What do you think?

taryn30

I have been breAstfeeding my twins and I supplement two or three bottles a day. When my boys who are five months old drink bottle, it's somewhere between two to four ozs. At night, they each are waking up five times which leaves me with little sleep. They nurse each time they wake, although I think a few times it is just to suck. My question is do you think they are not eating enough during day? And that's why they wake so much? Thanks ladies!

ktjruss03

Two to four ounces at that age doesn't seem like enough to me.  Is that in addition to nursing at the same time or on it's own?  Do they still seem hungry after the bottle?  How often are they eating that much?  My DS was a big eater and probably ate at least 6-7oz at a time by then.  I also am a nurse in a Pediatric office and that seems to be on the low end of what they should be taking in. 

Kristi1971

I was also thinking it seems on the low end.  I know my girls were up to 6 oz per bottle (at least) by then.  Maybe try to offer more during that sitting and see if they want it?  Good luck!

srbmvp

This can be a little tricky to figure out, based on how much breastmilk versus formula they are drinking. I assumed from your post that the bottles are formula?

A baby strictly on breastmilk will only take in 19-30 ounces in a 24-hour period, whereas with formula, you keep increasing the volume as they get bigger. It has something to do with the fact that the breastmilk will change in quality as your babies get older, so they don't need more volume-wise.

So based on all that, 2-4oz in a bottle may be fine. What you may want to take a closer look at is how long are they nursing for during the day? 5 months is a very distractable age, it could be they are too busy playing to spend enough time nursing to get what they really need, and therefore are getting hungry at night. I have this problem with my boys, it's a pain!

Also, pay attention to their nighttime nursing. Are they actively eating, like they are hungry? Or do they take a few sucks and fall back asleep, like it was a comfort thing? If you think it's just comfort, maybe try other ways to soothe first, back patting etc, before offering to nurse.

Hang in there, I'm going on 10 months of not good sleep, so I feel your pain!

EastCoastMamaNJ

If you think they are sucking for the sake of sucking, you could always try a paci at night.

SpinningJess

Also, this was about the age that I really started pushing dream feeds.  I don't know how much it helped mine....life just seemed so much more chaotic with two vs one LOL  But I'd cluster feed between 5 and 6:30 or so, then do one more feed before I went to bed around 9.  I went back to work 5w pp so NEEDED sleep, and we ended up doing CIO after Ferber failed around 5 months.