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EAT => Breast Feeding => Topic started by: airam on February 23, 2017, 03:27:15 am

Title: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: airam on February 23, 2017, 03:27:15 am
Hi,

Tonight is the first day I am are trying the pat/pu-pd method with my 9 month old.

I am still having supply issues (very complicated) and I need to BF until around 14 months for medical reasons. For the past month or two, he has been waking up around 5-7 times and I made the mistake to get him used to feeding a lot then. He was teething and always distracted during the day so he gets a lot of his feed during the night.

There is no way for me to increase his intake during the day, so I need the night feeds to at least get to 30oz (I pump too and know how much I make).

Tonight, he woke up around 140am and I decided to nurse him. I was okay with a feeding around the 2am mark. He woke again at 4am and I did the PU/PD and didn't feed. I pumped instead because I was engorged and was awake anyway...but I'm not too sure what to do since I don't want my supply to decrease but I dont want to mess up the sleep progress.

Should I feed again or keep it to one feed? How should I schedule this?

Also, at the 4am waking, he cried but after a while, I left him to self soothe as he was settling. Does this mean he didn't really need a feed?
Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: *Ali* on February 26, 2017, 12:13:00 pm
The best way to keep supply is to feed at night so I'd just go with it if you feel you have supply issues. It doesn't sound like you do though if you are getting engorged still at this stage only a couple hours after a night feed.

What makes you think he needs 30Oz?  30oz is averge for a 7mo baby but this amount naturally drops gradually as they start taking more solid food. By 11mo the average is back down to 19Oz.  Does your LO eat solid food ok?
http://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

The way I would do it is if he wakes after only a couple hours since a NF I'd try to resettle without feeding for maybe 5 minutes. If he seems to really want a feed after that time I'd just feed him. If it's been more than  4hrs I'd go straight for a feed. NFs at 9mo are very common at this age for EBF babies, in fact the WHO recommend feeding on demand, day and night until 2yo and beyond as long as you both like. Many mums, encourge sleeping through earlier than that for our own sanity but the advice might make you see there is no set age at which he should be dropping all the feeds.
Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: airam on March 05, 2017, 12:34:57 pm
Thanks for the reply.

Yes, its usually after 4+ hrs that he wants to feed so its good that its ok. Ill let him lead then.

Hes getting external medical treatment for something and needs the high amount of estrogen in BM so I want to keep it at 30 for the next 6months or less.

lets say I feed him at 2am and he wakes up again at again at 4/5/6am, do I feed? He woke up at 6am today when he should have woke at 7am. I fed and he fell asleep.
Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: *Ali* on March 05, 2017, 22:46:37 pm
I would.  Night feeds are the easiest way to increase overall intake. 6am is a common time to start the day. Many babies don't sleep until 7. 7 is just a guide.
Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: airam on March 06, 2017, 07:41:54 am
I see...that's really good to know, thanks. But what do I do if he falls back asleep?

Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: *Ali* on March 06, 2017, 23:16:38 pm
Personally I'd assume he's still tired and let him sleep.
Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: airam on April 06, 2017, 08:28:32 am
Oh, no. I only get engorged because my capacity is very small.

Anyway, in the last two weeks, he started waking up around 11pm for a feeding. I think it was due to external reasons like my husband coming in the apartment or noise from outside. Anyway, something happened each day for an entire week and now he's waking up consistently around that time. He still wakes up around 3am and 6am for a feeding.

How do I drop this 11pm feed?
Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: *Ali* on April 09, 2017, 18:07:35 pm
Have you tried resetching him without a feed? If he's hungry though then you need to feed him at that time really.
Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: airam on April 10, 2017, 05:01:48 am
Sorry, for the late reply.

I have done that before and I find that he just wakes up again an hour later. I always assumed that meant he's hungry.

However, I know he doesn't really need it and can sleep to 2-3am without it like he was when I first started STing without naps. This only started after nap training.

I think I'll start dreamfeeding earlier and earlier and see if that works. I did so last night at about 10pm and he woke at 3am for his feed.
Title: Re: Want to keep a night feed or two
Post by: *Ali* on April 11, 2017, 15:16:58 pm
Good luck