Running out of steam ....

[Millie1]

... to think that only a few weeks ago I was stressed out that DS (now nearly 15w) was spacing his feeds out too much. From one extreme to the other! He's now feeding every 2 hrs during the night and I'm absolutely exhausted. I spoke to HV/LC about this about 10 days ago and she suggested feeding him more during the day and also trying to get him into some sort of a nap routine (missing). So have been loosely following Gina but to my own times and not very strictly.

Well now we have the perfect napper - 2 hrs up, then down etc. Daytime feeds are every 3 hrs or so - I did try G's schedule for a day or two and he fed really well on it cos he was really hungry after 4 hrs but I wasn't trying to follow it so rigidly that he cut out night feeds cos I believe he still needs them. Anyway, end of last week was perfect, bed at 7.3/8pm, up for feed & nappy at 10.30 or 11pm, sleeping til maybe 3.30 or later and then waking at 6.30 or 7 for his next feed. Heaven.

Now? Same time to bed, same nappy change/late feed, then up at 2am, 4am, 6am and me having to re-swaddle him multiple times inbetween. This morning I fell asleep in the middle of his 2am feed so have no idea how much he took but when he woke before 4am, I tucked him in twice thinking he could not be hungry. Anyway, he had to get fed and I watched him ... 3 mins of feeding (and not gulping) and sound asleep ... comfort feed.

In total, he's taking maybe 8-10 feeds in a 24 hr period.

Any suggestions?

Hi Millie1, my ds started to demand more milk from about 15wks and I started him on solids at 19wks. He has always been around 80-90centile on the weight chart and needed more than my milk by then. It was the best thing we could have done. After being on solids for a week or so the night feeds decreased and ds started sleeping alot longer at night. After two weeks he was sleeping through from 7pm-6am. He was much happier all round.

Not sure if you want to start solids early or not, but IME it sounds like your ds is heading that way. I've seen other suggestions that formula 'lasts longer' in the tummy and might sustain him longer at night if you wanted to introduce a bottle.

HTH and it's horrible isn't it when you drop down to one middle of the night waking and then it shoots back up to 2 or 3 more... I remember the feeling well..

I'm sure someone more expert will come on but there is no evidence to suggest that giving solids so early will help. If you want to exclusivly breastfeed then there is no need for solids until around 6 months. There is a thread about this as this is the dept of health recommendations.Carrot does not have more calories than breast milk.
Possibly going through a growth spurt? My dd us 5v months and feeds every 3 hours or so at night and probably would have fed as often as yours at that age. I'm not a fan of dummies bit if he is not hungry this might help?
What about expressing your milk and getting someone else to give it to give you a break?

Agreed that nothing is better than breast milk at this time. We introduced solids as a supplement on top of the continued 7 milk feeds as I couldn't cope with this increasing to 10 (I was just too knackered). Plus it was clearly not enough for DS. DS loved his solids, however, it was only at 7 months that his milk feeds were reduced gradually to three.

Some people are very particular about avoiding solids until atleast 6 months (for various reasons) but only you can judge this for your baby, guidlines or not (and they are just guidelines!). HTH.

Thanks for the advice. We've had a couple of nights which were better - feeds at say 3am and 5.30am and then refusing his next feed til maybe 11.30am!!!! Maybe a bit of day-night confusion too but not sure how to sort that out as he simply will not feed if he isn't hungry. I think he does take real growth spurt-y days and maybe that's what happened during the week.

For now, I'm going to avoid introducing solids as I'd like to hold off to 6 mths which is what I did with DS1 but I won't starve him in the meantime!

Hercules, I'm not into dummies either although we tried one a few weeks ago and much to my delight he spat it out!! Am expressing for milk bank at the moment so don't really want to be expressing for home too ...

Great, sounds like he's settling back into his routine. If I remember rightly I think I had a cut-off point for morning feeds, something like if he woke around 4-4:30am he got a milk feed, if after then I tried to hold him off until 6:30am when the day 'started'. Easier said than done I know... For me it helped having the day 'start' at the same time each day, usually between 6:30-7am. Then it set the pattern for naps and feeds for the rest of the day.