5 months old's feeding needs sorting out! help.

[herewegoagain]

Hi
I have been dealing with this problem in different variations with different attempts to manage it but i have to admit nothing vigirously consistent. i think that because my LO was so little young (still is....) I felt obliged to let him be rather than try and dictate anything to him..... but I think i am ready to start trying to seriously change this next pattern....
My LO is not a small boy... at 4 months minus two days he was ablout 7.9 kilos... and 67cm high so i assumed he needed a lot of food and thats why he was still waking twice a night to feed. but at this stage I am wondering, is twice a night still okay for a 5 months old? shouldn't he have given up on one already? but the real issue is that it looks to me like he has swaped his day feeds with his night ones... during the day, i try and feed every 4 hours although he has very long nights sometimes 13.5 hours, so there is always the last feed during the day that is much less then four hours. this feed is around 18:30. he doesn't have much - about 120ml before he refuses more. BT is at 19:00 and he'll sleep till anywhere between 22:15 and 12:30. i will feed him and he will take a big feed - around 180-210ml. then he'll sleep till somewhere between 3:30 and 5:30 (respectively) and have another big feed of around 200ml. he wakes for the day around 8:15 but won't take a feed until around 9:30 or 10:00 which is usually a small feed around 120 ml. the rest of the day (usually another 2 until the 18:30 feed) he will average around 150-170ml. on the suggestion of my child care nurse i have started solids once a day but he isn't realy taking anything in yet....
i need a plan! how to turn things around and hopefully reduce NF. I will feel guilty about limitiung his NF and perhaps scared that he won't fall back to sleep or wake up even more times but maybe thats a risk i need to take?
thanks.

[Lolly]

If the night feeds are having an impact on day feeds then you can limit them and try and get the calories in the day instead. Most babies are having a dreamfeed and a night feed at 5 months so it's not unusual. Have you ever tried a dreamfeed with him?

Which flow teat are you using? You may need a faster one to help him take in more during the day too. Can you post your EASY in terms of

Eat - what times, how much
Activity - how long for
Sleep - what times and how long for.

Laura

[herewegoagain]

hi
we did a DF for a long time as it worked great with my first child (who at this age slept through.....) but I found that this LO manages to go for longer stretches if I let him wake up at his own rate. maybe that was my first mistake? I use a medium flow for the teat. I don't know if they come in any faster for this brand but I can ceck and happy to get it if so.
his EASY is still a bit variable because of his big variations in the the time he feeds at night and wakes in the morning but the last 24 hours looked like this:

wake: 8:55
eat: offered bottle - would not take until 10:00 (NF was at 5:45). took 90ml.
activity: till 10:45
sleep: from 10:50 to 12:30. woke up hungry
eat: at 12:30 - 230ml
activity: till 14:15
sleep: till 15:35
eat: at 16:20 170ml (wasn't showing any hunger signs prior)
activity: till 17:10
sleep: catnap till 17:40
eat: as part of BT ritual at 18:30 - had 70ml.
sleep: 19:10

woke up for feed at 22:15, did not limit amount - he had 220ml
woke up at 4:50 limited his feed to 150ml - he was grizzling until 5:36 (went to put dummy in twice) which he never did during the night - he always just went silently and immediately back to sleep. woke up at 6:50 which was never heard of before.... i thought okay - here is my chance to start the day early and get the calories in.... but he wouldn't have any... kept offering but he refused until he became very tired at 7:45 and i put him back to sleep. i am assuming he will wake up at around 8:30 - his usual time and be hungry but then I am back to not enough hours in the day to feed him at 4 hour intervals but he just doesn't seem to get hungry before that.... He most definitely is not getting enough calories during the day....

what are your thoughts? should I limit the first NF as well as the second? I just thought that one at a time might be easier and that he must be starving by 22:15 with his poor consumption at 18:30...

thanks, i realy need some advice.