Night Feeds @ 16weeks

[kellielouise]

Hi
My daughter is 16 weeks on Sunday and she is still waking twice a night, 3 times last night.

She is fed 3 hourly and had a DF at 10 - the recommended feeds according to BW but yet has never slept thru. 

The best nights so far have been about 4 days where she woke at 3 or 4 for a feed only but that only lasted a few days.  thought it may have been a growth spurt but this has been happening for about 2 weeks.

I must admit i do feed her both times, mainly because she hadn't really got into a pattern of only feeding once, like i said, it was only for a few days at most but surely she should at least be down to one feed a night now?

She feeds for about 15-30 minutes during her days feeds, depending on how distracted she gets, and her 7pm and 10pm feeds are generally the longest.  thru the night her feeds are 10 minutes at most - does this mean she doesn't need it really?

She doesn't wake at exactly the same time every night but its usually within an hour.

She isn't a hungry baby really and appears to be able to take it or leave it most of the time so could this mean she cant be bothered to get all her calories during the day preferring to spread it out?

Any advice would be welcomed

Many thanks

Kellie

[RachelC]

Kellie,
Can you post your daytime routine so we can see where we may be able to tweak it.  Is she on a 3 hr EASY?  She may be ready to start transitioning to a 4 hour one. 
~Rachel

[Carter'sMama]

I agree that she may be do better on a 4 hour EASY than a 3 hr one.  If her night feeds aren't that long (compared to her day feeds when you know she is hungry) than I would assume she is waking out of habit and snacking.

If you are able to put your DD on a 4 hr EASY then you know that she will be truly hungry at her feeds.  This might prompt her to take in more, especially at the night feeds. 

If we can determine that she really isn't hungry at both of the night feeds, you can try pat/shush to get her back to sleep instead of feeding for one of the feeds.  One feed a night is surely ok to do at her age and I am sure that you would most likely appreciate only having to get up once a night!  The pat/shush could take a few days/weeks to get her used to.  If you stick to it than your lo will get used to it though and you will be helping her to learn to fall asleep on her own!

Please post your routine!

HTH

[Samuel's mum]

Can I just add to the advice that if after lots of effort you still find that one night feeding is needed this is perfectly normal. Lots of babies who are breastfed really do need extra calories at some point in the night - some more than one feed. If they are waking up several times and not feeding for long though and you feel it's not a full feed then maybe it's not 'needed' - if your LO wakes up again soon after you've used a different technique then you'll be able to tell if they are genuinely hungry.  You could start with a 3.5 EASY if you don't want to go straight to 4 and see how she responds. 

[kellielouise]

thanks for your responses.

She is on 3 hourly feeds.

Gets up around 6.30/7 and depending on when she fed in the night i usually feed her by 7.30/8.  she goes down again for an hour nap at about 8.30, roughly an hour and a half after she wakes. she can usually send herself to sleep by just being swaddled and left cooing. i don't normally have to intervene.

Her feeds are 3 hourly as i said but her naps are dependant on whether we are out of the house - if so, she normally sleeps in the pram or car for anything from 45 mins to 2 hours.

I try and get her to nap about 5.30 for about half an hour/45 mins to take her thru to bathtime otherwise she is sometimes ratty.

She gets bathed between 6.15/45 depending on her mood which generally is good - she is dressed in a dimly lit room and then i feed her  - she goes down no problem by herself no intervention usually, and is normally asleep by 7.30.

I then dream feed her at 10 and from then on its a lottery as to when she will wake again.

It is more difficult to get her to fall asleep in her cot by herself during the day for some reason - sometimes it takes 10 minutes, other times she can be crying for an hour after which time i give up.

i did try to put her on a 4 hour routine for the reason mentioned in the reply to see if she would be hungrier and so take more but to be honest i only did it for a couple of days and it made no difference so i changed back.

[Mommy Mona]

I'd love to join this discussion, too.  My daughter is 16 1/2 weeks and is on a 4 hour EASY routine.  During the day, she's like clockwork, and takes decent naps.  Her first feeding of the day is 7:00 am, her last feeding is at 7:00 pm, and she dreamfeeds at 10:00 or 11:00pm.  But she ALWAYS wakes up once more in the middle of the night for what seems to be a full feed -- somewhere between 1:00 and 3:00am.  This means I'm getting sleep in 2-3 hour increments (sometimes less) and I'm starting to slowly lose my mind.

I've tried shush/pat and the pacifier but she refuses to accept anything but the feed in the middle of the night.  Will she grow out of this?  Ever?

She always has her long nap in the morning in her crib.  Her catnap sometimes happens in the middle of the day.  And her second long nap is in the 3:00 - 7:00 pm stretch.  Could my flipping of the second long nap and catnap be the problem?

I should note that her crib is in our bedroom because we live in a small one bedroom.  Could this be the problem?

Please help.  My sanity is waning.