11pm feed - introducing formula?

[MtnBikeChick]

Hi there
My baby is 5 weeks old and is in a routine - I know that some people don't agree with this but please bear with me as I am looking for some advice! My baby has naturally fed well every 3 hours from 3 days old and every 4 hours at night. He never lost weight from birth and has gained 2 lbs in 5 weeks so I am comfortable the routine works for him and me. He goes down to bed at 7pm each evening and sleeps until 11pm when I wake him for a feed. He is feeding much more efficiently now and feeds that used to take an hour now take 30-40mins. However, I am concerned about how much milk he is getting at the 11pm feed. Some nights he clearly takes a lot and will sometimes sleep through until 4.30am. Some nights he is very sleepy and takes less, and then wakes around 2am. I am considering either (a) expressing in the morning and giving him a bottle of EBM at 11pm so I know how much he is getting (I tried a bottle this week and he took it instantly and had no trouble going back to the boob); or (b) giving him a bottle of formula at 11pm. Does anyone have any advice experience of this approach?
Please don't bash my routine - horses for courses, all babies and mothers are different and all that.
Thanks so much! :)

We have a routine too (dc3 ebf age 10 weeks)and she sleeps from 7pm til about 3am then i wake her at 7am if necessary to feed her before the school run. We gave dc1 formula at 10pm from 4 months(he'd been sleeping from 7pm to about 3am) and at first he started waking more in the night,wierd. He settled back to sleeping long stretches quite soon. If you give a bottle just to see how much he is getting then what are you going to do if he only drinks part of it?

Sounds like you both doing really well, I don't see why you'd want to change anything unless you want your dp to do the 11pm and you could get to bed earlier (I'm fast asleep at 11pm).

Sorry I don't understand why you would do this - it sounds as if things are going very smoothly. Babies feed on demand, so sometimes they will want more or less, and also it will depend on how much foremilk / hindmilk they are taking in. If he is gaining weight well and you are both happy with the routine you are in for now, I think you would be causing yourself more hassle by introducing a bottle of any sort tbh.

Agree with Sirboob- things sounds just fine.

You don't need to know how much he is getting - his weight gain is obviously great.

Feeding directly will save you the hassle of sterilising and pumping earlier in the day.

Oh, and one other thing.....you may find that your baby wants more milk soon as the 6 week growth spurt could be just around the corner.

Thanks everyone for your views, I think I am a teeny bit of a control freak so I worry sometimes he isn't getting enough milk at 11pm, but I will just chill out for a while. I would like my husband to be able to do the odd 11pm feed so will continue to express and build up a little milk bank in the freezer but will continue as I am for the next few weeks at least.

My DS is 10 weeks and he is on a similar routine. At the moment he seems to wake up at about 3am. My DH has been giving him a bottle of EBM at about 11pm - he guzzles 180ml - while I am expressing for the following night.
I am now considering reverting to a BF to see if his sleep pattern changes at all. We know he is used to a bottle so I may just give him some EBM as a top up to keep him used to the bottle, instead of doing it every night. The expressing regime is quite hard going, and I think it might be easier just to do a BF before bed.
Reverting to a BF will mean I am not sure how much he'll be getting and whether it will be enough, but I am going to experiment. Last night we tried to get more into him by doing 10 mins on the breast, followed by his 180ml EBM - but he didn't take the last 50ml of the bottle (after we stopped for a nappy change). So he may be getting enough - and just waking at 3am as he's hungry again by then.
For your 5-week old 3am certainly seems normal. I think ours slept till 4.30am a few times around 6 weeks, but I have to say in recent weeks it's more often nearer 3am.