October 2014 // thread 6 // baby's new year resolution is to sleep more?!

[sazzlehopes]

Well done Tatty! That's awesome.

I also have a good napper today! He's been asleep since 2, brilliant.

I have my usual deep dread of tomorrow's weigh in though. He was still right off the bottom of the chart last week, really need a proper gain this week. I'm so scared there's something really wrong. He's had 12oz a day of formula this week plus bf on demand. I feel like he's heavier but not sure.

Can I ask the formula feeders how much their babies have a day and how often? DS gets his 12oz over 4 bottles at 10am, 1pm, 7pm and 10pm. How far off fully ff is this do you think?

splendide rocco has between 4 and 6 oz every feed. He feeds (roughly) 7,10.30,2,4 and 6.30then wake to feed again at 11. Usually one more feed in the night so around 7 feeds in 24 hrs. He is just under the 50th centile so around average. Hth :)

Sorry and he is fully ff.

That's extremely helpful thankyou! For some reason I'm finding it really hard to find that info online!

Stigz have bought some but not cracked it open yet! Soon though!

Glad to hear you have progress Tatty.
Hope the dietician helps with the neocate Moose, it's a ridiculous situation for you to be in.
I've had an alternating quiet/ crying baby this morning. Refusing to stay asleep until we went out for a walk then she slept for 2 hours. She's had a sore tummy I think (constipated and wind) so hoping after a poo she'll feel better

splendide - That's only a small amount of formula per day, I was going to say that before I read you asking.

From 3 months to 6 months recommended amount (according to SMA tin) is 5 feeds per day of 6oz - so 30oz per day.

Your LO is tiny though so I'll give you the 2 month figures off the tin, which are 5 feeds of 5oz - so 25oz per day.

I make up 7 6oz bottled per day, she doesn't usually finish the bottle. I don't track exactly how much each feed - sometimes she leaves a lot, sometimes nothing, and everything in between. Fed 2ish hourly through the day. Usually 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2.30pm, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm. DD is huge though, 91st plus centile.

Thanks Fate, I would imagine we will keep upping the amount. Let's see what tomorrow's weigh in brings. If it's anything less than brilliant I'll up it all massively.

Do you wake for the 11pm feed?

Not looking forward to tomorrows weigh in either (thats if the ice has melted enought for me to get the pram up the hill!)
It dawned on me today while baby moose was napping/nibbling on me this aft that his feeding has gone to pot again! He drifts off easily so doesnt feed for more than 5 mins. No wonder hes not sleeping hes half starved!
Hope you get a good weight splendide feeling heavier must be a good sign :)

Thanks Moose hope you do too! It's so stressful isn't it?!

Hi splendide my DS was born at the end of Sept so I lurk between October and September threads. DS is ff as I gave up breastfeeding. He id a huge boy and has 6 feeds a day - usually 6.30, 9.30, 12.30, 3.30, 6.30 (after bath) and woken at 10.30 for last feed. He is 16 weeks now. Would this calculator help?

www.fourfriends.com/cgi-bin/milk.pl

Hello Polkadot

I'd really like to space out DD's feeds to 3 hourly at least. Sometimes she'll go that long but she starts grumbling for a feed usually bang on 2 hours after the last one.

Splendide - Yes, we wake her for the last 11pm feed. Well we don't actually wake her but lift her and stick bottle in her mouth, she sucks automatically.

I've tried twice now to not give that 11pm feed, on separate occasions several weeks apart. First time she woke at 4am and second time at 6am. Both are not acceptable for me, I'd rather do an 11pm feed than a night feed.

Has anyone managed to drop their 11pm dreamfeed yet?

Hi Fate. DS is 96th centile, I never planned to feed at set times but I started to write down when he fed on demand and that was the pattern that emerged. I remember my health visitor saying that you could use a bottle of water to extend time between feeds, she said it would buy you 20 minutes and once they got used to the slightly longer interval you do the same again. Ive never tried it though. We tried and failed to drop the dreamfeed too but in the last week DS has started to sleep untik 6am

He was waking at 3am for a feed too!

Haha, dropping an 11pm feed is a laughable possibility right now. I'm just happy we've got the wake ups down to two or three, and a bedtime earlier than 10.30.

I'd rather feed often during the day and not at night, definitely. But I worry that DD has too much milk, she is also breastfed as well first and last thing. And in between sometimes.

Maybe I should start paying attention to how much she leaves from each bottle so that I know how much she has a day.

Or maybe I should just stop worrying about nothing!

So you lift out of the crib and feed her?

Oh and definitely no worrying! You're amazing!

tAtty that's great news. I'm trying daily too but no joy yet.

fate we dropped 11pm feed weeks ago as he didn't wAnt it. Slept through a couple of times but now started waking a few times again so thinking tonight i might try again. Boob as he wont take bottle

Friend said it was a new approach to controlled crying - not sure what that means but obviously different from what she was doing before when she said she was doing controlled crying for 6 hours!!!!

Fed up controlled crying for SIX HOURS !

Fate we tried to drop her 11pm dreamfeed on Saturday so we could get an early night together without her, wink wink nudge nudge. She woke at 1 AND 5. Bearing in mind she's not woken for a night feed since Christmas I was seriously unimpressed. So yes safe to say we'll be holding off on getting a formal bedtime and ditching the dreamfeed for a while yet.

Went to get her tongue tie checked (as they can reattach). Her feeds have got noisier and she was leaking more milk so I was paranoid it would need cut again, thank goodness it didn't. She was in such a happy mood I really didn't want to spoil it.

You ladies are braver than me dropping that 11pm feed!! I've never even tried until all mine have been well and truly weaned and are on 3 meals a day
When we do the 11 o'clock feed we are brutal! We go in switch the light on wake him properly do first half of the feed with light on, stop and change his nappy put him back in his bag and do second half of the feed in the dark. He drinks more this way and always goes back off (usually on the bottle).
At the moment this gets us til about 5 then he feeds again and goes back to sleep til he gets woken a 7.

Is there a reason you all do 11? I wake him for a feed at 10, is 11 the received wisdom?

Oh and another question! I put him to bed in the living room with us then take him up with me at 10. I know you're meant to do that until 6 months but do people follow this? I'm thinking I should put him upstairs and have the monitor?

splendide dp does the 11 usually and we leave it til then because then we hope he sleeps a bit longer.
We put r up to bed in his room with the monitor, it's noisy downstairs if one of the hounds decide to start randomly barking (happens a lot!) it wakes him plus if he's upstairs I feel like I have a break I'm not constantly looking at him waiting for him to wake I can relax a bit more.
At 11 we bring him into our room and feed him in there. We've only just started putting him in his room at 7 before we would put him in ours but I got fed up if I wanted to dry my hair or do whatever I couldn't go in my bedroom it's so much better now. I actually went to bed early the other night and read my book. It was amazing!