4:30am - 5am feed at 13 weeks

[SofisMom]

Hi all,

My daughter is 13 weeks old. Is it normal for her to still wake up between 4:30am-5:30am for a feed? She wakes up then on a daily basis, there have only been 3-4 nights in the past month or two where she randomly slept till 7-7:30am. When she wakes up at 4:30-5am,  we first give her a pacifier a few times which usually holds her off for 15-30 minutes and then I feed her. After eating she usually goes right back to bed and then wakes up 2.5 - 3 hours from when I started feeding her (so if I fed her at 5am, she'll go back to sleep and then wake up at 8am or sometimes 7:30am, or sometimes she'll sleep past 8am in which case I wake her).

Is it normal for her to be waking up still at this time for a feed? Or should I be working to eliminate this feed, and if so, how?

To give you a general idea of her eating/sleeping habits, she eats every 3 hours during the day, her naps usually range from 1.5 hours - 2 hours (sometimes she wakes up herself and other times I have to wake her up). She has a dream feed around 11-11:15pm. So if she eats at 5am, the rest of her feeds will be 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, then the dream feed around 11pm (6 feeds + dream feed).

When can I expect her to stop this early morning feed? Thanks for any tips you can offer!

[*Ali*]

Yes, definitely completely normal. EBF babies do need NFs for considerably longer than FF babies. The fact she is only put off for a a very short time with the dummy sounds like she is genuinely hungry at that time.

Check out our FAQ on NFs and the EBF baby and you will see that the majority don't start sleeping through that second feed until closer to 6mo and a large proportion after that age. They are all different. Night Feeds and the Breast Fed Baby

[SofisMom]

Thanks Ali! I appreciate the help. Gonna check out that link now!

[SofisMom]

Another question...Sofi has been sleeping a bit longer some days, sometimes waking up closer to 5:45am-6am for a feed. If I feed her then (say 6am or 6:20am) and then put her back to bed, should the next feed for the day be 3 hours later (9am-9:20am) or should we start our day with a feed at 8am (if we want 8am-8pm schedule) even if it hasn't been 3 hours in between to make sure we're on "schedule" for the day?

[*Ali*]

I'd see when she is hungry and how it will fit in with A time and her next nap. If she will take a full feed on wake up at 8 then I'd feed her then which would make sticking to EASY easier. If however she isn't hungry it is fine to do AEAS instead.

[SofisMom]

Alright, so I should still wake her at 8am regardless. Thank you!