How do you lengthen the gap between night feeds?

[AnMum]

My 7wo ds feeds every 3.5-5 hours during the day. He goes to bed at 7pm and generally won't wake for a feed until nearly midnight. However, after that he wants feeding every 2-3 hours, just when we are desperate to be asleep!! Does anyone have good ideas on moving the lnger gaps to be during the night? We have tried 'dream feeding' him before we go to bed but this doesn't work.

He is fed both breast milk and formula but both from a bottle. He is 13lb so pretty big for his age.

I had the same problem but mine is only on formula as couldn't bf. My midwife suggested to wake DS on the 3hrs right up until midnight, then if he didn't wake for longer leave him to sleep. It does work but will take time.

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Basically tank 'em up during the day, then 'stretch' them at night. So say one night they wake at 3am, but the next night 2.45 - well you know they can go til 3 so don't feed them til 3. Instead use rocking/dummy/other soothing techniques described in the book. Their body clocks learn so quickly that after 1 or 2 nights they never wake before 3 again. Then say one night they wake at 3.30 so again you never feed before 3.30. I started this at 6wks with DS and he was sleeping through by 10 wks. It's a brilliant book, explains it a lot better than me!

It's what babies do! Every 2.5-3 hours is about right, did you not expect this from a baby? You should be doing nothing to lengthen time in between feeds, they have tiny tummies that need filling regularly.

Oh and it's ridiculous to say this is a "problem", silverpigeon!

That's just what little babies do. He will lengthen the gap all by himself when he's ready. I'm afraid you just have to hang in there until he does.

What Bobby and SleepWhenImDead said - totally normal at that age and he'll grow out of it soon enough.

In those early weeks you need to go to bed at the same time as the DC to get a decent night's kip.

It is normal, but you can try feeding more frequently during the day. Try feeding every 2-3 hours, waking him if necessary. It may just flip the balance a bit.

Normal I'm afraid. You just have to go with it.

Some people find that waking lo up during the day so that they don't go longer than 3 hours between feeds means theygo longer at night. That never worked for me though - mine just wouldn't wake up and feed unless they wanted to.

And yes, when your lo sleeps at 7pm you need to get some sleep then too. I remember how tempting it is to stay up and enjoy your evening but you'll regret it later!

This won't go on forever, even if it feels like it.

But beware that some babies don't like being woken in the day - I tried this with DS and it just made him overtired, screamy and impossible to settle in the evening. :(

The Lemur has good advice...follow it! I did it with all of mine ( and other peoples, when I was a maternity nurse) up until 3 months, I gave them a dream feed at 11pm, so that I knew they weren't starving, and then I phased this 11pm feed out when they were no longer waking after the 11pm feed.