dropping that 4am feed.........

[mogwai]

my baby is now 5 weeks old and wakes once during the night for a feed. I feed her around midnight and again at 4am ish. We tend to go to her as soon as she cries, it seems to ensure she doesn't wake up too much.

She will take 5oz at midnight but when she wakes at 4am she sometimes only wants half an ounce, occasionally more.

A friend has advised me to give her cooled water at the 4am feed to help her drop this feed. I must admit, it's a bit frustrating being woken up at 4am for half an ounce.

Has anyone tried this or do you have any other advice to help me out??

I'm certainly no expert on this, as i'm first time mum to ds who is 6 weeks old. But to go from 12am to 4am seems pretty good to me! However, have you tried trying to feed before 12am ? We tend to wake ours up at about 10.30pm, before we go to bed, feed him and put him back down. Think its probably too early to try and drop the feed, but if you try and make the midnight one earlier, she may be hungrier at 4am and actually feed more, and make it worth waking up for. Up to you. Worth a try, maybe?

My baby's seven weeks old and also having a midnight feed and a 4 a.m. feed, although he has moved this forward to 4:45, which I am taking as an encouraging sign. He normally takes a bit more than half an ounce in the night though. How much does your baby weigh now, Mogwai? 12 lb seems to be a rough benchmark for when you should be able to expect a baby to go all night without a feed.

I did read in the Baby Whisperer that you could try giving her a dummy at 4 to see if all she really wants is to comfort suck. Be warned, though, ds was able to go for longer periods of sleep when he was smaller (don't ask me how) - something like 10 til 4, sometimes even 9 til 4 (like he basically couldn't be bothered to wake up for the midnight feed). But he's stopped doing that now, I guess because of the 6 week growth spurt.

My Ds did this and dropped the midnight feed first, feeding at 7 before bed then going thro till 4 then till 8. we found he gradually got later and later with 4 am feed till he was going thro till 6 at 9 weeks. hes now 6 months and we havent loooked back since - he sleeps thro every night from 7.30 thill 7. Think you just have to go with the flow and at that early age feed them when they want to be fed.

Oh to know when your baby will wake in the nighT!!! my 4 monther wakes randomly , seeming to settle to just once now but it could be anywhere between 1:30 and 4....zzzzzzzzz

they change their [patterns so much in the ear;ly weeks, you may find that one week he wants an ounce and the next he will drain 5.....its that random!!!