19 weeks and still feeding every two hours...

[AbiAbi]

As the title says, my DS is now 19 weeks and still feeding every 90 minutes - two hours.

He is BF but has had a bottle of formula in the evening maybe six or seven times, to give me a break

Is it normal that he's still eating this often? Will his feeds space out naturally over time? I love BF but I do feel utterly drained some days!

Thanks

Is this day and night?

My DS (22 weeks) has just gone back to feeding every 2 hours day and night having previously been 2 1/2-3 during the day and 5-6 at night. I think they are pretty variable and unpredictable to be honest. Someone will be along whose baby fed every hour forever and someone else whose baby fed only 4 hourly from 10 weeks. They baffle me!!

Sorry, thats NO help at all is it.... sleep exhaustion is eating my brain!

No it does help to know I'm not the only oe, thank you ]

Yes it's day and night; it is making a bedtime routine difficult as by the time I've settled him he wakes in a little while for another feed, and so sometimes end up downstairs with us again- is that really bad? I don't feel like it is but most of the mums I know are getting their babies settled and sleeping through from 7-11.

2 hourly in the day is pretty normal, my ds fed at least 2.5 hourly until he was weaned on solids.

I had a period where he was sleeping an 8 hour stretch at night, but it all went wrong around 4 months and he was up every 2 hours in the night. I think you have to consider whether the night wakings are for hunger or comfort - if your baby is feeding back to sleep rather than feeding for hunger, I'd consider trying your DP/DH doing nightwakings for a while and settling the baby with rocking or a dummy.

I tried this around 5 months - basically decided I would feed 7pm, 11pm, 3am and 7am, and if ds woke in between these times DP went to him. I still fed on demand during the day. I also stopped feeding to sleep at bedtime and DP rocked him to sleep then too.

I'd recommend reading 'the no-cry sleep solution'. It could be that he's used to settling himself to sleep with boob, so when he wakes at night (totally normal afaik as babies sleep quite lightly and have not long sleep cycles) he needs boob to get back to sleep even if he's not really hungry.

2 hourly during the day sounds pretty normal TBH, but 12+ feeds in 24 hours does seem like a lot for a baby that old IMHO.

My dd fed 2 hourly til I weaned her and even then would need something every 2 hours - she even woke every 2 hours til about 7 months. She is now 8 monhs and is cutting down her feeds and even sleeping through sometimes. It will get better it just might take time I'm afraid.