Night time feeding

[outofmylittletree]

I don't know if someone can help.
I am bottle feeding my little girl (5 wks) and trying to find the best way to feed her at night with as little disruption as possible.

She starts stirring up to 1 1/2 hours before she properly wakes up for her feed, so I am awake most of the time. Generally she feeds at 1.30am, 4.30am, then 7.30am.
I wanted to know the best way of getting her bottle ready?

At the moment I have them made up in the fridge, then come down, get a bottle, take it back up and then have a flask of water by the bed and a jug, and try to time it right as to when I put the bottle in the water. I have not managed this that well as sometimes I am too early and sometimes I am too late and she is howling!

So my questions are:

1. Are you 'allowed' to boil water and put it into bottles and leave at room temp and then add formula when needed - I may try her with this at room temp and see if she takes it.

1. Can you get bottle warmers which keep the bottle at the right temp over time, so I could put it in when she starts stirring and then feed her when she's ready say an hour later. (I have only seen ones that switch off when at the right temp)

1. ANy other suggestions, what do you do?!

Thank you. x

Yes you can do 1.but I don't think it's best when at home,as I never had much luck getting babies to drink room temperature.

1. Yes, you can buy an insulated bottle holder, but it won't necessarily keep it at the right temperature (there may be one which does, but I never found it!). You just fill a bottle with hottish water, pop it in the bottle holder and it will cool a little over time but still stay quite warm for quite a while - can't remember how long it took to cool, so I'd get one, then experiement! The insulation thing only cost a few quid from Boots I think and it's brill for going out with too - used to be a Godsend infact!

1. For night times, I found the best option is to half fill all your bottles with cooled boiled water and refrigerate, then when you know DD's really ready you can make a bottle up with a freshly boiled top-up and the milk powder.

You can try this for going out as well - just half fill the bottles, take a thermous of boiling water for topping up and take the formula in a container or transfer to those special ready -measured plastic containers you can buy.

I did have bottles which had a special milk container which fitted underneath the teat, which you then tipped in and moved out to way of the teat to let the milk come out - think they were Tommee Tipee - really useful, but a bit more fiddly than separate container.

1. Also, try getting DD to feed when she still half-asleep! I think it was the 'Baby Whisperer' (Tracey Hodge?) who used to suggest this - she called it 'dream feeds' i think.

Hope this helps, good luck!