How many night time feeds at 6 weeks?

[irishgal1976]

Hi there,

My little girl is 5.5weeks and is still waking twice at night for feeds at 1am ish and 4am ish.  She is fed 3 hourly during the day, weighs about 10lb  and eats about 25oz a day in total.  However, her feeds vary from 2 oz to 5 oz and the twice she wakes at night she generally only takes 2oz at each.  Some mornings she eats 2 oz but others she has had 5oz!!!!   She gets a feed at 10/11 (may or may not be dreamfeed as she sometimes wakes for this).  When should i expect to go down to one night feed and do i let her decide or do i do something,  i don't think i could let her cry from 1am ish till 3ish and she does seem genuinely hungry when she wakes at 1am.   

Any help appreciated, Thanks Sharon

[* Paula *]

Hi Sharon,

At 5.5 weks it is still very common for your lo to have 2 night wakings.  She will let you know when she is ready to drop a feed, and will do so by sleeping through this feed.

I would not worry too much, and would feed her a this age if she wakes up.

Have you tried cluster feeding in the evening to help her take a few extra calories before bed?  This could help her sleep through the dreamfeed and enable you to give it to her while she is asleep.

Hope this helps.

Paula

[irishgal1976]

Thanks for getting back to me.  I have tried cluster feedign but as she is still sleeping so much,i have to wake her for the 2nd one and she gets cranky and will only end up taking an oz or two anyway so i stopped doing it and make sure she gets a good feed at 11.  We had a good night last night, went from 11.30 till 3.30 till 7am.  Maybe she's starting to stop the 2nd feed, fingers crossed!!!

Thanks again!

[* Paula *]

That is fantastic news about last night.  Sounds like she is doing really well.

Keep us posted on how you get on.