Spacing out nighttime feedings

imsoexcited915 · October 2015

Peds just told us at one month appointment that we don't need to wake DD up every 3 hours to feed during the night. She has come to start to wake up right on target for when we are about to feed her. Wondering if she will have a hard time spacing out feedings and still want them every 3 hours. Has anyone had experience with this yet?

jen83mn · October 2015

We had been waking ours up every 3-4 hours at night too until our little guy's one-month appointment and I was wondering when I wouldn't have to anymore so I could get some more sleep! He wasn't waking up on his own though at those times, so once we stopped waking him up, he went a 5-hour stretch and now goes 6 hours his first stretch at night, then another 3-4 hours after feeding him in the middle of the night.

Hopefully if you stop waking her at night she'll naturally start sleeping longer. Make sure the last feeding before bed is a good one and baby gets enough to eat, and try to keep her awake for a few hours right before bedtime. That should help at least!

chelseajeanene · October 2015

My son is a month and doesn't have his month app until Monday but we've stopped waking him in the night for about a week. He has no problem and he wakes us when he is hungry! It's almost 6am now and I finished feeding him a little bit ago and he last feeding was almost 5 hours before this. It's fantastic lol

kazmierczak0314 · October 2015

Wow I would love 3 hours in-between feedings. I only get 2 hours if I'm lucky. He always wakes up 1.5 - 2 hours in the night on his own. I haven't been able to get him to go longer. He is almost 5 weeks old. It's the same during the day. Once in awhile he will go 2.5 during the day.

seg6394 · October 2015

kazmierczak0314 said:
Wow I would love 3 hours in-between feedings. I only get 2 hours if I'm lucky. He always wakes up 1.5 - 2 hours in the night on his own. I haven't been able to get him to go longer. He is almost 5 weeks old. It's the same during the day. Once in awhile he will go 2.5 during the day.

My LO is 6 weeks and still wakes up on his own every 1.5-2 hours at night. It's so exhausting. I keep thinking I'm doing something wrong because people are getting 4-6 hour stretches!

jbettles · October 2015

Mine had 6-7 hour stretches in the first few days. We started a schedule where he goes to sleep at 11-12, I wake him at 4 (when hubby leaves for work) to eat, then he sleeps til about 7:30. Now he gets up between 3 and 4 on his own because he is used to it, so I think we will be stuck doing that for awhile! It's ok though because if I don't feed him in the middle of the night I leak all over the bed.

nomes23 · October 2015

All of you should read The Newborn Sleep Book by two doctors who are brothers last name Jassey.

ForeverEverAfter · October 2015

The Newborn Sleep Book has been slammed by most reputable experts as tantamount to child neglect. And it's definitely not compatible with breastfeeding.

lmbrandt · October 2015

We are going through the same situation right now. Our boy is 3 weeks tomorrow and has surpassed his birth weight. The doctor told us we no longer need to wake him, we can feed him on demand when he shows he's hungry, but to not let it get to 5 hours without eating.

Well, during the day he would sometimes nap long enough to where it would be 5+ hours without eating. So instead of going back to our 3 hour feeding schedule like when we first brought him home, we wake him at the 4 hour mark. The doctor made it seem like this demand eating would allow for him to sleep in longer chunks through the night.

Every night so far he is still waking at about 3, 3.5 hours on the dot ready to eat. We are hoping things will change soon because we are so exhausted! He's also been fighting going back to sleep after that second feeding, so it makes for a very LONG and tiring morning.

Here's to hoping our little ones will sleep through the night longer sometime soon!!

monicaP · October 2015

@kazmierczak0314 I am in the same boat. LO has had terrific weight gain, but you could set s clock for 2 hours during the day and I am lucky to get even that long at night. We have just started treating for reflux as well because she has been waking VERY frequently

meggipi5 · October 2015

These babies are pretty young to be waking up out of habit, so she's probably waking out of hunger or discomfort.

Every baby is different and all the contradictory information in sleep books is mind-boggling. An easy place to read some information is at babycenter.com. They have information about parent-led feeding versus baby-led feeding versus a combo approach. We go for the combo approach, where I follow baby's cues, but don't stick my boob in her mouth every time she cries and try to stick to a loose schedule for eating and sleeping.

Some tricks that are pretty middle of the road are:

--make sure she doesn't sleep more than 3 hours in the day

--do a "dream feed" at night (feeding her before you go to bed, so if she ate at 8pm and you head to bed at 10, feed her without waking her up too much to top her off)

-- don't jump up to get her at every sound--wait until she is actually awake and hungry as opposed to in an active sleep state.

I really just think every baby is different, too. I know when they get a little bigger (11-12 pounds) and a little older (3-4 months), they really are capable of going longer stretches. There are ways to night wean when you are sure they don't need to actually eat.

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