Extending night time feeding times

[izzyness]

I'll be going back to work in three and a half weeks and would like to be able to get a little more sleep at night. Currently 4.5 month DD goes to bed at about 630pm and wakes for a feed around 10pm when we're on our way to bed then 2am 5am and is up for the day around 7am. I think she's going through her sleep regression at the moment as on some nights she can be extremely unsettled. I BF but I'm introducing a FF to prepare her for when I am back at work. I wanted to know if there is anything I can do to extend the time between her feeds? I don't expect her to sleep from 630 all the way through till the morning but maybe pushing the 2am feed so she only feeds once during the night. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to achieve this or is it something that will happen on its own?

Hi - I have very similar wake times with my 3 month old. This is what I've found..... He goes longer if I express and give him a bottle at the 7 and 10.30 feeds because he takes more than on the boob. So you may find that introducing formula helps because more volume. I've also found that if I get him up for the 10.30 feed rather than waiting until he wakes, he seems to go longer. I think because he hasn't had the chance to fully wake up and therefore settles better. I've also introduced a bit of cluster feeding in the evening, feeding him at 5 and 6.

Have you tried not to feed at 2? On some nights I have been able to shhh/ pat and DS has gone off again til 4. It still means I've been woken but hopefully in the longer term will help him go for longer without needing a feed at this time.

Good luck with your return to work.