Should I drop 10pm feed?

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I have a 4 month old daughter who we generally wake at 10-11pm for a feed. she then wakes anytime from 4.30 - 6.30 (altho past week has been 3am again). Just out of interest, we didn't wake her for this feed for a couple of nights, just to see what time she would sleep to. The first night was 4am, the second 7am, and even then we had to wake her to feed! Now I'm not sure whether to continue on this path, i.e not wake her at 10pm, which is effectively dropping a feed. She's not the biggest of babies (approx 11 lb's/5kg) and although she has been gaining weight steadily, not generally by a huge amount (about a pound a month....not sure if that is average or not?). Am concerned that if we allow her to drop a feed, she may start to lose weight. What would you do?

I think she will wake if she is hungry, or may make for it by feeding more during the day. I let dd work out her own routine and she didnt suffer.

The extra sleep I had did us both the world of good though!

I also have a four month old and I do dream feed her. however, I know if we don't, she wakes twice - once at about 2am and the next about 5.30am. As it is, she usually wakes once between 4 and 6 - which means I get more sleep which is badly needed as I also have a three year old who has decided not to sleep any more!

If I was in your shoes, I would persist without it - and I wouldn't worry about her dropping a feed - she is likely to make up for it in the day if she needs to... and will certainly let you know if she's hungry! Her weight gain sounds fine - it's steady, which is what you need (and faster than my DD who has slowed to gaining about 1-2 ozs a week... she's on the 25th centile btw, so also not a very big baby).

HTH.

I have never woken any of mine for a feed in the night, I just waited for them to decide when they were ready. During they day, I tried to squeeze in as many feeds as possible. However, all of mine did put weight on relatively quickly and easily.

It also depends on your lifestyle - I preferred to get to bed early and let them wake me in the night, but you may like to go to bed a bit later and get a longer sleep that way.

Good luck - it sounds as if she is well on the way to going through the night, whichever way you decide to do it!

yeah, wot somany said.

You could drop it and just go with the flow.

I dropped the 10pm feed at the same time, dd1 and dd2 just made up for it during the day and I was so so grateful for the extra sleep.

That sounds very similar to my situation with my 15 wk dd. For quite a few weeks, until a week ago we were waking her for feed at 11, then she would sleep through until about 7am.

But last week she started waking at all hours of the night and it was killing me, as she doesn't sleep during the day. As she had to be woken out of a really deep sleep at 11 I decided to see how long she would sleep without the 11pm feed. First night she woke at 12 and 5, but last night slept until 5.45, fed her and she slept a bit more after that. I'm guessing that will be a one-off though.....I have started going to bed at 9pm, bit crap really, but need it to survive the day!

My dd is ebf and is also petite; she was only 9lb 9oz at 13 weeks, but has been on 2nd centile since birth and is very alert, active, and doing all she be developmentally, so I'm not worried and neither are doctor or HV. I figure she will wake if she's hungry, so I would say, go for it and enjoy the extra sleep!!

Yep gave it a go....7.30am first night, 5.30am second night for a quick feed then back down to sleep, lovely jubbley...may not last so enjoying it while it does!

We tried this a couple of weeks ago. Started off well, but she gradually brought the night feed back to 1am (then 4am, then 6am, yawn....). So we've gone back to doing a late feed, and she seems to make it through to 6am. Only one way to find out though! Good luck....