Help with STTN

How do we do this?

DD is 5.5 months old and a chunkier - well over 17 pounds.

She wakes up consistently 2x's per night for the last month.

We are currently doing:
6 oz bottle at 8 pm and then bed
4 oz at 12:30/1
4 oz at 3/4
awake at 6/7 and another 4 oz

Do you gradually decrease the ounces at night? Do we just do cry it out and stop both cold turkey?

She recently started screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night, so I worry that she is still very hungry at night.

She eats abou 4 ounces every 3 hours during the day and we just started adding a little cereal 2x's per day this week.

Re: Help with STTN

Hard to say what is just "habit" and what she really needs. She's drinking 8oz at night, so that tells me she is definitely a little hungry, IMO.

Can you increase the 8pm bottle a little? Maybe 8oz?

When are you doing cereal?

Re: Help with STTN

My pediatrician told us to stop all night time feedings around that age. He didn't need the bottle, he just wanted it out of habit. . He also said its a ton of unnecessary calories that he can't burn off because he's sleeping. I just increased his last bottle from 6oz to 8oz and it seemed to work immediately.

I also threw in a ton of pacifiers in his crib too

ETA: maybe try upping her bottles during the day to 6oz see how much she will take past 4oz. Maybe she will go longer stretches between bottles.

Message edited 6/11/2013 9:24:24 PM.

Help with STTN

DD sleeps 11-12 hours at night straight, she is 4 months old. Here is what we do.

She gets 6 oz bottles during the day every 3-4 hours. Either 4 or 5 bottles a day. She gets cereal and fruit in the morning, and cereal and a veggie an hour before bed.

We give her a warm bath every single night right before bed, and always keep the fan on in her room as "white noise". We never rock her to sleep. After she's done with her last bottle, we change her diaper one more time, burp her and just put her down awake. We kiss her goodnight and wave bye to her.

She's used to putting herself to sleep, so now even when she does wake up in the middle of the night for a few mins, she usually falls right back to sleep within 10 or 15 mins. We don't get up and go to her in the middle of the night unless she's hysterically crying which happens rarely. Usually she's just cooing and making sounds.

I also read the book "12 hours sleep by 12 weeks old" and used a lot of the tips in there. It definitely works!

Good luck!

Help with STTN

i would def up the bottles during the day. and do longer stretches between bottles. we would do around that age 4 bottles of 7 ounces each. so it would be 7,11,3and 7. ped also said that she didn't need to eat anymore in the middle of the night. you can give the 5th i would think around 10/11 if you HAD to but i would try and cut that out as well. i agree that i think its more habit at this point. i also threw a ton of binkies in the crib! i think the 4ounces IMO is too little and maybe thats why she wants to eat in the middle of the night as well.

Re: Help with STTN

My DD is bf but she always takes a big feeding first thing in the morning 7-8oz). After that she has 4-5oz durin the day. I would try upping her morning bottle and last bottle of the night.

Anyway DD was always a good sleeper but she started doing 11-12 hours around 6 mos. Prior to that she would be up between 5-6am for a feed which isnt bad. We also started solids at 6 mos so not sure if it was a coincidence or if that helped fill her more.

Now here's my disclaimer - she is now 8 mos and still has some early wake ups here and there.

Re: Help with STTN

I would feed her more throughout the day, it seems like such small bottles for that age. My DS is 3 months old and he has 6oz bottles every 3-4 hrs, last bottle at 8pm and STTN until 6:30-7:30am. He's been doing that for weeks.

My DD started STTN at 2 months old, she was taking 8 oz bottles every 4'ish hrs at 4 months PLUS cereal and baby food.

I think she needs to eat more, I would up the bottles for sure and even add more solids.

Re: Help with STTN

You're going to get a million opinions on this, but you have to do what's right for ou. But for what it's worth, here's my opinion...

Your daughter doesn't need to eat at night anymore. Do you pick her up to eat as soon as you hear her awake? You should start by trying to drop 12:30 bottle. You can do this by either gradually reducing the amount of ounces in that bottle or letting her cry. Likely, if you let her fuss a few minutes, she'll put herself back to sleep without the bottle. Once you eliminate that feeding, you work on the next one.

Also, how much is she eating during the day?

Re: Help with STTN

Help with STTN

I would increase her oz before bed time from 6-8 and then cut back on the MOTN feedings. Maybe just give her 2 oz only??