Nights: To Feed Or Not To Feed - That is the Question!

[VickyB20]

Hiya.

The bottom line is that I'm exhausted.  My boys are 6 1/2 months now and still have a dreamfeed and a night feed normally between 3 and 4:30.  They are also on a good amount of solids (although slightly less the last few days due to teeth pain).

For a couple of days, hubby and I got really tough and they went through till 6 with no breastfeed (after 11 o'clock dream feed) but I was up from 4:30 comforting / shush-ing / consoling them.  It was much more exhausting than just feeding them.  After a couple of tough days, they were still waking anytime from 3 so I've given in and gone back to feeding them when one wakes.  When they wake up at 7, they are often not hungry and will go till after their morning nap without milk.  So I think that perhaps they don't need that feed for the calories - most days.

I'm exhausted though - I haven't been horizontal for more than 4 hours for nearly 7 months now!!  I am normally in bed to get an hour or so sleep before the dreamfeed but it's not great quality sleep 'cos I know I have to get up.

I'm thinking about giving them some formula (goat's milk formula, like dd had from 9 months) for the dreamfeed so hubby can do it.  We tried with expressed milk but it takes 3 or 4 sessions over the day to express enough for two and I just can't commit to that with a toddler running around.

Any ideas?!

Vicky
xx

[Samuel's mum]

Using sleep techniques to eliminate a night feed can take longer than a couple of days. If you use pu/pd for example it can take some people quite a bit longer than that but in the end the short term pain can lead to long term gain.

You can also think about reducing the length of any feeds you give at night so the calories gradually reduce and they compensate in the day.

You could certainly experiment with giving something else for the dreamfeed so you can go to bed earlier and get a longer block of sleep (although of course bear in mind that this may cause a slight reduction in your milk supply).

It does sound as though that 3amish feed isn't for calories as you say if they can then go right through the next morning. In an ideal world your DH would take a week off work and as a team you tackle it together - deciding on your method and being consistent. However as you'll see from our poll on the FAQs night feeds can continue for a little while yet for some. And during that week you make a conscious effort to get longer blocks of sleep so by the end even if they aren't sleeping through you feel a bit better about facing a broken night.

[VickyB20]

Thanks Emma.  To completely contradict the pattern I thought we'd got into, last night Kayden fed at 2:45am (dh tried to settle him for the previous hour but he'd last 10 minutes then 'call' us again) and woke again fussing from 4:30 and I fed him at 5:30.  Crazy!!  Brynley woke to eat at 6. 

They had a good amount of cereal at 8am then cried inconsolably at naptime (9:15ish) until I fed them and they each drained 'their' breast.

So I don't know what's going on!!

Could it be a 6 month growth spurt?  I'm never sure when to expect growth spurts because they were born at 36 weeks; should I expect them a month late at their adjusted age or at their actual age?

DH has a week off first week of September so hopefully we'll tackle it then.

Vicky
x

[Samuel's mum]

If you've not 'seen' a growth spurt yet - 6 months is often the one most people don't miss. Sounds like Kayden really was hungry if he was only settling for 10 minutes.
Their hunger at 9.15 would also fit with a growth spurt.

Growth spurts are so unpredictable. You can't really fix them to a specific month/week for anyone - but around now could definitely be the '6 month one'. (Although I don't think growth spurts always match exactly for twins i.e. one might come before the other.)

Hopefully you get the 2-3 version and not the 5-7 days one!

[VickyB20]

HA!  Let's hope so!!  I'll hold off on formula for the df until the end of the week then and see if things have settled a bit by then.
Thanks, as always, for help and for 'being there'!
xx

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

{{{hugs}}} and let us know how things go, please!