How often should I feed my 14 week old?

[AmandaNov10]

Hi Everyone,

My baby is almost 14 weeks old and she is BF. She takes 6oz and has 5 bottles per day. Problem is she's a great sleeper, she is in bed for about 6:30 - 7pm and sleeps through to about 7am. So, to give her the 5 feeds in the day I have to feed her every 3 hours, feels like it's all I do! If she's having a nap I almost always have to wake her up for a feed. A few days ago I fed her every 4 hours so she only had 4 bottles but she was up at 2;30 for a feed. So, my questions is do I stick to the three hourly feeds and thank my lucky stars I've got a good sleeper! Or, do I do 4 hourly feeds and give her a dream feed before I go to my bed?

What do you all think?!

Ooooh what a dilemma! Seriously, you do realise how lucky you are don't you?????

3 hourly feeding in the day is not often at all, and she sleeps through all night, and has naps in the day too. Just count yourself lucky and hope things don't change!

Yes, you really are lucky. If you are finding giving a bottle every 3 hours in the day tough when she's slept till 7am I can lend you one of mine for a week if you like

I bf my DS (17 weeks) 3 hourly (ISH) and he feeds at 10pm, 3am and 6am in addition to 'through the day'. He feeds 7 times in 24 hours usually. It sounds like she is doing fine. Feeding less often than 3 hourly is fairly unusual in a bf baby I think. How are you finding all the expressing? I imagine that must be the pita fitting that in too no?

I think OP meant "bottle fed" for BF. Am I wrong OP?

Oh yeah sorry, I did mean bottle fed! Sorry, this is my first post and I have to say the hardest thing about mumsnet is the jargon!! Took me about an hour to work out what PFB was the other day! (I think it is precious first born!!)

oops, sorry. Doh!
So you can probably just ignore my previous post then :)

OP, try this:

www.mumsnet.com/info/acronyms

Useful, IMHO.

HTH

Presumed you had meant ff not bf as I was wondering how the hell you managed to express that much without going insane

I'm just not that bright JJJ

Thanks TB. My DS is 14 weeks old and EBF and has similar feeding pattern to yours. Was wondering if it was excessive but you have reassured me :)

Bailey your feeding pattern sounds pretty normal for a bf baby to me. Do you mix with any bfing Mums in RL?

Our little one is 16 weeks old, feeds at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 6pm and dreamfeed at 11pm. He's formula fed and goes to bed at 6.30pm - usually waking at about 5am (which we try and get him back to sleep) then wakes properly at about 6.30am. That's 5 bottles a day, and every 4 hours except for 3pm and 6pm - that's because he's always so tired by 6pm that we couldn't keep him awake and not screaming for milk any later. Every 3 hours isn't too bad, although I agree it might seem like you do nothing else. Have you tried giving the baby a bigger bottle to stretch the 3 hours to 3 and a half-4? Our DS is a big baby which may make a difference to the feeding pattern. 18lbs ish and taking 8oz feeds.

amanda I'd say stick with the 3 hour feeds in the day. It might feel like a bind but you are enjoying the payoff at night and they are this small for such a short time. It really won't be many more weeks before you are thinking of weaning and the weeks will fly by.

And anyway, I couldn't imagine going more than 3 hours without drinking or eating, I would probably faint, scream or both

You are very lucky indeed! My EBF baby is now (more or less) sleeping through the night but is feeding every 2 hours during the day ... and she normally takes about 45 minutes to feed! She is 16 weeks and i am just starting to get her used to 1 bottle a day, which has been a struggle. I need some independence! You reall are a very lucky mummy!

JJJ majority of mums I know (not many locally unfortunately) EBF but my 2 closest friends have both been blessed with amazing sleepers who don't feed between 11 and 7. Kind of hoped that we would have dropped to only once between 8 and 8 but I guess I should just be thankful that he goes to sleep straight after his night feeds and enjoy my late night MN sessions :)

baileys it never happed for me either and a close friend bf and her first slept 7 till 7 from 2 weeks and the 2nd from 6 weeks.

Long since stopped bfing and one of mine still usually manages to wake me during some part of the night.

Like you say, we don't stress about it though.

That should be happened of course

Thanks so much everyone for the reassurance! I was having a fed-up day when I posted I guess its really not that bad at all feeding every three hours then a good nights sleep! I have actually just put her up to 7oz but she is still feeding every three hours so I guess she is used to her little routine!

She has however in the last week started waking lots in the night for her dummy, i dont need to do anything but give the dummy and she's straight back to sleep sometimes for half an hour sometimes for 2 hours it really varries. Teeth I think?? Any thoughts welcome!!!

She is probably waking up because the dummy's fallen out - it's really common. Babies quickly learn associations - if she goes to sleep with it in her mouth, she will come to expect it to be in her mouth every time she stirs slightly in her sleep.

I would see if you can take it away completely and get her to fall to sleep without it in her mouth. Otherwise you might find you're replacing it regularly until she can do it herself.

I had to get rid of the dummy at bedtime at about 5 months for the same reason - if you do it now when she's young it'll probably be easier than when she's older.

Oh! Ok, thanks for the advice, I'll see if I can get her to go down without it!!