Formula dream feed or early weaning?

[IceNoSlice]

Any advice welcome. I wasn't sure whether to post here or in the 'Sleep' section.

LO is 4 months old. EBF with a bottle of EBM a day (usually about 2-3oz though I sometimes get him to take 4oz). Day times are lovely, night times are horrendous. He has never got through the night without at least 3 feeds, but now he is up every hour. I am so tired. DH is great, and has been helping as much as he can but works full time and is also knackered.

Before I think about sleep training, I was wondering if he is hungry? He's a big baby (98th centile) and was full term.

Weaning: I know the NHS advice is now to wean at 6 months, but it used to be 4 months and I believe it is not unsafe from 17 weeks. Friends seem to have weaned at about 5 months. So this seems an option. However I was hoping to delay weaning until the New Year as i haven't done any reading or bought high chair etc yet (and getting out of the house will be harder).

Formula dream feed: I am not anti FF but for some reason am a bit apprehensive about giving him formula, even though it would only be one bottle a day. But if it fills him up and helps him sleep??!!

Anyone got any advice? TIA

16 weeks is e classic time for sleep regression, often confused with the need to wean. I exclusively expressed for my ds until 18 weeks when it just became too much so I introduced a dream feed at our bed time of ebm around 16 weeks. Which lengthened the time until his next feed rather than him waking hungry. At around 18 weeks I started with formula because the pumping was hard going. I gave hi. H formula, during the day to begin with because I was worried about wind through the night and eventually he had his last bottle of ebm at 24 weeks.

A sorry hats a bit of a ramble, what I'm trying to say is maybe try Intoducing formula through the day and keep the ebm for the dream feed.

I wouldn't be tempted to wean just yet, we left it with ds until 25 weeks.

Thank you Glaikit (love the Christmas nn by the way).

Interesting advice re EBM rather than formula at night. I guess my concern is that he won't take a full feed from a bottle yet, only c.3oz.

I will try an EBM dream feed tonight.

I think ds was having around 5ozs per feed if ebm, but he was fed like a ff baby only with ebm.

I think there is a myth out there that formulat fills them up for longer, I never found this to be true.
Its trial and error, until you find what happens to work for you. :)

Sounds like 4 month sleep regression. It's crap but it doesn't last forever!

Co-sleeping got us through!

There is a big sleep regression at 4 months which played havoc with DS's sleep. He barely slept from 16-20 weeks & I was exhausted.

We introduced a dreamfeed which didn't help us much but does work for some & worth a go...anything is worth a go when it comes to sleep IMO!

I found this useful when thinking about dreamfeeds

Was just going to say: classic time for sleep to go to hell in a handbasket. It's a big developmental spurt which can make their wee brains go haywire and need to wake frequently - if it's the four month sleep regression it's almost certainly not hunger so extra feeds or weaning probably aren't going to help (and there's no guarantee that weaning would help sleep even if it was hunger: breastmilk/formula are more calorific than anything a just-weaned baby would be eating).

The bad thing is there's not much you can do about it, the good thing is that it usually stops by itself. It's pretty hideous at the time, though, sympathies!

Why do you think 3oz is not a 'full feed' for your baby? Am interested because that's about what I would get if I express, and the baby seems happy after that much (well, as happy as he ever is when not presented with a breast!)

Thanks all, interesting article about the Virgin Gut theory Seriously. Food (ahem) for thought.

Pretty unanimous about the 4 month sleep regression. How long did this last for you all?

MistressIggi, my FF friends say their LOs (born in same week, little bit smaller than mine) are on 5-6oz in each bottle. I assumed it would be the same quantity for EBM?

Bm evolves and becomes more calorific where formula stays the same calorie wise. But in the absence of any info I went by the formula volumes.

I think DS1's 4 month regression was at least a week, maybe a little more. I have attempted to blot out the horror....

I see, I just think bf babies are likely to have different feeding patterns (unless you have them in a four-hourly routine rather than feeding roughly on demand). So, a feed is just whatever the baby wants to take!
Hope you get more sleep tonight!

Thanks MistressIggi. It's not looking good so far- fed him to sleep and got him down at about 7.15, he woke up again at 8
Oh well, this too will pass [brave face]

Mine usuaLly wakes an hour after I get him to sleep. Just like he naps an hour after he gets up in the morning. It's just as well they're cute.

Just to echo what others have said, it is probably absolutely nothing to do with hunger. Babies wake for so many other reasons. It's probably developmental.

If you are always feeding to sleep, there's no harm in trying to get him down occasionally 'sleepy but awake'. This may help him to learn that he doesn't have to have a boob in his mouth every time he stirs to send himself back off :)

Some people think this theory of 'sleep associations' is bollleaux, but it's been absolutely true for mine, and the babies of many many many friends.

Bit of an update: we have the first tooth!

Last night was awful, I got up so many times we ended up co-sleeping (nothing wrong with that, I know, it's just not my choice). Then in late afternoon his right cheek went very red, he had a little screech and I checked- sure enough a wee tooth had appeared.

I had thought he was maybe teething a week or two ago (rosy cheeks, dribble, nappy rash) but it seemed to have gone away. Guess not!

Thanks for listening and the advice all. I'm planning on continuing to EBF until the New Year (5 months) then we'll see.