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should i let her go longer than 4 hours between feeds?
Hi, my baby girl is nearly 7 weeks and weighs over 12lbs. She usually takes between 5 and 7oz each feed. We initially struggled to get her to go between 3 to 4 hours between feeds. At night she will happily now go between 5 and 7 hours.
I'm now finding that I'm either waking her or if she is awake feeding her every 4 hours. She doesn't search for the food at this time or cry for it so I don't think she is hungry but more ofter than not takes the full bottle. Should I just wait until she is clearly hungry I.e searching for milk etc? I'm worried because I thought she needs at least 5 bottles a day to help her sleep longer at night? Xxx
I'm now finding that I'm either waking her or if she is awake feeding her every 4 hours. She doesn't search for the food at this time or cry for it so I don't think she is hungry but more ofter than not takes the full bottle. Should I just wait until she is clearly hungry I.e searching for milk etc? I'm worried because I thought she needs at least 5 bottles a day to help her sleep longer at night? Xxx
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Replies
i found if we were very late giving a bottle it would be hard as he would scream for it and faff about so we tried to stick to a regular feeding pattern, also if he managed a long stretch he would be a couple of bottles out x
[Modified by: piggypops on September 10, 2010 11:17 AM]
just wanted to say my little one was just over 12lbs at 8 weeks and she herself started to sleep through for longer periods - i was advised not to leave her longer than 4 hours during the day but to let her sleep at night if she wanted and not to feed if she wasnt looking for it...
she is 12 weeks now and goes down between 8.30 and 9pm and then thats her til about 8am (has first bottle about 8.30am) she was wakening about 6am previously and taking a botte then going back down til 10ish and taking one then again about 1pm, 4pm and then 7.30ish so five bottles and about 6 or 7oz each feed and still gaining weight - as of last week she has dropped a bottle and is now on 4 of between 7 and 9oz so works out about the same...i am just going with it as i have always been baby led and im going to keep goign with that (going to get weighed today to check progress from 10 days ago - when she has just started to want to go longer) this coincided with her sleeping til after 7am though and she has also started napping more in the day so she is finding her own routine and im happy to go with it..
if she is taking the bottle then i would assume she was hungry (i found if i tried to offer a bottle after 3 hours and she hasnt been crying for it she would just spit it out and still does which is how we have got to 4hourly now)
you could try leaving it a little longer to see what she does but 5 bottles (including one overnight) in a 24 hour period should be fine as long as she is gainig weight and she is clearly a good size - it might be that she wants to just go 4 hours and is settling into that pattern e.g 8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm and then 3am is she sleeps longer overnight (just made up times but you get what i mean?)
it could also be that she is hungry and is showing sings in other ways (i find LO starts to move her mouth in wee sucking motions very briefly and has now started to suck her thumb lol) so look out for other queues - crying is usally a last resort as its a survival reflex they have and cry as they feel really hungry and think you are going to starve them hence why they often can get so worked up when really hungry...occasionally before settling into a pattern my DD would go 5 hours between feeds which is when she would take more but then next bottle might only go 3 hours to make up for it - does your DD do that?
this prob doesnt make sense but i would say keep feeding 4hourly but i wouldnt really leave it any longer than that to make sure she gets enough (not to help her sleep longer at night s 8 week old babies arent 'programmed' to do that so we shouldnt necessarily expect it but to ensure she gets all she needs to keep on growing)
sorry v.long and waffly...
Lx