Newborn feeding schedule?

[Erlouise]

Hi ladies
just curious and midwives don’t seem to be giving much advice.
baby lost some weight so we’re trying to get her back up to birth weight - midwives have said no dummy while we do this which is fine as I wasn’t overly keen on the dummy.
however, I feel I am wasting a lot of formula …. Baby might feed at 1pm and take 3oz, still searching so we make an extra Oz and she’ll probably take a small bit of it. Baby night then be satisfied for 3 or so hours.
but at night say 1am, baby will wake up every hour or so for a feed, take a really small amount probably 1oz from each 3oz bottle, and go back to sleep.
I really don’t know whether this is common for babies to almost cluster feed on formula??
feel a bit like I can’t win at the moment, we’re either making too small and having to quickly top up, or we’re making the usual 3oz which is huge and she only wants a little 10ml or so. I know I’m wasting a lot of formula and I really don’t mind but what on earth are we doing wrong???

as I say I have spoke to the midwives every single visit about this and they just say make what she usually takes and then see how she goes. But never really any help on whether it’s normal for her to want little and often at times and then other times loads. Feels like we have no feeding schedule at this point we’re just feeding on demand!

Congratulations! So I had my second baby 4 days ago and she is tending to have between 1-2 ounces every 2-3 hours. Sometimes she can stretch to 4 hours but she did also have a very hungry period (right before a long awaited dirty nappy) where she had 4 ounces in 2/3 hours.

I think wastage is just one of them things in this early stage as they form their own crazy schedules and their digestive systems start to kick in too.

Just to add, my little one also has random periods of breastfeeding too for anywhere upto 40 mins. One day that can be 10 mins the whole day and others she has been on and off all day in-between feeds too. Maybe it's comfort or maybe she just fancies the top up 🤷‍♀️

We are making a 4 Oz bottle each time she feeds. The made up bottle lasts at room temp for 2 hours once made so you can always try little one again with the same bottle within 2 hours if you are concerned about wastage.

Most babies do tent to lose a little weight at first so try not to worry about it too much if you can. Babies tummies are only tiny so little and often is deffo the right way to go right now. It sounds like your baby is getting regular feeds and is probably quite content with themselves 😊

Sorry for the long one, hope it helps though 🤞🏻

In the night, try feeding, then if they fall asleep, that's when you stop, change them, and often the process of being naked there it slightly chilly enough to wake them up a bit and they'll take another ounce.

It's unfortunately really common for babies to have their sleep schedule back-to-front. They are like this during the whole pregnancy - you might have noticed that when you walk around they're still (rocked to sleep) and then when you lie down still, it's party time. Your baby hasn't yet learned the cues on when to be awake and when to sleep, for example, dark/light, sound/quiet. It might help to add other things in, run the hoover during the day with all the lights on, keep them awake singing and dancing so that they get slightly less sleep during the day. And then at night use different cues like low lighting, softer voices, and possibly even different scents.

It takes time though and you are certainly not alone. Babies are hard work. x

I wouldn't worry about having a feeding schedule at this newborn stage, there is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding on demand if that's what your baby needs. Although I totally understand that every hour at night is exhausting. Mine used to wake every 2 hours during the night in the early days. You don't say how old baby is but I'm guessing just a couple weeks?