How many times a night does your 4mo feed?

[mistressploppy]

I can't work out what's 'right' and 'normal'

He feeds at 10ish and 2ish, wakes at 5ish but I don't feed him then; I shh him back to sleep for another hour

It's just - he's never that interested in the first feed of the day, when we get up at 7ish. Is he eating too much at night? It can really vary how much he seems to take - quite often the night feeds are pretty half-hearted as he's just falling asleep on the job.

He is not fed to sleep at nap or bedtimes but settles himself with some shh-ing.

He's pretty distractible with feeding at the moment but I remember this phase with the older one...

Should I be trying to push him to just one night feed, to make it a more satisfying one? I wonder if he's getting too much foremilk too....

Argh, too many questions, sorry...

Don't worry about what you 'should' be doing- there's no right and wrong way to parent. How are things working for you?

Most 4 mo babies are still waking at least once or twice during the night. A lot of mothers notice that at this age their babies 'regress' and wake up more often. This is temporary! You don't need to do anything to encourage them to sleep. Sleeping for longer periods is a developmental milestone, just like crawling, walking etc. You don't need to teach them it.

This is a really good website about sleep.

Frequent feeds will help more with the fore/hindmilk balance. It's a common thing to worry about but there is a lot of confusion about it. This is a good explanation.

I won't even try to advise you...but if it helps in anyway to know this, my DS has become very distracted during daytime feeds in the last 3-4 days. I have taken the advice of another MN and tried BF in our bedroom where it is cool and dark, sometimes it works, sometimes not. During this hot weather I have offered him the boob every few hours for fear of him getting dehydrated, but he is sure to tell me when he doesn't want any!

It feels like he has been going through a permenant growth spurt and whilst it is a relief he is feeding every 4 hours or so during the day now, he is up every 2 hours through the night. My partner gives him a bottle at 8.45pm, then he goes to bed. DS wakes by 1am (sometimes by 11pm) and then every few hours until around 8.30am. And he def isn't just feeding for comfort each time, as he takes a good glug for a min of 15 mins and max of 40 mins each time!

Dd is nearly 4mo. She did about 10 nights from 7 to 5am, then a couple weeks of feeding constantly 6pm to 10th or 11 but then sleeping until 7am, but for the last week feeding hourly in the afternoon and evening and every 2-3 hours at night. I guess she's thirsty with the heat.

I try to feed her just before the nursery run and ds's bedtime and leave the rest to sort itself out.

btw my DS is 20 weeks...

My 4mo feeds 3 or 4 times a night at the moment. Until a couple of weeks ago it was only once. She also gets distractable during daytime feeds...

Thanks everyone.

GiantTess - yeah, he did go though a phase of fewer feeds but that was a good month or so ago. I think he just started the annoying 4mo things a month early

I think I'll just try and go with the flow... famous last words