Hi my lo goes from 7.30ish through til 4-5.30ish most nights with a dream feed at 11pm. He is 16 weeks old. He has always been a frequent feeder and I struggle to get him to last 3 hours between feeds, but then sometimes I am sure he is snacking. But he's done really well at night since he was a week old, and has been in the current pattern since 9-10 weeks old.
He goes down after the early morning feed usually til 7.30-8am, and I tend to leave feeding him until it is 3 hours or more after his early feed. But he really doesn't seem to be hungry and takes very little at that time. Subsequently I have ended up feeding him fairly soon before his morning nap, (which is his best one) when he takes a good feed, and so he is generally quite sleepy from that feed. The last 2 nights, however, he has been put in his cot as usual after his bedtime feed, and has started crying/screaming - whereas he has been settling himself really well since about 10 weeks unless he is over tired. Both nights I've ended up feeding him again as he has got 'beyond' - very over tired etc, very upset & I didn't know what else to do - plus my husband had the dinner ready!! This isn't a pattern I want to get into, especially as I worked really hard in the early weeks to settle him in his cot & not create any props... Tonight I am going to do pu/pd and not feed him again..
I wondered whether these two things are connected so this morning he woke at 7.45 after a 5am feed. I fed him at 8.30, he fed for 3-4 minutes from one side and then had had enough. I didn't feed him before his nap which was down at 9.30 so asleep for 9.45 - he protested lots (for him - usually goes straight off) & I did pu/pd, but then he only slept 45 minutes til 10.30am. (He struggled with short naps from 7-8 weeks but has been going 1.5-2 hrs in the morning, and sometimes 1-1.5 hrs in the afternoon as well.) He was then very grumpy and obviously hungry but I managed to keep him going til 11.30ish - 3 hours since the morning one - when he took a longer feed. He is now asleep in his 2nd nap which is usally 45 mins anyway...
Could the 2 things be connected? Or is the nighttime settling just a developmental thing? I do occasionally feed to sleep in the day as AP, if he is very overtired & been up longer than he should...but it has never been a regular thing as I didn't want it to be a pattern. Ssh/pat (or my own version - rubbing his chest as he sleeps on his back & didn't like being patted) has always worked so far but is beginning not to...
I am going to work on getting him to go 3-4 hours between each feed but how do I work the morning feed/nap and avoid creating a feed-to-sleep association? He does feed to sleep in the night but I guess night feeds are different to days?
Because the night feed time varies, the routine during the day varies. but a typical day would be
Activity 8am
Eat 8.30am (short) then activity
Eat 9.30am top-up
Sleep 9.45
Activity 11.15
Eat 12-12.30ish then play
Sleep1.15pm
Activty 2-2.15pm
Eat 2.30-3pmish then play
Sleep$ 4pm
4.45pm Activty
Eat 5pm
6.30 Bath
Eat 7pm
7.30pm into bed
8pm asleep
11pm dream feed
4.30-5.30 (anytime between these) feed
Thanks for your help
Jen