2 1/2 week old baby...

[bumbly]

eating little amounts and often

esp at night we are getting up 5 times eg 11pm, 1am, 4am, 7am and then 9:30am

i thought folk said they were tied at nights cuz of getting up say twice...but we are getting up at least four times...and not sleeping much in between after you take into consideration nappy, winding, crying etc.. we sleep 15 mins every few hours...quite hard to say the least

LO is restless...sleeping little in between these little feeds

it is as if his stomach hasn't yet gorwn enought to cope with bigger feeds - usually 60-80ml..and if he has 90ml he tends to vomit after

has a bit of wind - perhaps mild colic but nothing big - although this wind pain does affect our nights....and he wimpers/cries all through...

do i change formula?

is this normal?

DO OTHER FOLK ON MUMSNET FEED AS MUCH AS 5 TIMES A NIGHT??

PLEASE ANY HELP!!

NOONE HELPING ME..MIDWIFE AND HV SAY FOLLOW BABY...



thanks for any info

[ProjectSeverus]

it is normal. He is tiny his stomach is smaller than an egg. It gets easier.

[MrsScavo]

I don't know too much about formular feeding, as I only breast fed when mine were this age, but that amount of feeding sounds normal to me, sepecially for a big baby. DS1 fed like this - he was 8lb 15oz when he was born.

It will get better!

[ruddynorah]

it is normal. go with it, it's early days. get help during the day with other things so you can rest then.

[elesbells]

firstly, congrats on the birth

its hard when they are like this dd2 was the same. it does get better honestly. he will shock you soon, you will wake up at 5am, realise he hasnt woken for a feed and run to the crib as fast as your legs can carry you

[bumbly]

sorry forgot to add he weighs 3.1 kgs now after losing some weight at birth and gaining it back..

really really? normal to feed so often.....???

i thought something was wrong...

and the not wanting to sleep esp at night? normal too?

[ProjectSeverus]

if you are formula feeding take it in shifts. one go to bed early and get up early. One late?

[ruddynorah]

yes normal. he doesn't know night time is for sleeping yet. he barely knows he has been born.

[MrsScavo]

What bottles are you using? Dr Browns are supposed to be good for preventing wind. Keep the lights very dim when feeding your baby at night, and only change him if he really needs it. His stomach is only about the size of is fist.

[RubySlippers]

at 2.5 weeks DS was just like this
i was bfing and he was 3 hourly day and night
it settles down
being sick after feeds, and whimpering could indicate reflux ... worth asking your HV about as well

[bumbly]

def think reflux happening to some extent - but HV not really helpful

anything i can do about it?

[bumbly]

and Lo seems ot be every 2 hourly feeding...

[Jojay]

It is normal, I'm afraid, esp. if he was a small baby.

Saying that, I would try to stuff him full during the day, and never let him go more than 3 hrs between feeds, even if you have to wake him.

Also, try doing a dream feed just before you go to bed - or perhaps DH / DP (?) can do this for you so you can have an early night. It mihgt just mean he drops the 11 pm feed.

[bumbly]

what is a dream feed

please please xcuse the ognprance

am really not a good mum

know nothing...

[RubySlippers]

if you think it is reflux then get to your GP
they can give you infant gaviscon and if that doesn't work then meds
reflux is really common and can be managed
my DS had bad silent reflux

[LaylaandSethsmum]

Agree with everyone else this is totally normal for such a tiny baby, both my kids weighed more than 3.1 kg at birth and fed all the time, little and often is all they can cope with.
You have to teach him the difference between day and night aswell gradually he will get used to it and he will begin to go longer.

[MrsScavo]

A dream feed is when you pick your baby up and feed him, without him waking first. If you do this before you go to sleep, it should give you a few hours quiet.

YOU ARE A GOOD MUM, or you wouldn't be seking advice. We have all been where you are now.

[flowerybeanbag]

DS is formula fed, was exactly the same at that age, is now 12 weeks and has one tiny pitstop at 3/4am, otherwise goes through.

Easy for me to say but believe me it Does Get Better. At 2.5 weeks you feel like you will never ever sleep again, but by 6 weeks for us anyway, it was so much better.
Do you take turns or do shifts like PS says? That is one advantage of ff, you can at least do that.

Just hang in there and I promise as everyone says, it will get better, probably pretty quickly.

And congratulations!

[EEJJ]

In our house dream feed is when we go to bed which with a newborn was normally about 8.30. Wake him up and feed him when you are ready to sleep and it might fill him up enough to go a bit longer.

If you're bottle feeding deffinitely try and take it in turns as it means you can get some sleep.

None of us know what we're doing when we start we make it up and ask about the other bits. You're doing fine and it will improve as he gets older and can take more milk.

[Jojay]

Also, if other people are saying that they only get up twice in the night, then people's interpretation of 'the night' varies hugely.

Some would say that you are only getting up twice in the night - to me ,11 pm is a late night feed before bed time, and 7 am and 9.30 am are definitely morning, not night time!!!

So it's all open to interpretation! I bet loads of 2 1/2 week old babies follow a similar pattern.

[Jojay]

We used to do our dream feed at 10 - 10.30. DH always did it.

[ruddynorah]

yes. lots will say their baby sleeps through but they mean midnight til 5 or such like.

[catstar]

Bumbly - your message is the exact one I was thinking of posting this afternoon. Our DD is 3.3 weeks and feeding every 2 -3 hours during the day and night. Most of her feeds are formula, of about 90ml, with about 3 feeds of expressed breast milk during the day. I thought that formula fed babies were supposed to sleep for longer - but no luck yet!!! We've tried extending the gaps between feeds to encourage her to take more at the next one, but she screams blue murder - bright red and breath holding - and tries to eat anything that goes near her mouth!

I've had conflicting advice from HV and midwives - one will say just go with the flow - it's early days etc, then the next one will say it's never too early to get a routine going, don't get into bad habits etc....

We also had a problem with vomiting, so much that a trip to A&E in the middle of the night seemed necessary! They have diagnosed DD with mild reflux for which the doctor has prescribed infant Gaviscon which we mix with every other feed - this has helped enormously. It does make for some stinky nappies though! We switched formula last week from Cow & Gate to Aptamil on advice from the doctor. Not sure it's made a massive difference.

Not sure if this helps - if only to let you know you are not alone. Knowing this is certainly helping me. I intend to just keep going with the demand feeding for now.

HTH .

[JodieG1]

Normal. Ds2 still feeds 4-5 times a night at 7 months and lots during the day, I'm still bf.

[JodieG1]

Oh and by during the night I mean between say 11 and 6ish. He feeds loads still and in the evening will cluster feed until around 8-9pm lately and then wake an hour later for more.

[gingerninja]

Bumbly, you're doing a great job. We didn't have any sense of night and day for the first few weeks and if I wasn't feeding we were winding and getting very little sleep. It does slowly get better and they start to space their feeding out but it is natural for them to feed so frequently especially because it's so hot at the moment. They do have really tiny tummies and it's exhausting feeding so make sure you get as much rest as possible. This stage won't last for long i promise. Good luck