Feeding at night 3 - 6 months old

[jessufgit]

I'm wondering how many moms out there are still nursing in the middle of the night and how often?  :wink:

[annamum]

Hi,

you are not alone! Until recently it was once per night    (around 4 am) but now everything changed as dd learnt to roll over one side but can't go back  :cry: . That adds to her waking episodes in the middle of the night and sometimes I find it easier to offer her breast to sleep. Tell me, how you are coping with sleep deprivation. I take one nap with her during the day. One waking per night is still affordable for me but with two my brain doesn't function properly next day.
Good luck,

[J&Jsmom]

Hi

My son is 10 days away from being 6 months old and he still has at least one feed every night. We wake him at 10 or 10.30 and he takes about 4 to 5oz. If we don't wake him, he will wake on his own at around 11.30 or later.

Occasionally he wakes a second time in the night (in fact he did this consistently until he was about 4.5 months old).  I now try to just give him water because I know he doesn't need more food, but sometimes he won't settle unless he is fed again.

It is driving me absolutely nuts. I know that he doesn't need these feeds. His daily food intake now looks something like this:

7am - bfast of 8oz bottle of formula plus 1 tsp cereal with 1 cube of fruit
11am - lunch of 8oz bottle of formula plus 4 cubes of vegetables
2.30pm - 6 - 7oz bottle of formula
5.30/6pm - dinner 8oz (sometimes as much as 10oz) bottle of formula plus 4 tsp baby rice and 2 cubes of fruit.
10/10.30pm - 4 - 5oz bottle of formula.

They say that at this age they should be taking in between 17 and 26 oz of formula a day, plus solids.  So although he doesn't always finish his bottles, he is still getting more than enough food so there is NOOOOOOO reason for him to wake up. I don't know whether to just get tougher and just give him water everytime he wakes up but he seems to still genuinely need that 10.30pm feed.

If anyone has any suggestions I will be eternally grateful.

[robin]

Wow.  I did not think I would be the only one voting none. I do not remember for how long she has gone without eating at night, but it has been since before she was three months. She goes to sleep anywhere between 7:30 and 8:30 pm (except the past couple nights, when she has been crying until shortly after 9-gggrrrrrr). She wakes up between 5:30 and 7 am, and either goes back to sleep on her own or amuses herself quietly until I get her up at 7. I have to say, except for the screaming of late and getting herself stuck in weird positions she needs to be rescued from (but then going right backto sleep), she is nighttime delight!

[annamum]

Hi,

It's me again. I just wanted to add that according to my mum, straight after the birth, I went to sleep at 8 pm and woke up at 8 am. Isn't it amazing! What a convenient baby I was. And I was a breast fed baby.
Also, from what I have heard, babies do not wake up at night only because they are hungry. But they know the easiest way to go back to sleep is milk. I found out that if I was using other methods of puting my dd back to sleep around 3 or 4 am I needed around 1.5 hours, instead if I offered breast, it was a snap, 10 minutes and she was asleep. This especially worked when she was smaller and woke more often during the night. Now I can see she is stretching from 4 am to 5 am.

[my_fathers_lily]

My 3 month old wakes up every 2-3 hours to eat :roll:   *Although* just last night she only woke up to eat at 11:30, 4:00, and 7:00!  First time that has happened.

I hear her awake now after a 30-minute nap... time to go visit the nap board:)

[Stacie:Emma&Josh Mom]

My dd is almost 9 months old now, but when she was that age...

I voted once because at 3 months she was waking once, but around 4 or 4 1/2 months she started sleeping through.  We started sleep training around that same time and don't know if that was related to her sleeping through.  Yes, I was and am very blessed.   

[jessufgit_avery'smom]

Well, I'm back and surprised at the many differences between us all. I am currently nursing once in the night (around 3:30) in addition to the dream feed between 10:30 and 11:00.

I'll be going back to work next week so my husband and I really wanted the "sleep issue" to be worked out before these nights really start to take their toll on the both of us. Until now I've been able to take a nap during the day if I needed it, but that will no longer be the case.

After assurances from our pediatrician that our 4 month old is probably not waking due to hunger, we have decided to continue the dream feeding, but cut out feeding when he wakes up crying in the middle of the night. This means he'll go about seven hours from feeding to feeding. I know in my head that he will be fine, but I have to admit that I cried at the thought of giving up night nursing. For some reason I can comfort him to sleep at the beginning even if it takes half an hour, but in the middle of the night is another story entirely. Maybe its because I'm so tired, but I just can't stand letting him cry in the middle of the night. Especially when I know that if I pick him up and nurse him we'll both be back in our respective beds within 15 minutes.


Anybody else feel this way? :cry:

[J&Jsmom]

Don't feel alone - last night we did a dreamfeed at 10.30. Our DS then woke at 3.30am and I refused to feed him because I KNOW that he can't be hungry. I gave him water instead. But he cried and cried. It took me an hour and a half to get him to go back to sleep. I was determined to get him to go to sleep on his own but it eventually ended up with DH holding him until he fell asleep because he was getting hysterical.

At 3 in the morning, it's perfectly natural to want to do whatever will take the least amount of time so that you can get back to bed - and I find it really hard to try implement sleep training at this time. But am so darn sick of waking up that I am determined to do it now.

[Bugsmom]

I voted no feedings, but we put her to bed @ 7:30 and do a dreamfeed @ 10:30.  I try to get her back to sleep with paci shh/pat, but I am getting exhausted and thinking of adding in a feed around 3-4.  Any thoughts?

[angesan]

I give my son a dream feed or feed when he wakes up anytime between 11PM to 1 AM.  I am working no no longer giving him a feed at 4 AM because he will hardly take anything for breakfast if he feeds at that time.

San

[angesan]

BTW My sister is supposed to lend me an article published in a magazine regarding a reseach done on babies sleep pattern at the St-Justine hospital for children.  I will read it and translate it for you guys if you wish.  Basically it said that babies between 4 -6 months of age should not be waking out of hunger in the night since they should be able to take in their total daily calories in the daytime.  They also have a scale of night sleep for all ages.  At age between 4 -6 months a full night for a baby is around 6-7 hours.  So don't be surprised if your lo wakes up once at night .

San

[taniau]

I put 2, but because I'm asleep before the dreamfeed, it's more like 3.  It seems like a lot more in the middle of the night though

[ashtonsmummy]

hi i too am up in the middle of the nite feeding my 6month old he waked at about 10 or 11 then sometimes 3hrs after that or 4 hrs after. on occasion im so tired i read the clock wrong think hes gone the 4 hr stretch and feed him and when im done i realize it was only 2hrs (need digital clock) he has always gone 4 hrs between feeds but i cant figure how to drop the nite feeds speciallly when he is givining the hungry cry. He has no prob eating solids and bm durning the day and he wont take the bottle so i just dont know what that leaves me. if i leave him to cry my dh  would go nuts since he thinks im nuts for beleiving this stuff in the first place so i really feel stuck. any suggestions

[Pandkhoy]

My 5 mo also wakes between 4-5 am for a bottle.  I don't think she needs it.
7-8 rice cereal/fruit/5oz bottle
11-12 7oz bottle
2-3     7oz bottle
5-6  veggie/fruit/ 5oz
dream feed 10-11pm
I want to let her cry it out 10min max. but I'm afraid she'll wake up my three yr. old. I remember I did this with her and it only took about 11 min of crying and she drift back.  I'm tired of feeding that 4am bottle.