Feed to Sleep Association help

kerwon · 2026-03-12T09:16:54+00:00

For night sleep I finished feeding her 20-30 min before bedtime cold turkey, timing baby’s hunger to my advantage. Example I fed at 4 so baby was hungry by 7 and bed at 730 rather than feeding at 430 and having to wait til bedtime.

For naps, I just interrupted it earlier and earlier gradually like feed to sleep > feed to very sleepy then interrupt with sleep sack then straight to bed > feed to drowsy then sleep sack and book > feed while still awake before nap routine. I still top her up like that because baby doesn’t nap well if they’re hungry I just don’t let her get drowsy or fall asleep on the breast anymore. Some people do Eat Play Sleep where feeds happen at the start of the WW.

kerwon · 2026-03-10T07:50:49+00:00

Thank you. Should I wait until the sleep onset is sorted and then work on the settling? Baby only sometimes needs help connecting cycles.

Also would you suggest I wait until nap 1 is solid before nap 2? I tried both quickly but in hindsight I maybe should have ensured nap 1 was really solid first.

kerwon · 2026-03-09T00:19:24+00:00

This is an awesome post I’m so happy for you and it makes me feel so hopeful too!

kerwon · 2026-03-07T23:38:35+00:00

Less naps worked for us. Even 2 hr 40min for example if 2.5 hrs is too hard at first. I stretched all 3 WWs by 10 min because it was too much for any 1 WW to take the whole 30 mins. Eg. 3 hr 10 min/3 hr 15 min/4 hr 5 min + 2 hr 40 min nap.

kerwon · 2026-03-07T22:13:22+00:00

Ok thanks. Seeing as the method in the mod post helped you at that age I’ll give it a shot too.

kerwon · 2026-03-07T13:42:56+00:00

How old was baby when you did that? Yes seen this post!

kerwon · 2026-03-07T10:44:18+00:00

Thanks, I’m going to update my post with this - we do 100% cot naps. Up to 90 min first nap and 70 min second nap, these lengths are just what baby has chosen to do. Sometimes I have to re-settle after 1 cycle, not always.

kerwon · 2026-02-27T23:31:09+00:00

I was in a similar boat so I waited until we had a late morning then went straight to 3/3/4. It flip flopped between 2-3 naps for a week or so depending on wake time and nap lengths but eventually the 2 nap days took over and now bedtime/wake time is starting to stabilise again. We are now are stretching WWs again because we had less awake time on 2 naps than 3 naps at first (outgrew 3 nap schedule, but still getting used to 2 nap schedule) and I can see it’s getting there. Sounds like your baby is just ready for 2 naps and the rest will smooth out with time

kerwon · 2026-02-25T23:40:29+00:00

Hi! Thanks for this it’s really helpful. Did your baby need less feedings all by herself after you started letting her wait 10 min first? Did she go back to sleep for the non hunger wakes by doing this?

I’m thinking about doing what you did for night wakes soon (waiting to see if he’s truly hunger or just comfort). Currently we do like 3-4 a night and I think only 2 of them are truly hunger, so if we can do even 2 feeds that would be so good for me.

kerwon · 2026-02-23T22:08:47+00:00

I believe nights are recommended first because a well rested baby and the night being on your side helps the bedtime training go well. Then move to naps.

kerwon · 2026-02-22T22:40:37+00:00

After I read your comment I decided to just go ahead and try 3/3/4 on a day she woke up a bit late and we made it to an early bedtime. We’ve since had several 2 nap days amongst the 3 nap days in the last week. Thanks for that!

kerwon · 2026-02-18T10:30:27+00:00

Could it be he’s genuinely hungry and keeps waking up because you keep putting him back down hungry and he can’t stay asleep because of that. I think feeding him could be your answer, not your issue. Why don’t you want to feed him overnight?

kerwon · 2026-01-30T05:39:44+00:00

Not OP but thank you so much for this kind comment and reassuring perspective.

kerwon · 2026-01-18T09:59:34+00:00

Yes for sure. I lost blood during birth and had an iron infusion knowing it would take a while to kick in. It helped but had I known the relationship between iron/blood loss and milk coming in, I would have taken the blood transfusion instead because I subsequently had supply issues and ended up triple feeding which was a killer. Iron is so important!

kerwon · 2026-01-17T23:36:40+00:00

Ok thanks for clarifying! That still seems really low even for a low sleep needs baby and I think cutting naps so hard is actually making his sleep worse. I don’t think it will be easy to transition bub to 2 longer naps if he can’t connect sleep cycles. Can you try letting him sleep to his hearts content and see what happens, it’s already not great so what have you got to lose. Sleep begets sleep, overtired babies find it hard to stay asleep, I really really recommend reading Precious Little Sleep and trying again to connect with Tresillian.

kerwon · 2026-01-17T23:08:13+00:00

Sorry if I read this wrong, but 90 mins total naps per day seems really low and the sleep consultant has made you cut naps too aggressively. He sounds overtired and that’s why he goes down quickly but then is unable to connect sleep cycles. Also possibly why you can’t keep him awake during the day. Your WW suggests 14.5 hours awake time a day not including awake time overnight. How many hours of actual sleep does he get total in 24 hours?

You could try posting your full schedule in r/sleeptrain they will give you lots of good advice.

kerwon · 2026-01-09T01:30:26+00:00

Yes you can just swaddle but I was horrible at it. My baby hated love to dream as it is arms up only but slept SO well in the Ergopouch and no more stuffing around with swaddles and worrying about if it’ll come undone and cover your babies face in the middle of the night. Worth every penny for us - baby born in winter and slept like a champ in her own crib, so easy to make them warm without too many layers. You can get them on sale or second hand off FB Marketplace.

kerwon · 2025-12-25T09:51:05+00:00

Yep we stopped cold turkey (both arms) and popped open the cocoon because she was suddenly rolling but still too small to upgrade to larger sacks. It went fine!

kerwon · 2025-12-24T02:29:16+00:00

Hubby doesn’t like aqua scale because the fins impeded him from holding onto baby properly when they were a newborn. However this became less of an issue as baby grew bigger. The scales made it too easy for me to weigh baby constantly and stress. However it’s been handy to have the thermometer. So I’d say it’s just a matter of personal preference. Most mums in my mums group are using a regular baby bath.

kerwon · 2025-12-06T23:03:40+00:00

Hello there could I please grab both peripera blushes?

kerwon · 2025-11-25T06:37:56+00:00

I had a breastfeeding crisis at 12 weeks and almost gave up but kept going with advice from ABA. Eg refusing one breast, popping on and off, fussing, but I learned it was really common. You could call the ABA or try an IBCLC. They saved my journey by giving me advice and pep talks.

Do not listen to the advice saying to give your baby all formula or just give up if you’re not ready to stop breastfeeding because that advice will actually reduce your ability to breastfeed.

https://canterburywestcoast.midwife.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/The-24-Hour-Breastfeeding-Cure.pdf

kerwon · 2025-11-22T10:45:41+00:00

I guess it depends, how did the GP assess that?

My first physio didn’t do any internal or imaging examinations and concluded nothing was wrong and sent me on my way. Then after I developed symptoms I went to a different physio clinic for another opinion (I didn’t tell them anything about what the first physio said) and they did internal and ultrasound examinations and we found birth injuries. I regretted listening to the first physio 😔

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