Should I encourage 3 month old to eat more at 2am to avoid further wakings?

[Shahsham]

DS2 generally feeds around 9pm, 2am, 4am then 6am (sometimes waking for the day at 6, sometimes going til 7)

He seems hungry at 2 but not much at 4. However he falls asleep easily after one side at 2am. Should I be keeping him awake and making him eat more at 2 to try and drop the 4am feed?

I cant leave him to grumble/cry at 4am to see if he'll go back to sleep without feeding cos he'll wake DS1 who is an awful sleeper (currently waking 3 times a night aged 2.10!)

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Can you maybe pull the 9pm forward to 8, then lift and dreamfeed at say 11/11.30 before you go to sleep. He may then go through til 4?

[Fruitsaladmum]

I suspect it will not help very much. It is common for them to get one good long sleep and then wake more frequently for the rest of the night.
Maybe give it a go for a few days and see what happens?

[Coughle]

Echo what pp said. Also his stomach can only hold so much, so he may not be able to have a big enough feed to get him through. Mine still does the long sleep, then lots of waking in the morning thing... He's over a year.

[Shahsham]

Thats true about the small stomach. And he wont dreamfeed either unfortunately. He's actually quite a bad feeder - is putting weight on really well but if I dare move when he's latched on he loses the nipple and refuses to latch on again, whilst crying in hunger

DS1 is such a bad sleeper that nothing I tried ever worked (we've since discovered two medical/physical reasons for his bad sleep). Im not used to having a good sleeper and wondered if I could 'tweak' his sleep to make it even better as Im so sleep deprived from DS1

[whitemusk]

One way to encourage baby to take more is a technique called breast compression. After baby's suckling slows on the first side you start the gentle compressions and it triggers another let down and more suckling. After the sucking slows a second time you can offer the second breast and repeat breastfeeding.support/what-is-breast-compression/ I agree with the other posters that it is normal for a baby to of 3 months to wake frequently and they can take up to 30% of their calories at night so you have to go with the flow really. An IBCLC Lactation Consultant may help with trouble shooting why he sounds a bit frustrated at the breast but if he is gaining weight that is a good sign that you're doing well.