need to start feeding during the night again?

hopeful34

DD STTN. DS doesn't. He wakes up usually around 2:30 every night now. yesterday he didn't eat well and of course last night he was up at 2:30, 3:30 etc...at 3:30 i picked him up and he started screaming so i fed him. He doesn't usually do that but i had to pick him up because he wasn't going back very easily. I only gave him 4oz.

He is a pound more than DD and eats the same amount as her. He won't take more during the day. He hardly ever finishes his 5 - 6oz bottles. There is usually about an oz or a bit less left.

Have you had to resort back to feeding again around this time? I really hate to start this up again because the dr said he'll eat less during the day and last time i gave him a full bottle he ate like crap the whole next day. Plus it didn't make him sleep longer last time. I can't tell if it's the 4mos wakeful or what. Ugh...

WWYD?? I need advice. I haven't given him a bottle during the night for weeks now. Most of the time he goes right back once i give him his binky..but usually it's just for an hr or so lately.

Thanks!

Thanks!!

caden

Your kids' age is right around the time my kids' sleep went to hell. Now that it's a month later I know it was b/c they were majorly adjusting their day-feed schedule but didn't have the ability to stretch out their wake times. So they were going 4 hrs between feeds, but sleeping most of that time and weren't as much tired at night. They woke up at night and I never fed them once. I haven't fed them at night since they were 11 weeks old and started STTN. At 4 months they drank somewhere around 26-28 oz/day IIRC. I had just been told by my pedi I was overfeeding them, so I cut down to that amount from the high 30s oz/day. So I was very reluctant to feed them at night b/c of that. But of course our babies aren't the same so what I did may not work for you. 

If your DS isn't waking from hunger, and I would guess that he's not if he wakes up hourly, then feeding him won't help in the long run. If you think it's hunger-related then bring back the dream feed (IMO). If it's not hunger then I'd look to your day schedule for clues. What's his day routine like? Is he napping ok -- soundly/unsoundly, too long or too short? When he wakes at night is he just fussy or is he full out crying? Or is he just happy awake like he slept all he wants to sleep? Or maybe it's something simple like he needs to go up a diaper size... or there's a draft in his room, etc.

Sorry you're going through this. It sucks. 

jennie13

this is where I'm at....around 4 months, my girls were going down for the night around 6.    One would fight bedtime, wake up screaming around 8, and I'd nurse her, and then wouldn't hear a peep til 6/6:30.  The other would go to sleep like a dream, wake up most nights around 3/4, but sometimes would go through til 6.  So I know they both can go the whole night.     Around 5.5 months, that stopped.   We Ferbered the first to make bedtime easy, and it worked, but then she started waking up with her sister in the middle of the night.  The other started waking up several times, if not for food, then to be flipped back after rolling on her tummy.    Right now, at almost 7 mo, I feed them both around 3/4, and I'm going to try Ferber's technique of reducing the time I nurse by a minute each night to see if I can eliminate that feeding.   I just don't know if they really need it or if it's habit at this point.    My pedi says it's reasonable to think they need it if they are going 9/10 hours without eating at that point.  

hopeful34

Thanks ladies!!! They both actually slept really good last night lol...They ate at 6:30pm, woke up at 12 which was really weird but neither one seemed hungry and DS went right back to sleep. DD was a little harder but she was closing her eyes. They never full on cry out. They are always just fussing away in their cribs but they wake each other up so i go in. It would be nice to see if they put themselves back to sleep. DS slept until 4 then was up at 6. So that was really good for him. DD slept from 1am to 6:30am.

So i can't complain about last night and it actually proved to me that he doesn't need food at night. He ate really well yesterday. So....i guess i answered my own question lol.

Thanks for the advice Caden! I always look fwd to your responses. I hope your little ones are doing well