nighttime feeds in our bed.

We only finished the nighttime sleep training 3 months later
when we were sure that the 2 remaining night feeds were clearly
resulting in dd not touching a thing for breakfast.
And sure enough, once she slept through she suddenly loved her breakfast!

Bit of an epic post this, hope it's useful!

callmeoverchristmas, thank you and likewise!

Thank you, it was. Thought we were doing ok as ds not fed to sleep from one month old. However, when I put him to bed tonight I told him what would be happening and he cried for 45 mins (with checks), settled for 20 and cried for 50 mins, only stopped a few mins ago so who knows what the night will hold. Wish I'd not followed dh advice to tell him, must have gathered tone of my voice.

Did you then do the sleep trainign for both feeds at once?

Was this the first time CC for you and your ds?
You must be exhausted!
Fingers crossed for the night!!

If you mean both night time feeds (one at 1am, one at 3-4am),
yes, we cut them out in one go over 3 extremely tiring nights!

I'd done a bit of successful cc in day time to encourage him to sleep longer, the most that took was a check at 5 and 10 mins.

Have tried at night but given up a while after the 10 min check.

Intend feeding him at 2.30/3am or after tonight as not sure he needs no milk and hope he'll sleep past 6am.

Feel horrid and sick but also horrid at idea of not continuing. Did cc for dd at 7 months but hoped i'd get away without with ds as put to be awake from so young and has proper daytime sleeps which ds didn't. Sorry to go on but i feel confused, cheated and rotten

It is really really hard but by God does it make a difference!

Now go and get some rest,
you will probably have an interesting night!

Good luck

rooibosh, how was last night???

It felt awful at the time but not so bad in hindsight. 1.5 hours crying, with checks, from 12am (having fooled us by waking and settling at 11.10pm!) Then i fed him when he woke at 3.15am. And for the first time ever he setted himself back to sleep after waking before 5am and woke very cheery at 7am. Certainly justifies our decision, but i am wary of the next couple of nights as shh pat used to work and then didn't anymore, and it seems a bit like he figures us out and gets cross.

We almost caved in just before he settled, though I was more resolute, so we'll be more determined tonight. Does have a bit of a snotty nose which is unfortunate.

Went out with him in sling today and everyone kept saying how happy he was (didn't know about last night), which also made me feel better!

It's going well then!!

Really pleased for all of you,
fingers still crossed for the next nights, though.

Funny you say that, because our dd was and still is the same:
the first time you try something - say, rocking her to sleep
in my arms - it works a treat and you think you have cracked it.
But soon enough she figures out what you are up to and
throws an almighty wobbly if you try it again!

Have a good night!

hey rooibosh - how goes it?!

Just curious how it is working out -
IF it is working out!