Night time feeding advice! Apologies in advance for lengthy post!

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Hey! So I've a 10 week old and she's actually a good sleep in hindsight so I'm not complaining about that at all, I'm just wanting some advice or some tips on the best way to go about night time feeding.

Basically as are we all, I'm wanting her to go a bit longer with her middle of the night feed with hopes to drop it. I know babies do their own thing but mine is so to the T with timings I often wonder if it's more a comfort thing sometimes and is she actually hungry?

So far we bath and pjs and feed (6oz) then bed around half 7, sometimes earlier if shes grumpy. (Before anyone jumps down my neck, I am aware of SIDS but there is no way my girl will stay down with us settled enough or even sleep till we go up for that matter, she gets grumpy and knows when she wants bed so it was on the advice of the HV) then we dream feed her at around 11(4oz as she NEVER drinks a full 6oz again) but this varies depending on whether hubby has work so sometimes its 10/10:30. Then she will go till half past 2/3am then feed (4oz for same reason as before) then she goes till half 6, feeds again (4oz again for the same reason) and then has her last hours sleep before she gets up.

Do I just let this run its course? Or can I try anything just to ger her to go a little longer then 3am? She has done the odd occasion before, gone till 4 sometimes and once even half past 4!

I know she's only 10 weeks old etc and I'm not up for forcing anything really as I don't really have it bad compared to some! Only wondering if I can try something maybe? Or if there's something I can do differently?

Thank you in advance for any advice. Xx

Why would you want to stop providing comfort to a 10wk old baby?

Their sleep varies all the time, you have regressions to come yet. Their shouldn’t be any schedule, just responding to their needs which may be different every day.

Honestly that’s fine for her age. I know it’s awful getting up so much in the night but she’s only litte and this too will pass.

You could drop a feed by refusing it, but she will probably scream and you’ll be up anyway.

She's far too young to night wean, her stomach is tiny. You should be feeding on demand til at least 6 months. FWIW her sleep sounds really very good for a baby that small.

This is a very normal feeding routine. Please do not try to drop any feeds, babies need to be fed on demand.

That doesn't sound too bad for 10 weeks.

Do you give her a chance to go back to sleep when she wakes up or do you get her straight up?

I'd hang on for a couple of weeks, it was around 9-12 weeks my two ditched the middle of the night feeds and started going reliably around 10-6. Mine had a similar pattern to yours, although we didn't do a dream feed, we kept them with us and gave them their last feed about 10pm.

Sounds normal, one thing you could do is try to get her to have more milk in the daytime, does she finish her bottles? If so add another oz per feed and she might fill up in the day. She's still really little so I wouldn't restrict night feeding at the moment. I find continuous white noise helps them stay asleep longer though, I use it all night and for most naps

I think there might have been a bit of misunderstanding... It's hard to explain without waffling on too much.

I am more than happy to get up with her as many times as she wants but I'm a new mum so this is all very alien to me and I suppose I've kind of been sucked into peoples stories also of how their little one sleeps through at this age and it always makes me wonder if I'm doing anything wrong. I know I'm not but it's that new mum anxiety I think.
She's on 6oz and I always offer this in the day time and some times she will eat it all and others not. At night time she will take the full bottle before bed and then the other 2 feeds before morning she will only ever take 4 but I still make the full 6oz just incase.
I don't want to take the comfort away from her and I'm not trying to force her to drop any feed cause I know when she is ready she will do it herself. I guess I was just wondering if its a good regime or if I should try something different but by the sounds, I'mm doing good so I'll take that!
I did used to keep her with me until 10pm and feed then but she started getting so grumpy and crying by 7pm and she would do this until I took her up hence the bedtime and dream feed. Thank you for your responses! xx

Perfectly normal feeding routine for that age I'm afraid. Just hang in for now and don't change anything.

I'm definitely going to keep trooping on. Apologies to anyone where I might have caused some misunderstanding by coming across as though I'm trying to drop the feed sooner than usual... as I've already explained, I get too caught up on folk telling me their babies sleep 6hr stints and I always wonder how??? but I completely appriciate every baby is different and I know I have a good baby!

And of course I'm living for the day I wake up and think "wow, she's slept through!" but aren't we all? xx

Sleeping through is not something to aim for, it’s just a depressingly high standard to hold an infant to and it’s not actually desirable in a small baby. Sleeping too deeply is related to SIDS, babies should wake frequently for their safety, they evolved that way.
Mine is 11 months and not slept through once. We do get 5-6hr stints but I have no expectations, it changes with every developmental leap and regression anyway.

@Megan2018
As I've said, I'm more than happy for her to wake up when she needs too. I'm new to all of this and just with her timings being very precise in the night I wasn't sure if it was down to actual hunger, if she wants comfort (which isn't an issue I'm happy for a cuddle in the night) or if I was putting her to bed too early even though she lets me know in the evening when she's tired, or just if I was doing something I don't need to be doing or doing too much! I'm just new and looking for peoples experiences. I wouldn't even know when to try to do any kind of weaning in regards to night time anyway so I won't be trying it any time soon.

It is a killer at first getting up at night and then getting a few hours of sleep at a time. It sounds like you've got the hang of responding to her needs by sorting out a good bedtime for her. I'm on DC2 and it's so much easier without the expectation of a full nights sleep and wondering when it will get better.

Obviously your daughter will start sleeping longer but I think the thing that makes the most difference is you'll get used to it. It's great she's waking around the same sort of times because you'll find yourself waking around then naturally. Could Dad do the dream feed and you go to bed earlier? Every minute counts!

I used to let my DH do the late night feed and go to bed early ready for the middle of the night one. Sounds like a pretty good pattern at the moment though I know it probably doesn't feel it. They're sleep can change so much - mine slept through early on and then decided sleep was for the weak at about 6 months!

@EGmummy

I'm definitely going to keep trooping on. Apologies to anyone where I might have caused some misunderstanding by coming across as though I'm trying to drop the feed sooner than usual... as I've already explained, I get too caught up on folk telling me their babies sleep 6hr stints and I always wonder how??? but I completely appriciate every baby is different and I know I have a good baby!

You could get your baby sleeping longer.

What you could do with is a different way to comfort her to sleep, that doesnt involve feeding. The easiest method is to use a dummy.

I would suggest your feed at 7pm, dreamfeed at pm and then on the 3am ish wake up, try to settle back to sleep with a dummy and in-cot settling methods instead of feeding.

@FATEdestiny I'm not sure that's good advice for a 10wk baby - at that age if they're waking every 3 or 4 hours it's because they need to eat every 3 or 4 hours.

Hahaha to sleeping through at 10 weeks! Those saying that are either liars, have abnormal babies, are such heavy sleepers they don’t hear their babies cry!

As long as baby is getting 24 hours worth of milk in the daytime, no reason to need more milk at night from a calorific need point of view. But baby will need comforting when waking - good practice to start non-feeding based comfort now.

If baby is not getting enough milk for 24h in the daytime, then of course night feeds are needed.

Lots (and lots) of babies are sleeping through at 10 weeks. You tend not to hear about them because they have nothing to complain about. And at parents groups they often stay quiet about it as a means to not make other Mums feel worse (or be accused of lying on anonymous forums)

I guess I can take comfort in the fact of I know when she will wake and its not like a roulette of what time will it be tonight! OH does the dream feed if he's not got work the next day other wise I'm on the night shift. I don't mind too much cause from half 10 till 3 isn't a bad slab of sleep time at all really, it just depends how quick or not quick she wants to drink the dream feed, if she wants it at all as sometimes shes that fast on I physically can't her to have it!

Its good to know you all think its a good and i hate to say it "routine". Makes me feel I'm doing something right! Haha xx