Finish the bottle

[Sal1105]

Hello everyone. I am new to Mumsnet and this is my first message. Any advice would be appreciated. My ds is 5 weeks old tomorrow. He was a big boy at 9.2lb when born so he seems to be permanently hungry. He's just guzzled 7floz (the most in one sitting yet). I've been following the guidelines on the box (aptimil) but I upped it as he wasn't lasting long on 5floz. Anyway, at his 10.30 - 11.30 feed we can't get him to finish his bottle even though he should be hungry. We've tried waking him up (very hard), and we've tried leaving him to wake up by himself, to ensure he's fully hungry, which works better but tends to be nearer 11.30 (after a feed at 6.30ish). The later the feed, obviously the later he wakes in the night (usually around 2.30 - 3.30). If we could get him to finish his bottle I think we could be close to getting him to sleep through or am I wishful thinking at this age. Another thing, when I feed him in the night, he nods off, I put him down, he does a very good impression of being fast asleep then I bring him back into our room, which is very dark, at he starts making these grunting, pushing noises basically for the rest of the night. I've checked, and his eyes are closed but it can't be proper sleep, not with all that wriggling going on. Can it be the forumular - would chaning make a difference? I'm using Aptimil. Sorry to blather on. It's all guess work I guess, until you can ask them what's wrong!

Ok..he will drink as much formula as he can hold, if you try and get him to take more, he will throw it back up !

5 weeks is very soon to be expecting him to sleep through, don;t wake him to feed, he will wake when he is hungry ! If he is only waking once in the night for a feed, that is great !

those noises are normal ,as is the wriggling, the amount of noise a new born makes is astonishing !

welcome to mumsnet !

Thank you, lulumama. Your advice (any advice!) really helps. He is a funny little thing - the amount of noise, though, blimey! It's the only time he does it though. All the other times he sleeps, he doesn't make a sound. I reckon he knows what he's doing - little tyke

it is early days yet, you'll get to know him and his little ways very soon !

Why 6:30 for a feed?

At 5 weeks IIRC (mine is now 5 months) I was doing a split feed - so half a feed at 5 and the other half at 6:15.
Is there any way you can rejig this one in the hope he'll show more interest at 10:30?

Well, we're still honing the bedtime routine and after a bath at about 6.15, he then has a bottle and is usually settled by about 7pm, but it can go pear shaped quite quickly if he decides not to finish one or more bottles in the day, and then is hungrier earlier.

IMO, the problem with trying to get a routine a t this age, is that when baby has a growth spurt, or catches a cold, or something happens, the routine goes out of the window...try to follow your baby;s lead,but i agree trying a split feed can help if you want to try a routine

Hi Sal1105

Welcome to Mumsnet. Waking up once during the night at 5weeks is very good - wished my little one had done that!!! He will slowly go through the night but you will have to be patient. give it another few weeks and the time he wakes up will be later and later.
As for the wriggling and grunting, thats babies for you. My eldest was so noisy she went into her own room the seconf week she got home - she was soooo noisy!!!

I tried doing a split feed the other night, and actually that was the night when he woke by himself at about 11.00 and took about 5floz, so may be I'll persevere with that. He did almost burst from crying with hunger after the bath though. Not a pretty sight.

I was wondering if I should leave him in his room but I thought someone might report me to the NSPCC! I thought the norm was in with M&D for at least 6 months.

hello, like the others say, this noisy sleeping lark is really normal, grunting and snuffling, both mine did it too. Very irritating!

I too think 5 weeks is mega early to sleep through. My DS1 slept through to 7 ish from 10.30 feed v. early I thought, at 9 weeks, DS2 much later.

I bf mine until 6 and 4 months so I don't know about the guidelines on the box, but do know that when they switched to formula, I took the guidelines with a pinch of salt! Your baby will drink what he needs, don't try and force him to drink more, or he'll be sick. Don't try and stop him if he wants more, or he'll cry! If the 10.30 feed isn't working, try it a bit later, or don't bother at all and wait for him to wake.

We did do the late dreamfeed with both of ours. DS1 was really hard to wake, we used to turn the lights on and lie him on our bed for about 15 mins, tickling him before he'd wake up (some people wouldn't want to do this, I know, but it did cut the subsequent night wakings down...). DS2 used to open his mouth in his sleep and glug down a bottle of ebm and then burp without even opening his eyes.

Don't be afraid to try lots of different things, and see what works for you, regardless of what "the books" might say. The author of a book hasn't met your baby - you have, and you know him and yourself better than they can ever do.

oh in answer to own room, the current advice is 6 months if not more as the risk of SIDS seems to be reduced if they sleep with you.

However, DS1 slept with us to 12 weeks, DS2 for 3 weeks, as he really is noisy. Sometimes now I stand outside his room in the evening, and the floor is virtually vibrating with his snoring...

Do what's best for you.

Oh, this is all very reassuring. I don't think I'd sleep any better if he were out of the room. I'd be listening too intently to the monitor to make sure he was still breathing. If it gets any worse I might but at the moment it's ok. Like you all say, he is only waking once in the night so it could be a helluvva lot worse. Shouldn't grumble and a few grunts!

Am I allowed to wear ear-plugs? Does anyone else. I feel very guilty

of course you can wear ear plugs!! I wear them to cope with dh's snoring but can still hear when dd (3) or ds (8months) wakes up. Sometimes dh will hear them first but not that often. DS was in our room till around 7 months and I dont think I could have managed it without the handy old ear plugs.

Oh goody. Feel much less guilty now. I can wear them guilt free. My dh sleeps through the whole night. Would like matching baby.

I wear ear plugs on a regular basis, but just in one ear, the ear that's up! Lucky I sleep on the same side every night! Can't hear DH breathing (how annoying is that?!!!), but do hear the children. DH, who doesn't wear ear plugs, tends to sleep on through too (unless I kick him...).

I thought about suggesting earplugs earlier, but thought other people might disapprove. (didn't stop me actually doing it though...).

Earplugs? Damn why didn't I think of that

my baby is 14 weeks tomorrow and she will sometimes drain a 6oz bottle then if i try to give her 7oz she will only take 4.it varies too much to worry about it.(although it is annoying when they only drink half a bottle and you end up wasting milk).

my dd2 went into a room with dd1 from 3 weeks,as she was quite noisy and dd1 is a very heavy sleeper.i did gat one of those breathing monitors though,otherwise i would have been listening to the monitor all the time.

could the noise he's makning be due to wind?my dd1 used to be very unsettled and needed to burp about 3 times.but after 6 weeks of keeping me awake all night she suddenly started sleeping through.

Sal, I can't pretend any sort of expertise as my first baby's just a few days older than yours, but welcome. We're mainly feeding Danny formula, roughly every 3 hours, but he's still on 4 oz bottles though I need to find out if as I suspect we should be giving him more. He doesn't sleep through the night and we're still working on the basis that we should be giving him milk at regular intervals, but that's probably partly paranoia after returning to hospital when he lost too much weight and got dehydrated(breastfeeding problems/clueless new mother not spotting his dehydration).

There are also groups here for people whose babies were born in the same month. As I joined and started posting while waiting for Danny to turn up, I'm actually in the April 2007 group which follows on from the due in April antenatal thread, but have been welcomed by May 2007 members too.

Well, he managed to sleep until 4.10 this morning! Don't know what time he was last fed as dh still fast asleep (oblivious, as per). He must have been starving but only managed 2floz and was grizzling/grunting throughout the rest of the night and was awake at 5.45 but I held out until 6.30. But hey, I shouldn't grumble at these sorts of times. He nearly burst with hunger at 6.30 and then only managed 3 floz. Like you all say, must stop worrying about it and go with the flow. Ear plugs worked a treat last night. I'd love a routine but may be it's just too early for that sort of melarky. He's crashed out again now, half listening to Radio 2 (all these DJ's I've never heard of) hence me on the internet at 7.30 am. It's quite nice actually .

what flow rate teat are you using? If your lo is taking ages to take small amounts then they could be ready for a faster teat. It depends on the brand too e.g. avent newborn (size 1) are for up to 1 month and slow flow (size 2) are from 1 month BUT some babies need the faster flow sooner. My ds went onto the medium flow tommee tippee teats at 9 weeks or so even though they say from 3 months.

There is a growth spurt around 5/6 weeks so this can also make your lo hungrier and more unsettled

Oh, that's useful information. I'm using a mixture. Tommee Tippee newborn and Avent for one month. The TT ones have one hole and the Avent ones have two. He doesn't seem to notice the difference though. I'll keep an eye on that, thanks.

my baby was on the avent 2 month teats from birth,the 3 month+ teats from 2 weeks and the fast flow ones from 6 weeks.she is now 14 weeks and im having alot of trouble finding teats to suit her.it can make a big difference IME