Feeding question.........

CV2011

How do you know how much your babies should be eating? My boys are now 11 weeks, one weighs 9lbs. and one is 8.4lbs...right now we've been feeding them 4 1/2 oz every 3 1/2 hours....when do you know to give them more or if your giving them the right amount...the dr didn't say anything to us about feeding.

Also what are your nighttime routines for feedings...we just started letting them sleep and waking up on their own during the night....they will go anywhere from 5-7 hours but I stopped waking the 2nd one up...wondering if I should wake the other once I'm done with the one who woke up..then I just get them on the same schedule again during the day...I hope I'm on the road to STTN!

 If anyone has any suggestions let me know...I would love to hear what you do with your LO's at night.

AlishaMay

The guidelines we were given was that they should eat between 2-2.5 times their body weight in pounds in a 24 hour period.  Meaning that a 9# baby should take between 18-22.5 oz in a 24 hour period.  Once we had that calculation in mind we were able to play around with their feeding schedule because we knew that as long as they got an amount in those ranges in a 24 hour period, we weren't over or under feeding them.

From birth to about 2 months, they ate every 3 hours around the clock (8 bottles a day), then we went to every 4 hours at close to 3 months.  During their third month we would sneak in an extra ounce or two throughout the day, and take those from the over night bottles, until we were down to 1 overnight bottle, then down to one 2 oz overnight bottle, and by 4 months, no overnight bottles at all.

Hope this helps!