5 month old overnight and first morning feeds

[amidsummernightsdream]

Hello,
Looking for some different opinions/ experiences.

I’ve been pretty lucky with my dd’s overnight sleep so far. She goes to bed at around 7 until 6-7 in the morning. She wakes up once in the night for her bottle, feeds and goes back down on her own no fuss at all. She can wake anytime between 1 and 3/3.30am. It does vary.

Im generally very happy with this and don’t mind getting up for the feed if she still needs it. It takes 10mins max and she resettles no problem.

My questions comes as in the last few weeks she’s been increasing less and less interested in her first morning feed. I will try her as soon as we get up and she’s barely taking anything, sometimes refusing it all together. Occasionally she will go back to it just before her first nap and take an ounce or two, but more often than not she wont have a good feed until her next bottle which is after her first nap of the day.

This last week or so I have tried to make more of an effort to resettle her for this wakw up, as i assumed that maybe she doesnt need the night feed anymore but she wont seem to settle until she’s had it. She doesnt cry but she is wide awake fussing and ‘shouting out’

Now im more than happy to carry on doing the night feed, my question isn’t necessarily how to stop it but im interested to know what others think about it affecting the morning feed and does it matter? Do you think its something i need to bother about?

For extra info, she has 5oz in the night. I give her 5 additional feeds durning the day- i offer her a 6oz bottle each time and she will drink varying amounts between 4-6oz (though first feed only around 1-2oz max)

Any thoughts/ similar experiences and what you did would be appreciated. Thank you!

I would start putting less milk in the overnight feed e.g. reduce by an ounce every few days

Thanks @dementedpixie i think that sounds like a sensible thing to try. That should definitely help resolve the first feed issue as i guess she would be hungrier for it.
Whether that would eventually stop the wake ups too i suppose i would have to see?

My littlest one is 17 weeks old, she sleeps a similar overnight pattern to your little one and is not ready for her first bottle of the day until anywhere between 9 and 10am. I just leave her to decide when she is ready to feed, she is on five feeds a day of 5oz, she is gaining weight, bright, alert and weeing and pooing as she should so I am not worried about her feeds.

@bloodywhitecat out of interest is that with or without a night feed?

That's with her night feed which can be between 1am and 5am. I find that on the odd night she skips a night feed she still gets 5 feeds in a 24 hour period so, at the moment while she is gaining nicely, I let her set her own feeding schedule.

@bloodywhitecat thanks, thats good to know. Its working for us at the moment, so maybe i just stick with it and be led by her. Im not in a rush to drop that feed for the sake of it

We had this. And strangely when we introduced a dreamfeed about 11pm ish. She took anywhere between 3oz to 7oz. It helped with morning feed and after a few days stopped the middle of night feed. Best 8 hours sleep ever.

We stopped dream feed after about 6/8 weeks as was disturbing her more then helping.

Also I found I can't feed my LO straight away when they wake. I have to wait 30mins or so then she takes a good 6 - 8 oz. So has her feed more 730am ish. Maybe try holding off?

@Pickle2021 thanks for this, it’s great to get another perspective. We did try a dream feed and it didnt make a difference but this was a good while ago now and definitely before the lack of interest in the morning feed. With babies always changing, its definitely worth considering trying again.

Interesting your LO also doesnt like feeding first thing, sounds like thats something common and not something thats necessarily indicative of whether they do/ dont need the night feed or not. Tbf i dont like eating as soon as i get up either!

It's bizarre how they are always changing 😂 we were sure it wasn't going to work, but within 3 days I think she stopped middle of night feed, and actually interested in morning bottle. I was always told more calories in the day the better. I gave it to my Oh to do as I like my sleep 😂

Exactly if I feed her upon waking I get maybe 90mls in her and that's it. Then sometimes I get another 90mls in an hour later. Which is frustrating as then the whole day she snacks half bottles. If I wait 30mins once awaken she will take 6 - 8 oz and we get mostly full feeds all day apart from 1 to 2oz which I always give before the next nap. Hope that makes sense 😂

@Pickle2021 totally know what you mean about the half bottles! I will definitely look to give her a bit more time now in the morning.

I heard the more calories in the day thing too, which obviously makes sense and i think thats what i was trying to get at in my op.

Half of me is of the ‘if it aint broke dont fix it’ mentality but i think intuitively i have a niggle that she doesnt need that feed anymore but its become our habit. But im also reticent to change things incase she’s not ready and i mess up her good sleeping!

The temptation of a full nights sleep is a big pull though!

She might not need the 3am feed anymore, so cut down over the next week or so, eg 2-3 nights on 4oz, 2-3 nights on 3oz.