Does more cals in daytime=more sleep at night?

kah01009

This is what I've heard. DD is waking more at night than usual, but she's not quite ready for solids yet. I'm wondering if I should up her BM intake throughout the day by adding a couple of pumped BM bottles in there. Of course, the waking could also be a stage and developmentally normal and I don't want to overfeed her. Thoughts?

Gingersnap_mama

I'm not sure, because I'm wondering the same thing.  I have to nurse DD 2 sometimes 3 times before she'll go down for the night.  I noticed if she doesn't eat that 2nd or 3rd time, she'll wake up in the middle of the night for a feeding.  I read that they call that "tanking up" and that seems to help us.  Who knows though, maybe she's doing it as a comfort thing.   I'll add that she eats about every 3 hours during the day, so I guess that equals out to be about 5 or 6 times plus maybe an extra nurse session before bed. 

Maybe if you gave her a little more an hour or so before she goes down for good at night?  I'm not not talking a whole bottle or anything, but maybe enough to "top her off."  I've also heard that feeding solids, especially at night doesn't really solve the STTN problem either...we were going to try solids here in the next week or so, but not as a substitute for evening feedings. 

kah01009

Good points. DD doesn't do the whole tanking up thing on her own, but I have noticed that when she's particularly fussy during the day or night, and I feed her more, she ends up sleeping better that night. Hmm. I started to nurse her at around 6pm when she's due to eat, and then give her a BM bottle at 7pm before bed (she finds it soothing), and she's only waking 2-3 times now, which is better than before. We're going to try solids this week too and see what she thinks about eating off a spoon, lol.