Nocturnal feeds.

[Viagrafalls]

Hello, I have a 7 week old baby who seems to be going up to 5/6 hours during the day without wanting to feed yet who wakes every 2/3 hours for feeds at night. (I am combination feeding) A typical day will go like this;
6-7 am wake for a BF then back to sleep until..
Anytime between 10-1130 when she will have 3/4 oz
More sleep until...
2.30- anything between 2-3 oz then back to sleep
4ish BF for half an hour (but she will doze on and off throughout so this is really difficult to gauge)
at 6.30/7 I have a real struggle to get her to have a 4 oz bottle before bed
We wake her at 10.30 for a feed, sometimes she has 4 oz, sometimes less.
She will then drain 4 oz bottles every 2 hours in the night.
She is such a lovely baby but this is so frustrating as obviously if she was doing this at night it would be so much better - I simply cannot keep her awake when she is tired during the day - she will literally scream until she is 'allowed' to go back to sleep and the same with milk, she will choke and splutter and push my breast/the bottle out of her mouth until I stop trying.
Does anyone have any tips, or has anyone come through something similar? I would really liker some advice please...

Please?

It does sound like she has her days and nights muddled up. I know you've said it's hard to wake her when she wants to sleep, but maybe make it a gradual change, shift her feeds in the day by 15-30 mins each day and see how that goes.

My DD used to go off around 2am, wake at around 7 for a feed, then sleep all morning. Didn't bother me while I was catching up on sleep myself but then I realised I was missing out on time to get things done. I just woke her half an hour earlier each day and before I knew it she was going to bed at 7, having a 2 o'clock feed and them sleeping again til 7am.

Sorry can't help, but partly because I haven't slept in four months now!!! DD LOVES to eat through the night. Hope someone comes on with some great ideas, but I worry it might just be how some babies are.

Oh, and don't forget, she's maybe still at the settling-in stage. In the next couple of weeks she could flummox you all with a completely new routine.

Ha! Well, the thing is she sleeps like a log between feeds at night and is awake for quite a lot of the day so I thought that meant she had gone the 'right was round' so to speak as before she just slept all the bloody time. Its just the feedding that is a problem IYSWIM

Ah... Well, urm, does she wake suddenly and cry for these night feeds or does she just get restless?

And as for sleeping during the day - not always a bad thing! My DS hardly sleeps during the day at all and, what with having to fend off his 2yo sister as well as entertain the two of them, I get nothing done!

She sort of gets restless and then cries, building up to a crescendo, I try not to let her get too upset, I give it a few minutes to see if she will go back to sleep and if she doesnt then I sit up and feed her. Do you think I should try leaving her a bit longer? I guess I worry that she needs her milk and has to get it whenever she wants it - I mean, I suppose if I stopped giving her so much at night would she start to catch up during the day or would it just be very traumatic and exhausting for both of us?

I can seeing it being traumatic and exhausting, yes, but it might be worth a go. Sorry, can't really suggest anything else.

Oh, I was hoping you might have a magical solution!
I will try, just maybe not tonight. i'm so tired!

I do know what you mean about not letting her get too upset though. I've never been a fan of CC but if I can't get to either of my DCs immediately then they have to cry.

I had (have) problems with DD getting to sleep on her own and started dream feeding her before she dropped her night feed altogether. I found that she went off easier if she didn't get upset before a feed, so I do understand your problem wrt the 'crescendo'.