How can I make the middle of the night feed shorter? (Mix fed baby - 8wo)

[Wildpoppy]

I;ve posted on this before but just in case anyone with good advie missed it but sees this.

My 8wo dd is mix fed - in the day she mostly breastfeeds, at night she has some bottles. She is mix fed because the pediatricians said we should because of feeding problems at birth and weight loss issues. Anyway we are reconciled to her not being exclusively breastfed now.

She tends to sleep downstairs from about 9pm (she has witching hours from 6pm - 9pm and just will not sleep) and then comes upstairs with us about 11pm and goes in her moses basket. She usually wakes about midnight and has a feed - sometimes just breast, sometimes breast and bottle - we are led by her on this one. Then she wakes around 4pm ish and this feed is the problem - nearly always takes about 2 hours. To start with I thought this was because I breastfed her and she didn;t get enough and then I had to do the bottle and by the time I had done both and winded her and changed her nappy if sodden (usually is) and settled her it has been two hours. Then I tried just bottle feeding her and it still takes the same amount of time as she won;t settle and has to be comforted several times. It is as if she is programmed to be up for two hours at that time.

I have also tried giving her more at the midnight feed but that doesn;t seem to make a difference.

Any ideas?

Try placing her to sleep in the same basket, upstairs or downstairs so she has a familiar smell day and night.

Try a bottle at midnight and 4 am. You should be ok to use infacol or gripe water if she's taking a long time to wind.

Try swaddling her so her own involuntary jerks don't disturb her.

Don't change her nappy during the night because babies need to get used to sleeping at night and staying awake more during the day. Change it at midnight then in the morning.

Not sure how you're mananging. Think I would be taking her upstairs at 9pm once she has settled not 11pm!!

Good luck

I meant 4am of course!

Thank you fostering. Will try some gripe water now she is old enough.

I had this problem a couple of weeks ago but it has got better recently (ds now 9 weeks) on its own as Ds is able to feed a bit more efficiently and settle himself a bit more so I can put him down sooner - you may well find it resolves by itself in due course.

I read somewhere that 4/5am is when babies sleep the lightest during the night, which might explain it. Ds wakes around this time too.

thank you babiesneedinsturctions. Deep breath and a chant of "and this too will pass"