Is this normal at 15 weeks

[ThePippy]

Hi I need some input from others. I have 2 DC and with my first it seems I hit lucky with a baby who slept through the night (from dream feed at about 11pm until 7am ish) from before she was 9 weeks old.

Well I have a DS now who is 15 weeks. He was feeding 2 hourly at night at first (something my DD never did even though they were both full term babies of almost exactly the same weight) then went to two feeds, one at about 1-2am and one about 4-5am. At about 9 weeks he dropped the first all by himself and now goes from a dream feed at 10.30pm until anywhere from 3.30 to 4.30am.

I know this is probably a wonderful situation for some people, but I am just surprised that he has not "improved" in the last 6 weeks, still insisting on that 4am feed. He goes to bed fine at 7pm after bath and bottle, self settles himself to sleep etc. Daytime naps are pretty decent now too, again can be put down awake and get himself off to sleep.

He seems to take most of the dream feed and 4am feed, so I suspect he does need them, but then part of me thinks for his age and weight, and given he has been down to one feed for 6 weeks, that he should be dropping it by now.

I can't up his feeds in the day (he never finishes what I give him, and when he has had enough no amount of coaxing will get a drop more into him) which is frustrating as often he won't take more than about 3 oz in the day, so I really don't know whether I need to just ride it out or try to actively manage removal of the 4am feed somehow. Thoughts?

How often does he feed during the day?

I recall it was around this age that my DS went from 3 to 4 hourly feeding & that made the world of difference to how much he would take at each feed. If I fed him at 3hrs, he would take the bottle, but he wouldn't drink very much, so then he was hungry for a bit more 3hrs later, but again only a smallish feed. He was kind of snacking I suppose.

If your DS is like this (which I'm guessing he could be since he's only taking 3oz at a time, then I would suggest very gradually stretching the time between feeds & see if this helps him take a bigger feed. The formula guides suggest 5 feeds per day of 7oz (he may need a wee bit more or less than this of course - its only a guide). If he's having decent feeds when he wakes, mid morning, mid afternoon and bedtime, plus a dream feed, then you might find that 4am feed will disappear.

That said, our NF did go at around 3-4 months, then it reappeared as we got towards 5 months & it disappeared again once he was established on solids, so if he does still continue to wake it may be a case of waiting it out until he's established on solids. Once he's on 3 meals a day, if he is still waking for his feed, then you could then look at weaning it perhaps by diluting it gradually with water.

HTH.x

Dd is 11mo, she still feeds at 2230, 0130 and 0430 and then sleeps until about 0830. This hasn't changed since she was 12 weeks old. If I drop a feed she screams, will eventually snooze and then screams 20 mins later. I just feed on demand now and I guess she'll drop a feed eventually when she isn't hungry.

You could try offering water instead if milk and see if he insists on milk but I wouldn't try it until he is six months. Until then I think babies are too little to be denied food if they ask for it.

Thanks for the responses. I think you might be right omama, he is on a 3hr schedule and we suspect that is too frequent for him now. I guess I have been resisting moving to 4hr in case he feeds just as bad because that would be technically dropping a daytime feed and I was worried that might bring the 1am feed back. It is tricky to know as with my daughter she was a terrible feeder, but it made no difference to her ability to sleep through the night even on days when she had less than 600mls overall, but DS definitely seem hungry for the night feeds. I think I will do as you suggest and try stretching to 4hrs and see what that does.

HappyCamel 11 months of feeding that frequently at night must be a killer! Poor you. I wish I could have as relaxed an attitude to the whole thing as you do, but the whole night feeding/sleep deprivation thing is making me terribly anxious and I have to go back to work in a couple of months so really would like to have it sorted by then if I can do anything at all to influence it. I appreciate though that if a baby needs the food they should be given it and I would never deny my son that or leave him crying from hunger.

Thanks again for the responses.

Just wanted to say a huge thankyou omama because after taking your advise to move my DS to a 4hr schedule he was sleeping through the night within a couple of nights and has done for the last 5 night. As I said I suspected he needed to be on 4hrs but your post gave me the confidence/push I needed to go for it.

That's brilliant. Omama gives some very good advice on the sleep threads. Well done!