Waking at night to eat?

My doctor told me to feed Myles if he wanted to be fed at night until he was six months old. I’m not sure that was the best advice, but I did follow it. He routinely woke between 3am and 4am and I fed him. The reason I say I’m not sure it was a good idea is that the early waking time became entrenched. Long after he no longer needed the feeding, he kept waking that early anyway.

I finally started letting him cry a little at that time of the morning instead of jumping up and feeding him. For about 6 more weeks, he continued to wake at around 4 am (this was a real habit!), but he would fuss and make noise for up to an hour (sometimes longer) but go back to sleep. Now finally in the last week, he’s been sleeping past 4am most mornings and when he does make it past 4am he usually will sleep until 6 or 7am. (Much better for mommy!!).

Anyway, I think Myles became so accustomed to waking early because my picking him up and feeding him interrupted his night time sleep cycle. (I read somewhere that one of the last light sleep periods in infants occurrs in the wee hours of the morning, making babies more likely to wake at that time. If they get too stimulated at that time they will become too wakeful and miss out on that last wave of deep sleep that would have followed).

Aidan is younger than Myles, and you should certainly feed him if you are sure he is hungry. But, if he’s only eating a small amt, or comfort feeding just to go back to sleep, you may be better off trying to let him cry just a little and see if he will go back to sleep. I wish I would have done that earlier with Myles.

Also, with Myles I noticed that if he is teething he will wake early because the discomfort interrupts his night time sleep cycle. When he’s teething and wakes at that time I go in and give him some Motrin and most mornings he will go back to sleep once it kicks in.

One thing that worked really well with my first two (but not as well with Myles) when they woke in the wee hours of the morning was for me to rush in the second I heard them and quickly put them back on their side (or whatever position they usually fell asleep in when put to bed) and pat them gently for a short time. If they were still groggy and not fully awake they would often go right back to sleep and then sleep a few more hours.

In the end, you’ll make the right decision whether to feed him or not, because you’re his mommy and you know best. Somehow we just seem to figure out when the right time is to stop night feeding, take away the nuk, let them cry, etc. I’m always amazed when I make one of these decisions and it works. Mommy’s just know best.