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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Bottle-feeding and sleeping thru the night - your schedule?

18 replies

Meandacat · 10/04/2010 06:10

I'm bottle-feeding my DD on a rough 4 hourly schedule, but am wondering if she would already allow us a 5-6 hour stretch through the the night if we time it right.

She feeds pretty much on cue through the day without much encouragement (seems to wake or want fed at the "correct" time). Night is a different story. Currently I feed her at 9pm-ish then the theory goes that DH stays up to feed her at 1am, I feed her at 5am and then again at 9am. However, what is actually happening is that DH is struggling to wake her for the 1am feed even if he leaves her for another hour or so, but once she is roused she's then wide awake til at least 3.30-4.30am, then goes to sleep again til about 6 or 7 when she typically takes a smaller feed. Tonight he ended up feeding her again at 3, and she's been sleeping - albeit it very fitfully - since then. It's now 6 am. And that's another thing - she does seem to sleep very fitfully at night compared to through the day when she is either nicely awake or completely zonked out.

I'm just wondering if DH and I could somehow move the shenanigans to evening and therefore get maybe 5 hr+ stretch in bed at the same time from about midnight onwards. Any thoughts or anyone else got better suggestions for a less restless night?

OP posts:

Original poster

Meandacat · 10/04/2010 06:14

I meant to say also that she is only 4 weeks, so I appreciate it's very early days to expect any routine. But I just need something to work roughly to rather than all the getting up/half-sleeping/wondering whether to leave her/wake her/feed her that is currently going on between the hours of 9pm and 9am!

OP posts:

currycrazy · 10/04/2010 08:49

Im sorry you havent had any replies yet but unfortunately mumsnet seems to be quite anti bottle as i have found and bottle threads tend to get hardly any replies if any atall....

I am a bottle feeder but not sure of an answer sorry

currycrazy · 10/04/2010 08:51

Im sorry you havent had any replies yet but unfortunately mumsnet seems to be quite anti bottle as i have found and bottle threads tend to get hardly any replies if any atall....

I am a bottle feeder but not sure of an answer sorry

currycrazy · 10/04/2010 08:54

oops double post sorry

TakeLovingChances · 10/04/2010 09:37

I'm breastfeeding my DS (he's 6 weeks) but for his last feed of the day I give him a bottle to help him sleep.

During the day he feeds around every 1.5 hours-2hours, but when I give him a bottle he sleeps for around 4.5 hours It's the best thing I ever did, especially because he rarely sleeps during the day and gets cranky!

As for your daughter I think that she doesn't understand what the routine you want her to be in is yet (as she's so young) so she just sleeps when she needs to sleep.

Also, because she's so young she might have her days and nights mixed up which is why she sleeps more during the day. That should sort itself out as she gets a bit older and she learns more of a bedtime routine with you and DH.

Does your DH mind staying up to 1am to try to feed her?

My advice is to maybe feed her at 9pm or 10pm like you're doing now, then put her in her cot. Then you and DH can go to sleep whenever you want and she'll already be in her cot sleeping. That way when she wakes up, at whatever time it is she wakes up, you'll be able to feed her without her waking up too much and being over-stimulated.

I'm guessing it's hard at the moment, but she's still young and she likely will settle down into a pattern over the next month or so.

cupofcoffee · 10/04/2010 09:50

Have you tried not waking her for the 1am feed? You say she is difficult to wake at that time so just wondering what would happen if you didn't try to wake her at that time and see when she wakes herself.

tots2ten · 10/04/2010 09:56

When I bottle fed my dc's by about 5 weeks they were sleeping through the night, by that I mean from about 10pm until about 5am.

Do you leave her to wake for feeds or do you wake her after xx hours?

flyingcloud · 10/04/2010 21:13

Hi there,
It's hard to know, isn't it? I am mixed feeding at the moment and gradually FF more and more as I am back working pt and having to leave DD quite a bit more than I expected. She is 8 weeks old.

She has her last day-time feed at about 6.45. We then wake her at 10.30pm for another feed and she then generally sleeps through for a few hours. She was sleeping through until 4/5 am but in the last few days she hasn't been hungry at 10.30pm and has therefore eaten little and woken at 2am.

mrsflux · 11/04/2010 09:59

we always went with the wait and see policy with night feeds. oh and never wake a sleeping baby!

i'd try leaving her to sleep and seeing how long you get in bed. you could always have an emergency carton of FF/ bottle of EBM that just needs warming. if it's the planning that's making you wantot stick to a schedule.

IME if she drinks less at night she'll catch up in the day.

DS always drank roughly the same amount of FF in a 24h period.

GuernseyFrench · 11/04/2010 11:24

As you're struggling waking her up for the 1am feed, I'll say let her sleep and see at what time she'll wake up next.

I bottlefeed my DS who's 9 weeks and we are just starting to go 6 hours without a feed at night and I try to wake him up at 10pm (easier say than done) and then hope he'll sleep through to 5-6am (I hate the 2am feed!)

Good luck

beautifulgirls · 11/04/2010 18:05

At that age we were feeding roughly 3 hourly in the daytime, giving the last feed 9-11pm depending when she was looking sleepy and then allowing her to dicatate when she wanted feeding again during the night from there. I was mixed feeding too BTW, moved onto totally bottle feeding from about 8 weeks but was using expressed milk with formula now and again when I didn't have enough for her.

Geraldine7 · 11/04/2010 20:24

i would try feeding her a little later and then just let her go for as long as she likes so she gets used to night time being for longer sleep. When our daughter was about that age, I'd feed her about 11pm and then she woke around 3am and then 7am.

The real breakthrough I had was when my husband had to go overseas for a couple of weeks, when she was about 7 wks. Without worrying about him also being disturbed, I was much slower in responding to my daughter and she would often just fall back to sleep before I'd got myself roused to mix the bottle. All of a sudden she slept from 11 until about 6am and carried on doing so!

So my advice would be to just leave her be, particularly as she's not keen to wake for the 1am feed anyway. You might be surprised how long she'll go, left to her own devices. Good luck...

zebedeethezebra · 12/04/2010 10:24

I bottle feed my 12 week old who has been sleeping through since he was 8 weeks. Try feeding at 1030 then only feed if your baby wakes up. Gradually my DS went longer and longer now he wakes at 0730.

DS full schedule is 0730, then through the day every 3-4 hourly but varies as to exact timings. Then 1845 and 1030 in the evening.

At 4 weeks, you won't get your baby sleeping through, but she may eventually. Just try to get her to take as much milk as pos during the day. I read somewhere that they need to be around 12 lb in weight before they can last all night.

Pampers stay dry nappies last for 12 hours (provided there's been no overnight pooing) too so are also worth using.

Good luck!

zebedeethezebra · 12/04/2010 10:25

PS don't wake her during the night for any feeds - she'll let you know when she's hungry.

flyingcloud · 12/04/2010 10:48

Waves at GF

I don't want to start another thread as bottle feeding threads don't get that many replies so apologies for the hijack.

I am pretty much exclusivly FF now as my supply has dropped dramatically in the last week as I am back at work part time but often spending five/six hours away from my baby with no opportunity to pump.

DD (9wks on Wednesday) now refuses to wake up/feed at 10.30pm which means that she wakes at 2am and again at about 5.30am/6 am. It's suddenly become so much harder in the last week as before she was going through from her late night feed to about 5am and sometimes later.

Does anyone have any tips?

mrsflux · 12/04/2010 14:55

try offering a bit more milk at earlier feeds?

when we dropped night feeds at 9mo we gave less in the night and then more before that at bedtime.

i'm not suggesting cutting out milk for such a little one but try offering more at the feeds that aren't awful!

zebedeethezebra · 12/04/2010 15:19

Flyingcloud - Have you tried a nappy change just before the 1030 pm feed? That may wake your DD up more to have the feed. The other alternative is not a give a full feed at the one you do before the 1030pm feed, so that she's really hungry at 1030.

Original poster

Meandacat · 13/04/2010 12:50

Thanks to all who replied. Things seem to be getting complicated now by a reflux problem which i'm going to get checked out today. For some reason it's worse at night but I just didn't realise what all her complaining was about until I read more about it and put 2 + 2 together (she sicks up a lot at/between some feeds and is difficult to burp without and even with Infacol).

I may try giving her a later, smaller feed and seeing what happens if we don't wake her, as suggested. Trial & error, eh?!

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