4 wk old not taking much expressed milk from bottle

[Nanoon]

DS is 4 weeks and was 9 lb 8.5.oz at birth and is now close to 12 lb! he is breastfeeding very well and i have started expressing in order for DH to give him his last feed at about 10.30pm. I am able to express about 5 oz in one go but DS only takes about 3-4 oz and this has resulted in him waking much ealier at around 2am - 3am (and agin at 5.30 ish)rather than the 3am-4am that he was doing when his last feed was breast. I am sure that considering his weight gain he must be taking more than 3 oz from me at each feed and i wondered if anyone else had experienced this.
Is it a case of his getting used to the bottle? i try to make sure he is totally awake when i start to feed him and keep him striped off during the feed.

Thanks

I'm afraid he is 4 weeks old, he will change the goal posts all the time with his sleep patterns. Maybe he is waking earlier due to the bottle, maybe not. Try not to think in terms of oz at feeds, what you express and what he takes from a bf are 2 very different things. If he is happily taking a bottle then that is great and I'm sure he is taking what he needs. Afraid at 4 weeks he just wants little and often.

If dh is doing the feed I think he needs to be the one to get him up etc otherwise he'll sniff you and be distracted . 3 - 4oz is probably fine for starters anyway , you do well to express 5 oz in one sitting. Take his disinterest in the bottle as a compliment !

Great weight gain though, that is some good milk you are making!

yes, i try and not be in the room when DH is feeding him, i find i hover over them both which doesn't help either of them.

i know i sound impatient but its a bit frustrating when he has only been waking once in the night fom 5 days old .

he is a star though and i am very proud of my milk making abilities

If you are up anyway when dh is trying to give the bottle and ds was more settled the way things were, can't you just go back to b'feeding him at that time and either give bottle another time or wait to try again. Or maybe he is just having a growth spurt and needing to feed more frequently , regardless of how.

Sounds like he was just easing you in gently! why not go back to bf at night then your dh can give expressed when he wakes in the morning (assuming that is still around 5.30) then you both get a nice undisturbed chunk of sleep.

nanoon - nice weight gain for ds. I wouldnt worry about the milk intake right now - it will chop and change. But I would advise that if DH is doing the dreamfeed, to continue to let him do it. Get yourself off to bed/ take a bath/ read a book - whatever, but let them have their time together and you get your time too. I hit a wall of tiredness when DS was 9 weeks old - and felt incredibly overwhelmed too. The fact that DH was giving the dreamfeed was one of the few things that I am sure allowed me to persevere with bfeeding.

For 4 weeks old, your DS is sleeping really well - even though he has now started to wake, so well done you!