Tell me to settle down

katie4253

Gabe has been a rock star sleeper the past 2 nights.  Night before last he went 5hrs between feedings, meaning he slept for over 4hrs.  Last night he went 4hrs between feedings, sleeping 3hrs. 

Don't get me wrong, I love the sleep.  But I worry about him getting enough to eat.  If he continues on this path, he'll be eating about 1 bottle less a day.  Yesterday I fed him at around the 2hr mark (I thought he was acting hungry and wanting to eat) and all hell broke loose.  He was a mess for the next 4hrs because I'd over-fed him and he was refluxing and all upset.   I don't want him to gain less because he is sleeping more.  We can't really increase his volume anymore.  He is at the top edge of what I think he can drink w/o having major issues (like reflux). 

FWIW, he is probably 6.5lbs.  He eats 70ml every time he eats.

kck329

It will be ok if he misses one bottle here and there. He will wake up when he's hungry. If you are worried about it though, call and talk to your pedi and see what they say. When Cora was past 7 lbs, they told us not to wake her to eat at night. You are really close to that mark now so you should be ok. You can also ask to bring him in for a weight check in a few days to see if he's still gaining well. At my pedi, we can bring C in to weigh her any time we want without even needing an appointment.

katie4253

kck329:

It will be ok if he misses one bottle here and there. He will wake up when he's hungry. If you are worried about it though, call and talk to your pedi and see what they say. When Cora was past 7 lbs, they told us not to wake her to eat at night. You are really close to that mark now so you should be ok. You can also ask to bring him in for a weight check in a few days to see if he's still gaining well. At my pedi, we can bring C in to weigh her any time we want without even needing an appointment.

Thanks lady.  I can always count on you to be the voice of reason )

He has a follow-up at the special care clinic on Wed.  So, they'll weigh him then.  If he starts being weird (as in eating much less) I'll take him in.   He's been refluxing a little lately.  Usually he doesn't cry or anything.  So, it most not be bothering him.  Yesterdays painful episode was because I overfed him.  He spit up some very interesting spit up on DH's shirt.  LOL! 

nasmith882

I remember when I use to freak about this...I was crazy about waking my LO up every three hours to feed him. I can't remember how old he was but he had to be more then 4 or 5 mths.  At our month appointment our ped took one look at me and said are you still waking him to feed and I said "of course"..he said " okay, stop " he took my hand and said..." your doing a great job, he is growing just fine, eatting is a natural reflex and if hes hungry he will wake you up....now its time for you to rest"   Best advice I got...Your doing great mama don't worry.

kck329

katie4253:

kck329:

It will be ok if he misses one bottle here and there. He will wake up when he's hungry. If you are worried about it though, call and talk to your pedi and see what they say. When Cora was past 7 lbs, they told us not to wake her to eat at night. You are really close to that mark now so you should be ok. You can also ask to bring him in for a weight check in a few days to see if he's still gaining well. At my pedi, we can bring C in to weigh her any time we want without even needing an appointment.

Thanks lady.  I can always count on you to be the voice of reason )

He has a follow-up at the special care clinic on Wed.  So, they'll weigh him then.  If he starts being weird (as in eating much less) I'll take him in.   He's been refluxing a little lately.  Usually he doesn't cry or anything.  So, it most not be bothering him.  Yesterdays painful episode was because I overfed him.  He spit up some very interesting spit up on DH's shirt.  LOL! 

Anytime! And he's been growing great for awhile now so I think you are probably fine. Our pedi keeps reminding me "your house isn't the NICU, things can relax a little bit, its really ok." Sometimes I still struggle to believe that 

OscarQ

Ditto everything kck329 said.  Settle down!  J/K.  But seriously, if he's sleeping longer that is good.  He needs to sleep/save his energy in order to grow.  Maybe if you think of it that way it'll help.

And a refluxer doing 70ml every bottle!  He's a rock star eater!

damabo80

We went to on demand feedings, and it's great. Some nights I get up to a 4.5 hour stretch between feedings. She def wakes when she's hungry. I have about 5 minutes before the "please feed me now" wimpers turns into "holy hell, woman, give me food now!" screams.

We have gone down from 8 feedings a day to 5 or 6 main feedings, with a few little "snacks" thrown in during the evening hours when Fussy McFusserson comes out.

I was concerned about the decrease in feedings as well, but her diaper output is fine, so I'm going based off of that.

MrsLee22

Katie, take a deep breath! You are a FANTASTIC mama, trust your instincts and trust that Gabe will let you know what he needs. If he's sleeping more, it means he needs more sleep. Sleep = growing!

If you really need peace of mind, call your pedi and ask how many ml he needs per 24 hrs. There's a formula they use based on their weight. My pedi gave me a range to aim for and I just divide that up over how many bottles they take a day.

Keep up the wonderful work girl! You and Gabe are ROCKSTARS!

OscarQ

damabo80:

She def wakes when she's hungry. I have about 5 minutes before the "please feed me now" wimpers turns into "holy hell, woman, give me food now!" screams.

Ha!  My husband and I were just talking about this this afternoon.  LO refuses to make eye contact when he wakes up for his middle of the night feeding.  He's so pi$$ed off at us that there is not a bottle in his mouth the moment he wakes up that it'd be funny (if it weren't 3am).

st.augbride

When we moved to on demand feedings at the advice of our GI and only fed ds when he wanted, his reflux seemed to disappear almost over night! He screamed through feedings before that. I was so worried about him not eating enough since he takes such small amounts at a time, but he amazingly kept his volume around the same and just did marathon feeds at night. Now of course he's back to waking up many times at night, so I miss when he slept better, lol.

bhilyer

FWIW, my little guy that's still in the hospital is right at 7 lb and gets 54 cc per feed. It's fortified to 26 calories.
Like PP mentioned there is a formula for calculating min amounts. LO's TFI is 140ish and I think the highest they like for it to go is 170ish.
And just so you know, my guy at home takes only 6 bottles a day. But they do have 4 oz in them, so 120 cc. And he's nearly 11 pounds.