6 wk old - night time feeding ??

hmkoller · July 2010

my 6 week old just started this last night... and now that it happened again, i'm a little concerned..

she's waking up almost every hour or 2 at best.. i try and give her a bottle and all she does is takes a few sips and falls right back to sleep.. i'll try and wake her up by changing her and everything, but to no avail. I want to make sure she's getting enough to eat - and my MIL's take on it is that if she was really that hungry she would definitely eat. in which i agree with her, i'm still worried.

she may have eaten a whole but 4 ounces this entire night (from 1am to about 7am) when normally she'll wake up every 3 hours or so and eat an entire 4 oz and sometimes more..

is this something to be worried about? is anybody else going through this too?? could it have been a growth spurt when she was eating so much and now she's not hungry as much??

any help with this is appreciated!

radiokate · July 2010

It definitely isn't something to worry about, but I wouldn't feed her every time she wakes, otherwise she won't be taking in a full meal so she will just want to snack all the time.

Have you tried using a pacifier, or just cuddling her for a bit until she's ready to go back to sleep? If she's only taking a few sips, it definitely isn't hunger. I think she is just stirring and needs to be directed a bit.

LGar · July 2010

Maybe she's just adjusting how much she actually needs at night and is sleeping better! My almost-6 week old recently started doing this- she has had a few nights where she's slept from 11-6! Other nights she's up around 3 in between there too. We've found that offering her 2oz when she wakes in the middle of the night is all she needs and she goes back to sleep. She's eating more (more quantity and more frequently) during the day so I feel like she's getting enough overall.

For example, she ate 4 oz last night at 9, then 2oz at 11, 2oz at 4am, 2oz at 7, and I'm waiting for her to get up at 9 or 10 for another 4 oz (and offer 3-4oz every few hrs the rest of today).

Anyway, there's a growth spurt around this time and I think they start to not need as much at nighttime...

Also, when you say "waking up every hour or two.." is she full out waking up or could you be going to her too quickly? DD will sometimes cry out for a moment and stay asleep, so we don't go to her then.

Sept17.05Bride · July 2010

radiokate:
It definitely isn't something to worry about, but I wouldn't feed her every time she wakes, otherwise she won't be taking in a full meal so she will just want to snack all the time.

Have you tried using a pacifier, or just cuddling her for a bit until she's ready to go back to sleep? If she's only taking a few sips, it definitely isn't hunger. I think she is just stirring and needs to be directed a bit.

I agree with all of this. Try a pacifier, or just rocking her back to sleep.

hmkoller · July 2010

LGar:
Maybe she's just adjusting how much she actually needs at night and is sleeping better! My almost-6 week old recently started doing this- she has had a few nights where she's slept from 11-6! Other nights she's up around 3 in between there too. We've found that offering her 2oz when she wakes in the middle of the night is all she needs and she goes back to sleep. She's eating more (more quantity and more frequently) during the day so I feel like she's getting enough overall.
For example, she ate 4 oz last night at 9, then 2oz at 11, 2oz at 4am, 2oz at 7, and I'm waiting for her to get up at 9 or 10 for another 4 oz (and offer 3-4oz every few hrs the rest of today).
Anyway, there's a growth spurt around this time and I think they start to not need as much at nighttime...
Also, when you say "waking up every hour or two.." is she full out waking up or could you be going to her too quickly? DD will sometimes cry out for a moment and stay asleep, so we don't go to her then.

it's full blown woken up by the time i get to her cuz she does the whole stretching thing where she'll moan a little but fall back to sleep within a minute or 2. so we know the difference by now.

GinEthansMom · July 2010

LGar:
Maybe she's just adjusting how much she actually needs at night and is sleeping better! My almost-6 week old recently started doing this- she has had a few nights where she's slept from 11-6! Other nights she's up around 3 in between there too. We've found that offering her 2oz when she wakes in the middle of the night is all she needs and she goes back to sleep. She's eating more (more quantity and more frequently) during the day so I feel like she's getting enough overall.
For example, she ate 4 oz last night at 9, then 2oz at 11, 2oz at 4am, 2oz at 7, and I'm waiting for her to get up at 9 or 10 for another 4 oz (and offer 3-4oz every few hrs the rest of today).
Anyway, there's a growth spurt around this time and I think they start to not need as much at nighttime...
Also, when you say "waking up every hour or two.." is she full out waking up or could you be going to her too quickly? DD will sometimes cry out for a moment and stay asleep, so we don't go to her then.

Annie is totally doing this!! I think she's going to start STTN soon and is just accustomed to waking at night. She'll fool around with the bottle for a few minutes and go back to sleep. She really only wants one good feeding at night. I have a hunch the monkey business with the "snacks" is going to stop soon and she'll sleep better.

rtuck82@aol.com · July 2010

LGar:
Maybe she's just adjusting how much she actually needs at night and is sleeping better! My almost-6 week old recently started doing this- she has had a few nights where she's slept from 11-6! Other nights she's up around 3 in between there too. We've found that offering her 2oz when she wakes in the middle of the night is all she needs and she goes back to sleep. She's eating more (more quantity and more frequently) during the day so I feel like she's getting enough overall.
For example, she ate 4 oz last night at 9, then 2oz at 11, 2oz at 4am, 2oz at 7, and I'm waiting for her to get up at 9 or 10 for another 4 oz (and offer 3-4oz every few hrs the rest of today).
Anyway, there's a growth spurt around this time and I think they start to not need as much at nighttime...
Also, when you say "waking up every hour or two.." is she full out waking up or could you be going to her too quickly? DD will sometimes cry out for a moment and stay asleep, so we don't go to her then.

My son will be 6 weeks tomorrow and is on the exact same schedule....

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