How to phase out the night feeds...?

[Tweakster]

Ok so our DS is almost 17 weeks old.  He'll be 4 months on the 19th - next weekend.  We are working to get him on a 3.5 hour EASY with the hopes to creep up to 4 hour soon.  His feeds and A don't support the 4 hour at the moment.

He has reflux so he doesn't take a large amount at one feed.  He takes roughly the same amount in a 24 hour period though - ca. 26 - 30 oz.  He weighs about 16 pounds.

Right now I feel like we are going a bit backwards because he is decreasing his A time and also getting hungry at 3 hours instead of 3.5.  So I suspect a GS and we will just deal with that accordingly.

But for the longterm we would like ideally to get him out of his twice nightly eating.
He goes to bed roughly at 7 and will wake somewhere between 11 - 1 for his first feed. 
We stopped DF because he would hardly take anything and then he would wake anyway during his normal time i.e. 11 - 1 for another feed.  It was becoming then like 3 night wakings.
So DH is happy to let him wake on his own accord and feed.

He will then wake anywhere from 3 a.m. - 5 a.m. for a second feed.  We have gotten to the stage where he just eats and goes back to sleep until 6:30 or 7.

He is taking good amounts at these feeds (5 ozs usually) so I suspect he needs them, although the ped says he should be able to stretch longer. 
I can't 'tank him up' during the day because he does not take more than 4 or 5 ozs at a feed.  I suspect this is due to his reflux.  We offer him more but he just won't take it.

We are not sure where to go from here...should we be offering more often during the day for a tank up?  It will throw off the EASY which is already precarious with short napping.  Or should we just be offering one night feed at this point??

[Barbaara]

I know it's hard to get up at night, but if he's still taking a full feed, I would keep offering it.  Like you mentioned you can't tank him up because of his reflux, so he probably just needs them.  At this age it's till normal to need a feed at night. 

I don't have any experience with reflux, but is he on meds? Is the dosage still right?  As far as I know it may need an adjustment as they get heavier.  Maybe when you get that sorted I may eat more during the day. 

HTH

Barbara
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[Tweakster]

Hi Barbara,

Thanks.  It's not the getting up - DH does the night shift anyway   It's just that I think I am just driving myself a bit crazy because both the BW book and the ped say he should be going longer stretches of sleep with a DF at his age.  Ok so we have no DF per se but surely the first night feed counts in theory?  So I am wondering if the reflux has delayed him in that respect...?  He is on meds and to be honest I too am wondering if we need an increase.

His wakings are erratic and so I am pretty sure it is hunger and not just habitual.  Or is waking between a certain block of time each night considered habitual?  It's nothing we can set our clock to because it is anywhere between 11 - 1 and then it's anyone's guess as to when the next one will be. 

When we know he isn't hungry and if he wakes, we can usually get him back down with shush/pat.  If he is hungry, no way will anything console him.  But he rarely wakes at night unless he wants to eat - thank goodness, so far so good.

Last night he ate:
6:00 5.5 oz bedtime feed
11:10 p.m. 4.5 oz 1st waking - back to sleep
2:50 a.m. 4 oz 2nd waking - back to sleep
Then nothing until 7:20 a.m. wake up time at which time he had 5.5. oz again.

When does the second night feed usually disappear?  In the book it mentions the DF being phased out but couldn't find anything about when there are two night feeds...  Tracy said that any babies she worked with would sleep from DF to morning by the second month.

[Barbaara]

Lucky you, your DH taking the night shift is great! 

At this age it's perfectly normal to need 1 feed/night.  And since you're not doing a DF, it seems normal he would need 2 feeds/night.  He'll drop 1 feed when he's ready, don't worry.

The fact he's waking at different times during the night suggests it really is hunger. A habitual waking is at almost exactly the same time and that's not the case here.  That should be reassuring as it was always a big concern of me that those NW's would turn into habitual waking.

I think you're doing the right thing by trying to get him back to sleep by using shh/pat and only feeding him when you're sure he's hungry. 

I would get him checked out to see if he needs an increase in meds and when that's all sorted you can count on him to do the rest.   

I think Tracy said they're able to go a 5-6 h stretch by that age, but you're not able to tank him up and don't give a DF so sounds to me your LO is perfectly normal in needing the 2 feeds.

Barbara
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