Hungry baby

[0310Star]

My 16 week old has always been an amazing sleeper. We started her routine from 5 weeks old and it's certainly paid off, bedtime is at 6pm, up at 5am (since the clocks changed 🙄 used to be 6am) and has only ever woken once in the night for a feed then straight back to sleep.
She started going through the night at around 8 weeks old, we tried dream feeding before this but it didn't really work with her so instead she just did it herself with us just following her lead.

She's started waking again in the last few weeks hungry and I'm not sure what will be the best thing to do. She still feeds every 2 hours during the day, normally 5-6 oz but can occasionally only be 2 or 3oz so really depends on the day. Yesterday she fed every 2-3 hours at 6oz at a time and still woke up hungry about midnight.

Is this normal or is she now getting too hungry and maybe milk just isn't cutting it anymore?

I'm a first timer so any help/experiences would be much appreciated! 😊

Sounds like the 4 month sleep regression. I think that’s more likely than hunger.

www.babysleepscience.com/single-post/2014/03/12/The-Four-Month-Sleep-Regression-What-is-it-and-What-can-be-Done-About-it

It's normal and developmental. Over the first year, you can expect sleep patterns to change at certain times, particularly when they're learning new stuff or going through a growth spurt. It will settle down.

Weaning isn't really about calories/hunger because there are far more calories in milk than in anything you would be giving at that age. You wean when they're developmentally ready so sitting, no tongue thrust reflex and able to pick up food, put it in their mouths, chew and swallow. Waking more frequently has nothing to do with weaning readiness.

You could try bigger bottles before bed or just ride out the once a night feed. Most babies of that age wake up far more and that's utterly normal too.

Sounds like the 4 month sleep regression, exactly like my DD! How do you get her to sleep at the start of the night?

I’m just wondering if it isn’t necessarily hunger, but that she needs the sucking to get back to sleep. Does she use a dummy?

And yes to what PP said - weaning is very unlikely to help as milk has more calories than what she would be eating.

Thank you both, that's really helpful! I don't mind the one feed at night, we certainly count our blessings for such a good sleeper and she literally wakes for a nappy change and bottle then straight back down and self soothes back to sleep so it's only 15 mins at most.
I just wasn't sure if it was because she was hungry as she wasn't getting enough but I think we'll just carry on as we are and wait for her to phase it out herself when she's ready.

She's a bit of a grazer so a bigger bottle probably wouldn't work. She's never particularly fussed about a bottle before bed and only has a couple oz but will have a full bottle when she wakes in the night. She just likes going up to bed on her own, used to do 7pm bedtime but had to bring it forward to 6pm as she couldn't last that long so we just go by her. We've always been extremely consistent with bed time and thankfully it's paid off so we'll just keep at it and I'm sure the night feed will stop when she's ready.

@Sipperskipper she does like a dummy at nap time/bedtime so yes that certainly is a must when she's going to sleep, but if she falls asleep whilst having a bottle and we just put her down she doesn't have a dummy. It just depends how asleep she is when she goes down tbh!

0310star can I ask how you got baby into a night feeding routine? My little ones only a week old and I want to get her into a sleep pattern when I can but my Midwife’s only advice is the baby will do what they need which isn’t of much help

@Njl15 to be honest we've never really done a night feeding routine, just a bedtime routine. Some may disagree, but since bringing her home she's always been in her own bed (next to me crib) with her Ollie the owl which has played a lullaby and has a cry sensor. Then from 5 weeks she started going up to bed from 7pm- this was her choice, she spent a full week and a half screaming non stop all evening so we gave it a go and it turns out she just wanted to go to bed! So now she goes up at 6 (7 was too late so we brought it forward) with a monitor and the owl and she sleeps through other than the 1 night feed where I get to her before she starts to cry as I found that if she got as far as crying then it takes a while to settle her down, I get her up, change nappy, bottle, then straight back down and she sends herself back off. Takes 15 mins at most now to put her down and also the night feed from start to finish.
I must say though, we've been very consistent with her bedtime and so far it's paid off. We had a few weeks of her waking a lot in the evening but we've never brought her downstairs, she gets picked up, cuddled until she drops off, then back in bed, after about a week of this she realised that was what happens and that was that! X