7 week old - questions about sleeping thro & night waking

[Jennerific]

first let me say that we've read books 1 & 3 and implemented EASY the day we got home from the hospital with much success

i have a 7 week old that is almost 13 pounds. for the most part, he is a textbook baby, very calm personality, sleeps well, naps okay (not great, but okay, 45 minutes minimum until his poops wake him up), & only really cries when something is wrong which is easy to fix for the most part.

at night, we found that the dream feed doesn't work b/c he can't eat without waking up. so we've given it up. he's been having cluster feeds at 7 & 9, then sleeping from around 9:30-10pm straight through to 2:30-3am. earlier this week he went until 4:30am (giving me quite a scare!)

my question is this: when he wakes for the 2:30-3am feed is that a real feed or not? he only seems to take about 3 ounces & nurse for around 5 minutes (i gave him a bottle of expressed milk earlier this week to see how much he was taking at this time). this also happens during the 5:30-6am feed. he's a very efficient nurser, gulps it down, so i know he's not leaving the breast still hungry.

so i'm wondering if this is a real feed or if he's just waking out of habit & is it too early for us to wean him off the 2:30-3am feed??

thanks!
Jenny

[woopster]

I'd say it's a real feed. It's usual for babies that young to wake twice a night. My son is 12 weeks old and still wakes twice a night.
how often are you feeding during the day?

[Bryony]

I would agree - if he's going until 3am without a dream feed I would imagine he would be hungry by then.  He's still very young and won't be able to fit that much milk in his tummy.

At that age Katie was waking at 2-3am for a feed and that was after a dream feed at 11pm...!

Bryony

[Jennerific]

during the day he's feeding every 2 to 2.5 to 3 hours depending on when he shows signs of hunger. i don't let him get frantic or then he gulps, which results in lots of gas & pain for everyone. then he gets the tanking up at 7 & 9 no matter what. it seems like he spends a lot of his time eating... but i'm sure thats normal for his age

[woopster]

Yep, I would say totally normal. 

[Jennerific]

Yep, I would say totally normal. 

okay so its a real feed, thats good to know! we were talking about phasing it out, but i don't want him to be hungry.

thanks for the input ladies!

[Bryony]

I also meant to say earlier - but my LO woke early from her nap  -that it sounds like you are doing great 

Bryony