A few weeks ago, we noticed that the boys, particularly Big Brother, were really only snacking during their 11:00-ish feeding. At most Big Brother would eat an ounce and a half, but often he would eat an ounce and just not be remotely interested in eating anymore. The rest of the feedings during the night, both boys would eat 2 1/2 to 3 ounces. We quickly realized that the boys were probably waking up at the 11:00 feeding more out of habit than necessity, but figuring out how to stop that habit was the tricky part. I knew that we could let them cry it out and it would probably result in them dropping that feeding, but at 10 weeks old, I just wasn’t ready to let them completely cry it out for only one feeding.
One day, I was reading Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg, and as I read, I realized I potentially had my answer. The book talked about how she knew that one of the babies she worked with was waking up out of habit, so she held him one night when he woke up and gave him a pacifier to satisfy the oral component of his habit of waking up. She said the first night, a baby will usually suck on the pacifier the same length of time that they usually eat. The next night, the baby will suck on the pacifier a shorter amount of time. By the third night, the baby won’t wake up.
Big & Lil’ Brother enjoying their Wubbanub pacis and a nice afternoon walk around the park.
On Night One, the boys started fussing around 10:30. We both got up and popped a paci in each boy’s mouth. Both boys started sucking away. Lil’ Brother lost his paci a couple of times, but we popped it back in twice and soon he was fast asleep. Big Brother is like his mama and doesn’t believe in skipping meals, so he was verbally assuring me that he was pretty sure he was hungry. After he spit out the paci a couple times and was still fussing, I picked him up, just like I was going to give him a bottle. I held him while keeping one finger on the paci. He sucked on it happily for about 10-15 minutes and was out like a light. I put him back down, and Mr. Blue and I went to bed knowing that one or both boys might wake up in just a few minutes. Happily, we next heard them cry around 1:30 a.m., around when they normally wake up for their second feeding.
On Night Two, the boys started making little fussing noises around 11:00. We went in and popped in pacis. Lil’ Brother sucked away for a couple of minutes and then was sound asleep. Big Brother needed his paci popped back in 3-4 times; but, his eyes were closed, and there was no more fussing. We didn’t pick him up this time, and he went back to sleep in about 6 minutes.
On Night Three . . . We all slept until 2:00 a.m.! Success never felt so sweet! It was the longest stretch of sleep we had had in a long time, and we were walking on air. The boys have been skipping this feeding pretty much every night since then, unless we are traveling or something else throws them off. Now, we often will try to pop in their pacifiers before we jump up to feed them, but we haven’t been quite as intentional about it because they are still eating more at both of the other feedings fairly often. While it may not work for every baby, it’s nice to have one more tool in our arsenal as we seek out more sleep for the whole Blue family!
Do you have any tricks to help your LO drop a feeding?
squash / 13764 posts
We did this as well! Unfortunately, it then created a dependence on the paci and we had to wake up multiple times during the night to replace it when it fell out…but there were a few good weeks in there!
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
No tips, but your boys are so cute! I love them!
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
This is exactly how we got Wagon Jr. to drop his last night feeding and sleep through the night! LMW wouldn’t take a paci or her fingers so no help there
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
I read the same book, so this is exactly what we did to get Xander to drop a feeding! Sometimes he’ll still wake up and we have to go give him his pacifier, but more and more he doesn’t, which is wonderful!
pea / 13 posts
Thank you so much for explains the book and how it worked for you. It saves me having to read it !
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
I love the Baby Whisperer! A very wise mom friend of mine gifted me her book and I was hooked!
EASY!
pomegranate / 3388 posts
We did this too… although like @hilsy85 said, you should be warned that it may cause a total pacifier addiction. Our daughter can’t get enough of her binkies, and we now leave 4 of them in her crib every night, so that one is always in reach.
My strategy was always to give DD her pacifier when she woke up fussing. (It was especially easy when she was still sleeping in her Pack N Play right next to my bed.) I would only get up to actually feed her if she was spitting out her pacifier, still fussing, and clearly hungry. She dropped her final nighttime feeding at 3.5 months, so it seems to have worked!
grapefruit / 4066 posts
this is why is WISH DD would take a paci!
cherry / 146 posts
we did the same thing with our twins at about that age… but like hilsy85 said… the paci might become a sleep association for them which will require you or your husband to get up multiple times a night to replace their pacis every night. when our twins were 5 months old, we were desperate for a good night’s sleep, so we got rid of their pacis completely and let our twins CIO. now they get 10+ hours/night of consolidated sleep and the whole family wakes up well-rested. hang in there, mama, these days are hard, but it soon will pass.
blogger / pomelo / 5361 posts
@hilsy85. @skibobrown: @birdieputt: I worry a lot about making the paci a sleep crutch. We’re definitely trying to avoid that by not giving them their pacis when we put them down at night . We just use them if we’re trying to get them to drop a feeding or of they seem to need to suck. We don’t pop them back in once they spit them out if we aren’t working on dropping a feeding, either. I worry a lot about them getting addicted, though, because at nap time they are definitely more reliant on the paci.
Birdieputt: I have questions about how you did CIO with your twins, but I’m going to see you a message rather than put them here!:
persimmon / 1420 posts
We absolutely could NOT drop that 3am feeding, and it was killing me. I was so desperate for 8 hours of sleep that I could tell the difference in my driving abilities- I wasn’t as responsive as I should have been behind the wheel, and it was scaring me. Then we got some Baby Merlin Magic Sleep Suits, and my world changed. Night one- gave a paci at 3am feeding (just popped it in and left). Back to sleep right away. Night two- slept from 7pm until 6am, not a single wake up. I just about died, it was so incredible. Those things are magical!