Night feeds

ollymum76 · Feb 17, 2010 4:14PM

Hi,
I am interested to see how are your LO's are doing (or did early on) at night? Its frustrating reading about all these babies that sleep through and finding out they are bottle fed so I can't even copy the routines!

Oliver is 7 weeks and 3 days old and following a good night time routine. ie having bath at 7.30pm followed by breastfeed and then down in his cot. He then usually doesn't wake til about 1-2am and then again at 5-6am before going back down til 7.30am. I am trying to make sure we get up at a regular time so that he knows what to expect.

Any tips on getting him to go longer would be much appreciated!!

Sarah.x

_Minnie09_ · Feb 11, 2010 8:01AM

Hi Sarah

Olyvia is 7 weeks, 3 days too and I'm feeding on demand and we don't really have a routine yet. I'm just going with what she needs and when and hopefully she'll fall into her own routine at some point.

As she was premature and so small she had to have strict 3 hourly feeds until just recently when she reached 7lbs. Now the HV said we can leave her to sleep up to 4 hours in the day and up to 5 hours at night - but she never sleeps that long at night! In the day she'll go 4 hours sometimes and at night from about 5am onwards she'll sometimes go 4 hours but not always.

She usually feeds around 11pm, then 2am, then 4.30am and then around 8.30am. But as we're feeding on demand the times are different everynight.

Sounds like your LO is doing really well to be going so long and getting into some sort of routine already!

Love NN and Olyvia xxx

Coco-25 · Feb 11, 2010 2:50PM

I think that's really good going for a 7 week old. We were still 2-3 hourly at this point day and night.

EnglebertW_nkface · Feb 11, 2010 3:52PM

Barney was doing similar at that age. What we found helped us get a good stretch when we went to bed was to give him a dream feed (normally of EBM) at about 10.30. This replaced the 1am feed so then I was only having to get up once (at about 4.30am) to feed him which I didn't mind at all because he settled really quickly. This feed gradually got later and then we gradually made the dream feed earlier untill he was sleeping right through, but that wasn't untill about 8 months. I think some babies do naturally settle into a routine quicker than others, at 7 weeks with my first I was still up half the night feeding her :roll:
xx

mrsa111 · Feb 12, 2010 7:58AM

just quickly...that seems perfect to me. We were the same. Aimee can occasionally go longer now...but only occasionally.
There seems to be a big obsession with baby sleeping through the night....i don't understand it.
So long as when you feed it is done with minimum of fuss and baby goes straight back off to sleep its no problem waking to feed.

So many women (and i'm not saying you) get into their head that baby HAS to sleep through....WHY??
I have been "advised" by ff mums to give my lo formula at night to get her through....i always question them. I don't mind waking to feed my baby if she needs it.

just my opinion

MJx

ollymum76 · Feb 13, 2010 5:16AM

Mrsa111 I don't mind too much if he can go 4 hours in between as he settles so well after it really isn't a problem. Its just really when I have to think about going back to work that I hope he goes though! Even if he would do it just once or twice for now just to let me get a full night it would be great!

BabyVogue · Feb 17, 2010 3:41PM

hey

i don't think it makes any difference if baby is breast or bottle fed, it's all about tummy size! one of my friends has a breastfed babe who sleeps through but mine doesn't!

my lo was really good early on, going 4 hours between feeds. she is now 5 months old today and over the last 6 weeks she's been waking me up for food every 2 hours! it's amazing the way it can turn. i'm hoping when she's on solids things will change. at the moment she has really spaced out feeds during the day but then guzzles breastmilk at night time!

i tried to give her formula as the last feed hoping she'd sleep longer but the monkey wouldn't take the bottle!!

gemm-42032 · Feb 17, 2010 4:14PM

HI everyone, ive got 3 kids, age 4, 2 and half and the new one who is 2 and half weeks.

I bottle fed my first and BF my second kids and my ff dropped his night feed at 6 weeks which was 3 weeks before my bf son, My breast fed son dropped his 10pm feed though way before my ff son did. The thing about giving formula so they sleep longer in my opinion is rubbish. My bf son was sleeping from 7-7 ish before he was 4 months, even though the one that had formula still had this feed until he was about 1.

I do feed on demand to a certain extent but i do believe in encouraging baby into a sleeping routine which usually helps the feeding to fall into a good routine.

I put baby down at 7pm ish, but i wake him if he doesnt wake first between 10-11pm to feed him. This should mean (not always) that he wakes at 3 ish to feed then again between 6-7.

He is still getting up some nights at 5am as well but as he gets bigger that should push to later.

One thing i find when they are tiny is not to dream feed, but to make sure baby is fully awake at 10pm so he takes a really good feed to see him through. The nights he is sleepy at this time is usually the nights he wakes up again about 1am which means he will def be up again before morning.

Its all trial and error to see what works for you and your baby

Gemm x

Night feeds

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