v heavy hungry baby 12 weeks can you advise?

[dycey]

Hello - I am hoping someone has had or heard of a similar experience and can advise me. My baby boy is 12 weeks old and on the 91st / 98th centile - he is 7.5 kilos.... and has been entirely breastfed. A happy lad. He always slept very soundly and I was thrilled that he could sleep long stretches relatively young...

Recently his first stretch of sleep is shorter - about 5/6 hours - and from 1am he wakes every 2 hours and never goes into a sound sleep again. It is hard to settle him in the early hours (2am 3am etc) I am up every hour or 2 hours from midnight and utterly shattered. Is he hungry? Should I feed him each time he wakes? I have used a dummy but he wakes after a while.

During the day he will go to 4 hours between feeds.

Would a bottle of formula last thing at night be a bad idea? When can I start him on solids? Where do you think I can get advice?

PLEASE ADVISE... he is my first baby and I am absolutely knackered......

actually that is not the point behind hte research, it is not do gooding, if you want to find out more, do a search on weaning threads, as frankly, i cannot be bothered trying to explain the rationale behind why early weaning is not a good idea.

why will my husband have an affair because I am up to date with weaning advice?

what a stupid and offensive post

your post re formula being richer and thicker was wrong

weaning at 16 weeks is not recommened. it might have been 8 years ago, but not anymore

you are quite within your rights to give your opinion and tell the OP what you did , as am I.

then she can make an informed decision , based in facts . and your information was factually incorrect.

pointing that out does not make my husbadn any more likely to ahve an affair

would you care to explain why you feel sorry for my husband and that he is going to cheat on me??

Is there a stronger version of 'pmsl'?

Smoking was deemed safe 40 years ago!

Research and gov guidelines don't change the safety of something, but they do provide insight and enable us to improve the health outcomes for ourselves and our children.

to the OP - my dd was on the 98th centile and was exclusively BF till weaning at 26 weeks. They just need feeding more than you expect! In our case every hour or so in the daytime with cluster feeding in the evening. We managed by going to bed together late (she was a night owl anyway) so we did get that early stretch of sleep, and the evening cluster feeds tanked her up for the first part of the night.

it was hard though, things got better when we started co-sleeping.

Just do whatever you can to make it easier (go to bed in the afternoons if your baby naps), eat ready meals to save time cooking, don't clean the house - it doesn't last long!

well done and good luck!

oh and for what it's worth i know people who have done the formula last thing - made no difference at all.

glad Leftievegie and StarlightMckenzie find me so funny XX

lulumama, I apologise if i offended you. With respect I have quite a few professional friends who since having their babies have changed to the point of not recognising them at all, and i dont mean gaining a few pounds either. Whilst our babies do take over our lives and they come first so many of my friends do what i call 'over parent'. Everything is over the top with regard to the child, the poor husband does not get a look in and they have turned into mumsy frumps (I am not saying you are like that at all by the way). Its all baby baby baby, goo goo goo. Does that make sense. The poor husbands have to come home to frumpy mumsy wives. (not all women are like this i might add)

pmsl

You are so a bloke taking the piss.

AnarchyAunt, belive me I am not a bloke. I am a mother of an eight year old son and I have a loving husband.I am not the only woman to make this comment.

Another 'heavy baby' here - he was exclusively bf - just more often. And I did try to encourage him to have more feeds during the day rather than going eg 4hrs - but that didn't mean that he slept through - and I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't have 'slept through' even if he'd had formula....

thank you for the apology

with respect, you don;t know me, i am not a mumsy frump whose children take up my every waking second. the presumption that i ,or other women on this thread are, due to to their interest/knowledge of breastfeeding and weaning is silly

i have a more in depth knowledge of breastfeeding and weaning due to my volunteering and work as a doula

it is one small facet of who i am , and does not stop me being a normal , fun, loving wife and friend

welcome to MN

luvoneson, I was being polite.

Oh sorry, I didn't realise that other women could be so insensitive, stereotypical, unsisterly, inconsiderate and frankly downright rude as to say that an interest in how babies are nourished during their first months makes one frumpy and mumsy, thats all

I am neither, in fact I am size 8/10 and wear corsets to do the school run. Didn't stop me BF and waiting til an appropriate age to wean though.

Lulumama, thank you for welcoming me.

Dycey, my dd was born and stayed on 99.6th centile, and was also very hungry. I tended to feed whenever she showed the slightest interest (I am very lazy!) and I think it helped in that it increased my milk supply and enabled it to keep up with her demands.

She also slept just fine until she was weaned although she took to solid food very happily at 6 months.

It can seem very difficult, and seem as if other options such as formula or weaning are the answer, but bfing, in my experience, is less faff if you're not suffering from something like mastitis, and will keep up with your baby if you follow their cues.

I did tank dd up before bed at about this age - she'd feed from 5-10pm (!) - just kept swapping sides... You do need to ensure you have good tv/dvds/books and someone to bring a one-handed meal to you for this to work!

luvoneson, my husband has no issues with how well I treat him even though I breastfeed a 1 year old.

To the OP - you are doing fab. I have a huge baby who was exclusively breastfed until 26 weeks and she fed all the blimmin time. I would say as tiring as it is, if he sleeps 5 - 6 hours in one stretch then that is fab - what time does he start that stretch? Could you maybe put him down a little later then grab that time to sleep yourself? Or nap in the day?

luvoneson - thanks for cheering me up, best giggle I have had in a while. have to say my husband loves me breastfeeding for so long as firstly its me who has to get up in the night and secondly I have fantastic boobs...

I only breastfed ds for 5wks but when he was 12wks he was on 11oz hungry baby formula 5-6 times a day!

Perhaps he is having a growth spurt? Just keep feeding him when he wakes!

Ds was 4.150kg & 54.5cms born & is 2yo now & 93cms & 31 lbs - 14kg

luvoneson - I really really thought your initial post was a joke. I've never heard anyone advise someone with a perfectly good breastfeeding relationship to just ditch it for the acceptable but not equal substitute that is formula. I honestly thought it was a joke because you are clearly so misinformed.

And I don't understand why breastfeeding your child and/or following appropriate weaning guidelines makes my husband more likely to leave me. I've read him some of your posts and it has really made him chuckle. It is perfectly possible to meet all of your baby's needs in whichever way you wish to, while still making time for the rest of your family. I can assure you that my husband does not feel at all neglected, neither does he resent the time I spent with my son.