Waking baby for a 10/11pm feed - does it work?

[Mo2]

DS2 is now 15 weeks and seems a pretty happy, jolly (daren't say "contented" ) little baby.
He's now regularly sleeping from 7 pm through to about 4/5am, when he wakes for a feed (which takes about 30 mintues) then he goes back to sleep happily until about 7.30 am. All in all, this seems pretty good IMO, but obviously the 4/5am feed is still a bit of a pain - mostly because I find it difficult to go back to sleep afterwards (was still awake for one and a half hours afterwards this a.m. - listening to dh snoring...)
We've mostly been of the opinion "let sleeping babies lie" so haven't woken DS2 for a feed before we go to bed (i.e. 10/11pm) but I know a lot of people do this with some success. However, I've also heard horror stories of babies simply 'adding' this feed and still waking at 4 am for another.
What are people's experiences - also what's the best way to do it - I can't help feeling he'll be so sleepy that he won't take much of a feed anyway at that time?

I did this and it worked well for me. DS would feed and then get back to sleep by about 11.30 (in early days..as got older feeds were quicker!) He would then wake for feed about 2-3 in early days and as got older it would push back until he was sleeping from 11-7 at about 10 weeks. Then after we started weaning he started rejecting the second breast at this feed so i took it as cue to cut it down and then stop it which happened without a problem. However..as we all know (!) each baby is different but it did work for me.

When I tried that I had a baby who woke more often However it can work so the best thing to do is give it a try. Babies are all individuals, so everyone else's experience will have no bearing on your own. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Let us know how you get on.

My ds1 did the same thing, slept from 7pm through till 4am then onto 7am or 8am when he was little. I tried feeding him at 10:30 hoping that he would go through longer - but maybe out of habbit - he still would wake up at 4am. So rather than me waiting for 10:30 to come around - when actually I would rather go to bed - I would sit the 4am thing out. When he was weaning tho' I was convinced he was eating/drinking enough during the day - I gave him water for a few days instead of milk which he accepted fine, then a few days later I let him cry it out - took 3 days of 10-20mins crying and we haven't had a broken night since (apart from the odd - teething problem or illness) I felt horrible and nasty, but haven't looked back since!
I guess every child is different - don't you hate it when people say that - just when you want some answers! I would gage it on whether you think your ds2 is getting enough during the day? Are you a Gina Ford fan? I used her book like a ref: guide and found it so helpful.

I had a simlar experience as Mears - DD started waking much more frequently when I tried the 10.30pm feed. It took ages to then get her back on track.

But many for many friends it has worked well.

Yup I had problems with this too - for one thing I simply couldn't wake her up sometimes without stripping her off (poor thing), but more importantly she then woke at the same time anyway.

For the 4am feed - have you tried feeding him in bed/lying down? I found I didn't wake up so much this way and was able to get back to sleep easily afterwards. I had to lie without the blanket though to stop myself dozing off altogether (not a problem for some people, but I smoked and am a very heavy sleeper)

Mo2, we had exactly the same thing. started feeding ds at 10.30 - 11.00pm. inside a week he was sleeping from 11.00ish to 7.00am. wish we had done it earlier tbh. like you i could never get back to sleep!

hth.

I'll add a vote for it not working fantastically - but then it sounds like my ds was a more frequent night feeder than yours, Mo2. He would wake at 1- 2 and 5-ish after going down at 7; when I started waking to feed at 10pm he woke at 3ish and 6, so it did rid me of one night waking which helped, but it also considerably shortened his longest stretch of sleep, which I don't think was such a great idea. After a couple of weeks he started waking spontaneously at 10 and didn't sleep through again until I started solids.
I'd say suck it and see!

We tried this as well. In the early days when he was feeding regularly it was fine as there was nothing worse than just getting to sleep myself then DS2 waking me for a feed however once he was going down earlier in the evening I found when I woke him he didn't want to go back down again and it didn't make any difference to the night wakenings, but they are all different and it does sound like a good idea. All the best.

Afraid it never worked for us. Waking either of ours up at 10 for a feed just led them to waking throughout the night rather than the one waking they would otherwise have.

My ds was one of the 'horror' babies who added the 11pm waking to his 2am and 5am. It was extremely dispiriting!

My ds was the same as Aloha's I'm afraid. He saw the opportunity of more food and took it with open mouth.

My dd was similar. We tried to bring in a 10pm feed, but couldn't wake her to do it. DD would turn all the lights on and the pair of us would stomp round, but she'd either stay asleep or fall asleep after a tiny feed. We just abandoned it, sometimes she's wake at around 12/1am, nut then she began waking later and later until she now wakes at about 7am

Eldest was/is always a nightmare if he's woken up before he's ready; i never tried the "wake them up to feed them" thing, because I just knew it wouldn't work with him. I would have expected him to scream like fury, feed a lot, scream a lot more, take ages to settle again. Probably ought to have tried 11pm wake up with 2nd baby, but i had been too conditioned by 1st baby, LOL! Besides, i wanted to go to sleep as soon as the baby is down, and if I get thoroughly woken it can take me 3 hours to sleep again.

It didn't work for me - spent 2 hours getting him back to sleep again, and then a 4 am wake up as usual. I started going to bed early instead, and getting 6 or 7 hours in before the early morning feed.

We tried this and it was pretty successful for us. However this was ds's one bottle feed of the day - if I had breastfed he would have been asleep instantly! It was also dh's chance to get involved (which meant that I could go to bed!).

Hope you work out what works best for you!

Mo2, yes yes yes - it worked and I found it a lifesaver. DS didn't even really 'wake up' for this feed. It was usually dh that fed him around 10.30-11.00pm, and he would just get ds out of the cot, stick the bottle in his mouth, ds would go into auto-suck and then he was placed gently back in his cot. He barely woke even when his nappy was changed. Then he would sleep through until around 6.00am, so it was really great once we started doing this. As I remember, it was a child health nurse who advised me to do it when I was struggling with the early morning feeds.

At 15 weeks my DS didn't go to bed until 10.30 pm. Sounds like I was doing something wrong. And he definitely woke in the night....

Hello Mo2, can only echo what Mears has said. I used to wake dd but it didn't seem to make any difference, she still woke up about 4/5 am as well. When she got to about 12/13 weeks I experimented and stopped waking her for the last feed, mostly because having got her into a routine of settling nicely at 7 pm she was grumpy as hell when I woke her up at 10 ish. The first night she went through until about 5.30 am and I was a bit naughty and rolled over and left her for a bit to see what she would do, she settled back to sleep after about 10/15 minutes and woke up at 7 am. The next night was very similar and the third night she went 7 pm - 7 am and touch wood I haven't looked back (she is now 16 months). I think the best advice is to try cutting out the feed and see how you go.
Good luck