Cluster feeding and evening routine

[iloveavocado]

My 4 week old cluster feeds from about 6/7pm. Dp usually give him a bath at 9pm then he feeds again until he drops off at about 10.30pm.

Its a routine that we have worked out and it's ok, but ideally me and dp would like a bit of time alone together on an evening and I would like a bit of time away from ds - he feeds an awful lot during the day as well. Last night we tried bathing him at 7.30pm but he just cluster fed before and after until sleep at his usual time. So instead of being downstairs watching TV and chatting with dp whilst feeding, I was upstairs in a quiet darkened room trying to get ds off to sleep earlier, unsuccessfully!

I know it was just one night of us trying this and I wasn't expecting miracles, but should I persist and hope he falls asleep earlier, or is this unlikely to happen at this stage? I don't want to spend all my evenings like this, but will go with it if it's likely to work. Or we'll just go back to what we were doing before and try again when he's a bit older and feeding is more established.

A bit of advice would be great...

Thanks

[GruffaloMama]

Hi - to be honest if he's feeding he prob needs to and you might be fighting a losing battle to try to persuade him otherwise. Or (much worse, IMHO) he might wake more in the night to get the feeds he needs. I'd be inclined to go with it until he's a bit older - I'm sure it'll only be a few weeks until he needs to cluster feed less. And like you say, you can be chatting to DP/watching telly etc.

My DS cluster fed in the evening until he was about 10 weeks. By then the feeds had spaced out so that he had one at 6:30, one at 8:30 and one at 11pm. So we started putting him to bed after his 8:30 feed. After a couple of weeks he dropped the 11pm feed and me and DH started being able to have evenings together alone.

HTH

[CMOTdibbler]

Ds stopped cluster feeding till so late of his own accord. Once he was starting to nod off at 8 ish, I'd take him upstairs at 7.30, and lie down and feed him till he fell asleep, then brought that time back as he fell asleep earlier.

I suppose that if he was amenable, I'd bath him earlier than 9 as its a bit of a wake up. So maybe your DP could bath him at 6 (getting in the bath together is really nice btw, so maybe DP could have a wind down together), get him in night nappy, grobag etc, then let him feed as much as he wants.