feed every 1.5 hours at night for a baby nearing 4 months

[momodanci]

Hi moms!

I was thinking that once a baby crosses 3 months, his feeding frequency at night should become lesser, especially before midnight. My baby sleeps around 7 or so (and wakes up at around 5 am), and before midnight he wakes up almost every 1.5 hour. Is that something to be concerned about? After around midnight, it's better, waking up only 1-2 times till 5-6 am.

I wouldn't say concerning just very tiring for you! - still have smaller tummies and sometimes wake to feed for comfort more than hunger but also could be clusterfeeding.

Have you tried increasing feeds during the day to try and reduce night feeds?

No advice really, just wanted to send my sympathy that you’re having to get up so often, you must be done in 🙈 My baby is only 3 months and I won’t even tell you what he sleeps because it’s ridiculous (in a good way) but that’s not what you want to hear 😂 He’s formula fed though, I do think that makes a difference and he gets through some amount of milk during the day (sometimes every hour for a couple of hours, especially toward bed time) but apparently they should do this if they know the difference between day and night to kind of stockpile to get them through the night.

What’s your daytime routine and bedtime routine like? That’s the only thing I can think you could change at all 🤔

It’s possible this could be a growth spurt, but equally it could be the 4-month sleep regression. We sleep trained our three kids around 4/5 months and it was a life saver. I still give my 6-month-old one night feed each night, anytime between 1-4am, but if he wakes up outside that window his dad just goes in to whisper «goodnight», Pat his back a few times, and come back out of the room (repeating every 10 minutes if needs be - basically the Ferber method). Typically my DS therefore doesn’t find it worth it waking up more than once or twice. He’s definitely upped his daytime calories to make up for it, which is great, and I find he’s much less fussy during the day because he is less chronically exhausted (same for me!)

@Tee20x

I wouldn't say concerning just very tiring for you! - still have smaller tummies and sometimes wake to feed for comfort more than hunger but also could be clusterfeeding.

Have you tried increasing feeds during the day to try and reduce night feeds?

Thanks! He drinks very little during the daytime and gets most of his millk supply at night. My breasts also produce more at night, so maybe that's why he has developed this preference for nights.

I don't mind feeding him as such, it doesn't tire me really. I am simply concerned if I should do something to change his habit a bit, or let it be for now given that he's not even 4 months old as yet.

It's a supply and demand thing though - you're producing more milk at night because baby is feeding more at night which stimulates the production.

If you don't mind it, I wouldn't actively do anything to change it tbh, perfectly normal :)

Hello 👋 my son is 4.5m ebf and tends to feed at 7/8pm, 10pm dream feed, 1am, 4am and 6am.

He had dropped the 1am feed for a while and was doing 4am and 7am, but he is taking 4m sleep regression very seriously 😐

Your baby’s pattern sounds similar to mine? I consider mine to be normal and his feeding before midnight isn’t a problem. I think he just needs the calories. And enjoys being picked up for a cuddle. I do wish he would sleep longer but tend to accept it’s what he needs. Not saying all babies need food and cuddles at night! Just that it’s also normal if they do.

He’s too distracted to feed properly during the day.

Feed him in a darkened room during the day and make sure there’s nobody else in the room and no noise to distract him. Don’t talk or make eye contact during feeds. If you browse the internet on your phone during feeds then turn off the sound, turn the screen brightness right down and position the phone so he can’t see it.

When you’re out feed in the back of the car and give him a proper feed as soon as you get home.

If he doesn’t want to feed then here’s one trick that sometimes works with my DS. Hold your phone just above your boob. He’ll turn his head to look at the phone and discover your boob in the process. As soon as he’s latched on turn off the phone so that it becomes boring. Now the challenge is to take away the phone before he figures out that he can’t fit a phone and a boob in his mouth at the same time without him immediately pulling off to retrieve the phone.

@Mytigerhasstripyfeet

Hello 👋 my son is 4.5m ebf and tends to feed at 7/8pm, 10pm dream feed, 1am, 4am and 6am.

He had dropped the 1am feed for a while and was doing 4am and 7am, but he is taking 4m sleep regression very seriously 😐

Your baby’s pattern sounds similar to mine? I consider mine to be normal and his feeding before midnight isn’t a problem. I think he just needs the calories. And enjoys being picked up for a cuddle. I do wish he would sleep longer but tend to accept it’s what he needs. Not saying all babies need food and cuddles at night! Just that it’s also normal if they do.

Yes, the pattern looks very similar. I otherwise have no issues at the moment, except that I wish he could soon learn crawling/sitting, so he could engage with himself more.