Eating and sleep issues on 4 hour easy...HELP!!

[pwmw1272]

So here is the schedule that we have been following the last 4 days:

7am  wake
8 bottle  6oz
8:30am 1/2 tub of fruit, cereal
9-10:30am nap
11:00 bottle 6oz
12:30 lunch
1-2:30pm nap
3pm bottle 6oz
5:30 dinner
 6:30pm bottle and bed

I know this is not the ideal schedule but it's what she has been doing. I usually can't get the 3rd bottle in her and I never get the 4th in. She has been falling asleep at 6:30pm every night, then waking up around 9pm wanting to eat and again at 1am (she will eat 8oz here). I've tried to increase her food intake during the day, but I can barely get her to take the bottles that I give her now.  She is 7 months old.

Should I let her have a catnap between 6-7pm, then give her the 4th bottle and keep her up until 8 or 8:30pm?  I'm not sure what to do to avoid the 1am waking?   

[Lizziebeth]

Is she taking a lot of solids at lunchtime and dinner?  This could be putting her off her milk at her usual times and setting you up for night feeds.  If this is the case, you might want to scale back on those solid meals til milk feeds are back on track.  Then you can slowly increase solids as she needs them.

I'm also wondering if reducing the second and third bottles would help.  Say, offer 4oz.  Then she should take a full feed (6oz) at bedtime which would keep her happy in the evening for several hours.  Temporarily offer a Dreamfeed at 10.30-11pm to get her through the night.

The 1am feed could be putting her off feeds the next day, you see.  So one way to break that cycle is to offer the dreamfeed.

[*Mona*]

The 1am feed could be putting her off feeds the next day, you see.  So one way to break that cycle is to offer the dreamfeed.

totally agree with this one. you should definitely get rid of 1am feed. she is hungry if she's gulping 8oz down then, but you have to offer her equivalent of that at DF and during the day.

one more thing- to have her take more for her bedtime bottle, you should move her last solids meal a bit back- there's just one hour between solids at 5:30 and bottle at 6:30 so not exactly enough time to get hungry. 

apart from that your routine looks good so I think eliminating that 1am feed would do the job.

HTH
Monika

[pwmw1272]

I've tried the dreamfeed and she wouldn't take more than 3 or 4 oz.  What do I do in that case? 
 
 

[Lizziebeth]

I think all you can do is wait and see what happens. 

Was that 4oz DF on your normal feeding routine?  If so, that may have been all she needed

Or do you mean you reduced solids and those earlier bottles and implemented a DF?

If it was me and she still woke hungry in the night after the DF, I would offer a diluted feed, say 6oz water with 4oz scoops of formula just to keep her happy til morning.  As little as you can get away with to settle her really. 

Then up the morning feed as much as poss the next day and carry on the with the DF the next night.

It may take you a few days for a new feeding routine to work, that's all, so you might have to ride it out in the mean time.

HTH!