recently gone onto bottles..now waking in the night!!! why??

[pieceofcake]

I have recently started mixing bottle and breast. my 4 month old LO who has slept through since 9 weeks has now started waking every night for a feed. I had forgotten how it felt!! how do I get her to take more in the day so she doesn't need to wake up? I breastfeed her first and last but have tried formula last thing too. she doesn't always take full bottles in the day how can I persuade her to?

She may need less in a bottle but more frequently. How much are you making up? And at 4 months this is more than likely a growth spurt. I'm sure DS was much more unsettled at night at this age.

thanks, she has 7 or 8 oz bottles 4 hourly (big baby) but for one a day only takes half or less. was reluctant to feed more often really. even an 11pm dream feed sees us up again at 3.30am! what about watering down the night feed? will that make her more hungry in the morning?

I think this is pretty normal really. I really wouldn't try watering down the night feed, but is it the morning feed she isn't hungry for? I think I might actually try stopping the dream feed and prepare for a slightly earlier wake up. That might set her right.

that makes sense..can't wait! yes it was first bottle feed. what do you think about mixing breastfeeding and formula? is it confusing for them?

Well I did it, but it wasn't exactly out of choice. I'm not sure of your circumstances of course. I don't think it's confusing for them. Some people say it can lead to nipple confusion but in my case it didn't. The main problem is that it will affect your own supply, but as long as you're OK with that then there shouldn't be a problem. My main problem was that I found it very difficult to know how much DS would want from a bottle so loads and loads got wasted.

Do you mind my asking? If you LO is have 30 odd oz a day from bottles, how much breast is she actually getting? Do you breastfeed first and then top her up, or are the feeds separate? And do you intend phasing out breastfeeding, because I have to say it does sound like your milk could dry up fairly soon.

phasing out BF slowly but plenty of milk yet. they are separate feeds. she usually gets 3 bottles and 2 20 min breast feeds during the day...didn't explain very well! plus the one at night which is either. growth spurt sounds like a decent explanation as is only having gap between feeds of 4-6 hours instead of usual 9 hours overnight. no nipple confusion. just doing it for bit of freedom (me) and independance (her)! thanks for your help x

It sounds like you know exactly what you're doing. Good luck!

really?? thanku. DD awake ha ha! x