8 week olds - Waking at night and taking short feeds

[osren]

I'm in a bit of a quandry as to how to approach my 8 week old boys' night wakings. We clusterfeed at about 5 and 7, then DF at around 10. When all goes well (that is, that they eat pretty decently at all these feedings), they still wake up fussing anywhere between 1 and 2 am. I have previously fed them when they wake up, and noticed that neither takes a full feeding, and they often fall asleep on the boob. I have gently tried to prod them to eat more, but they are totally passed out. I have tried giving them a pacifier to tide them over to a later time (say, 3 or 4 am), but they fuss on and off the entire time (I'll have to get up and shh them and give them their pacifier again several times in this 1 to 2 hour period). Anyone have any advice as to what I'm doing wrong?

[Kimberly®]

It sounds like your DS's are right on track. As they get older and bigger the time between nightfeeds will increase. For the time being continue as you are. It sounds like your doing a great job

[cathbilson]

My little boy was doing this too, waking any time between 12.30 and 2.30 after a 10.30 dream feed and barely taking any milk (I tried with a bottle one night to see just how much and he only took an ounce before passing out again, and then was awake at 4 properly hungry).
The pacifier worked to break mine of this, fortunately, and now he mostly sleeps straight through to 4 (5 or 6 if I'm lucky!) My mum had another suggestion though: she said if the paci doesn't work well try a bottle with an ounce or so of cooled, boiled water in it. Sometimes they're just thirsty! And after a bit they won't bother waking up for it. Tried this a couple of times when he wouldn't settle with the pacifier and was clearly not really hungry and it worked like a charm.
Just something to make you feel better too - this stage lasted no more than a fortnight. He seems to have grown out of it, and I'm sure yours will too!
Maybe the water is worth a try for you?

[Samuel's mum]

I would say that a dreamfeed at 10 and then another feed at 1 or 2 is great progress for 8 weeks. I think your aim is to try and get the early hours feed to be a full one which will get them through the next few hours. In my experience, I would say that at 8 weeks it is not a realistic aim to expect to be able to eliminate a night feed especially for a mother breastfeeding twins (I'm not saying this is what you are attempting). I'm afraid I would have to respectfully disagree with the previous advice on giving water. It is especially important that a mother breastfeeding twins do nothing that might affect her milk supply. Twins are more likely to have been a lower birth weight (not sure of your situation) and night feeds can really be genuinely needed in any case.

This is from the La Leche Breastfeeding Answer Book (the resource used by their trained leaders/counsellors) in their section on multiples:

"Water supplements are not needed and can produce more wet diapers without providing any nutrition. This could make a wet-diaper count [a very important tool for a mother breastfeeding twins] inaccurate, leaving the mother without a way to gauge whether or not her babies were getting enough." (p.380 3rd edition)

and

explain that babies do not need water or juice and that consistently giving anything other than her milk will cause her milk supply to adjust at a lower level

As I said I think your focus should be to try and get in a full feed. It sounds like they are hungry if they are continuing to fuss but just struggling to feed when tired. There are tips on how to overcome that with sleepy babies on this thread:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=63428.0

Are you managing to feed both together? There are other tips from the LLL about positioning for twins which I could pass on to you if it would be helpful.

There are also some tips here:
http://www.multiplebirthsfamilies.com/articles/post_q8.html

and congratulations on your boys!!!!!!!!!!!

[osren]

Thank you for the advice! I thought we were at a point to gradually stretch out the 1-2 am feedings to later in the mornings, especially since neither would take a full feed at this time. The boys were born small at 38 weeks, but over 5.5 lbs each; they are now over 9 lbs, so I thought they could last longer after the dreamfeed. Oh - another question. Should the DF contain the same ounces as a regular feeding? My boys will generally max out at 1.5 to 2 ounces (typically half a feeding).

I also forgot to mention that after the 1-2 am feeding, they wake again between 4 and 5 for another feeding and then often fuss on and off until we get up at 6 or 7. Is that "normal"?

[Samuel's mum]

My 2 cents:
1. I think the df is as much as you can get in. I've heard of people starting with 1oz and working up.
2. I would also say that if you manage to get them to take more at the 1-2am, then hopefully you can work towards the next feed being a little later. If they are not falling asleep so soon then you may get a longer interval (You could look into breast compression - it's on that other thread I mentioned)
3. Reports of societies where co-sleeping and night nursing is the norm describe that early morning 'grazing' feeding pattern as the one babies often fall into naturally. However I think BW would say if it's not something you are content to keep as a pattern you could try various techniques to try and remedy it. It doesn't mean it has to happen if you are not comfortable with it!
How dark is their room for a start?

[osren]

Well, we still have them sleeping in our room (on the floor in their car seats - I know, that's bad - on opposite sides of our bed, to try and keep them from waking each other). We keep the room quite dark apart from a small night light to keep me from killing myself tripping over things in the middle of the night.

I have been thinking about moving at least one baby out of the room into the nursery (maybe after their colds are over), and hopefully that will reduce the amount of times they wake each (and me!) up.

[Samuel's mum]

I was told by my doctor in the UK that the 'recommendation' is to sleep in the same room as your babies for the first 6 months e.g cots near your bed. I know this isn't what a lot of people choose to do on this site though. We all weigh up the options and pick the best thing for all our family.
I can totally appreciate that you might need to do what you can to survive but perhaps it might be better to move out of the car seats sooner rather than later if you feel it's not right. It's better for their spinal development to sleep on a flat level.
Have you checked out the multiples board? There may be someone to help you there with sleep suggestions and everything else. The moderator Wendy (woopster) has 2 little ones at home who are just a year.
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=19.0