Amount to feed when she wakes up in the middle of the night?

[canyonblue737]

My 11 week old daughter has just shown signs of making it through the night from 11 pm - 6/7 am, but only about 25-50% of the time. The rest of the time has been one 3/4 am wake up, and she is hungry at that time.

She is 11 pounds and we are feeding her about 30 oz per day spread between 7 feedings which includes the middle of the night one. They vary from 4 oz to 4.5 oz to hit the 30 oz number, but clearly she *could* eat more, although the 30 oz already appears to be on the high end of formula per day amount for her body weight. She *never* fails to eat what we give her on the 3 hour feed schedule.

Here is my question: On the nights she skips the 3/4 am feeding in order to hit 30 oz for the day we have to feed her 5 oz per feed since she only eats 6 times. What happens on days when she wakes up in the middle of the night to eat 4 oz? Should we continue to feed her 5 oz each feeding in the day and have her go way over the recommended high end range for weight or should we back off to 4 - 4.5 oz feedings? I almost wonder if should just feed her 5 oz per feed no matter if she wakes up or not in the night, but I don't want to overfeed her and make her sick. It seems the constant variation in feeds between 4 - 4.5 - 5 may be causing her hunger pattern to vary more than it should.

Thoughts? Should adjust feedings to hit a recommended total (I always go for the high end, 2.7 oz per pound of body weight) or should I be consistent and feed her an amount that would produce the right volume for her going through the night but then have her go way over if and when she wakes for a feed at night?

Yes... I am going insane with the details. 

[Seona1973]

I would probably ignore what your lo 'should' be eating and give your lo as much as she wants to eat i.e. if your lo is draining her daytime bottles, increase the amount in each bottle by an ounce or two. If your lo wakes in the night give her as much as she wants to eat. The figures given are for 'average' babies and to be honest not many of us have one of those!! In order to get the average figure, some babies will eat less than the recommended amount and some will eat more so dont be worried if your lo wants to eat more than she 'should'.

p.s. you are almost at a growth spurt period (around 12 weeks) and your lo could be hungrier. This would be where you would give your lo as much as she wants to eat (preferably during the day) and this will help to minimise her waking with hunger in the night.

Please dont get too hung up on the amounts recommended and dont make your lo go hungry just becaused she wants more than she is allowed. Every baby has a different appetite and some will want more milk than others. If your lo is hungry, feed her.

take care

Seona

[Deb_in_oz]

also remember that their appetites vary fron day to day so she might want 30-35 oz on day and 25-30 anbother or 5-40 another.... prepare more than she "usually" takes so she can decide how much to eat.

[albertasweetpea]

I was just going to post what Debinoz did...that their daily amounts can vary so much, just like us! Some days my DD will take as little as 14 oz (she is just over 13 lbs) during a 24 hour cycle, then another day may take as much as 30 oz! At first I stressed over it, now I always just prepare 6 oz bottles every time and let her eat as much as she wants. She very rarely will finish a 6 oz bottle but she's still healthy so I'm not worried. If they are hungry they will eat, if they aren't hungry they won't continue eating.
If your LO is finishing each bottle every time, I would increase the amount you give her. With her taking more during the day she will probably need less during the night and may even sleep through with a full belly!
Good luck and try not to worry so much...just go with the flow (bad pun)!!
 :lol: