cant go that long at night without a feed

[*Jo*]

I thought by this age Levi should be able to do at least 5 hours between feeds but it doesnt seem that he can. the most he does go is 4.5 hours. At night he has his bedtime bottle at 6pm and then his dreamfeed at 10pm (so 4 hours) then he will wake anywhere between 1am and 2.30am for another feed, then he will wake anywhere between 5am and 6.30am for another (6.30am is our start time so I try to push him out if I can)

surely this is a really low amount of hours between feeds? the other night he woke at 3am (a miracle!!) and I put the dummy in his mouth (he hardly ever takes the dummy so it was a long shot) he took the dummy and spat it out straight away but fell back to sleep until 4.10am when he woke again. I figured that it was a long time since his last feed so I decided not to push it any further but to feed him at that time... then he was up for the day at 6.10am,...ugh

he is taking a decent amount at these feeds, not full bottles but at least half (so around 100mls plus) he eats a fair amount during the daytime too, i thought that stocking him up during the day would cause him not to need so much at night? he takes anywhere from 120mls to 200mls per feed during the day.

what can i do to stretch these times out? I dont mind doing the feeds at night but if hes waking at around 1.30am then he will wake again too early in the morning and we end up with a 5.30am start time instead of a 6.30am and then Caleb wakes up and its a loooooooong day.

[deb]

What are his daytime feeds like? Can you show us your current EASY for him? And how much he takes at each feed? I'll try to convert to old-fashioned American.

[rimmerl]

The dream feed just didnt work for my second son. Like Levi, he was having a bedtime feed, then dreamfeed at 10.30 and waking for next feed at 1am.
 So we decided to cut it out and he actually went from last feed at 6.30 to around 1am.  Then to 6am.  I know its not STTN yet but we will get there.  I tried to persevere with the DF because it had worked so well with DS1.  But with DS2 it really seemed to disturb his sleep pattern.  
If possible I go to bed as early as I can so cutting out the DF means I can get an extra couple of hours sleep before the NF.  I know there is always washing, ironing, cleaning to be done but the sleep deprivation is just torture and any sleep you can grab is more important!
Due to DS's reflux they both started on solids early which seems to actually stay down and maybe fill them up more??

[Lolly]

I can't do mls either Deb - always have to convert to oz!

He's only just 3 months, so 4+ ish hours over night isn't that bad (says she who doesn't have to get up with him ). Has he had his 3 month GS yet?

How much is he taking at the DF? If that is a half feed too maybe that's the problem - he may be a baby who is better off waking when they are hungry and then having a full feed rather than having a half feed at the DF and then another half feed (assuming this is the case of course)

Seeing your current EASY would be useful though!

Laura

[*Jo*]

ok
E 6.30am usually takes about 130mls
A 1 hour
S till 9.30am
E9.30am about 180mls
A 1 hour 5mins
S sometimes the full two hours here or sometiems only an hour
E 12/12.30 (depending on when he woke up from nap)about 180mls
A 1 hour 5mins
S untill 3/3.30
E 3.30 about 130mls
A 1 hour 5mins
S until 5.45 (to do bedtime routine)
E 6.15pm about 150mls
E DF 10pm 200mls
E NF 1.30/2.30 anywhere from 120mls to 180mls
sometimes if hes eaten at 1.30am he will eat again around 5am and take about 100mls (but then the first feed of the day is a bit less if he does that as its really just a top up at 6.30am

the problem with not doing a DF is that he wakes up famished and screaming!! which means he gulps alot of air once I get the bottle in his mouth and we end up with wind pain through the night and unsettledness. with the DF at least hes relaxed and doesnt gulp like that, goes straight back to sleep after the DF, otherwise I would leave it because before I used to do the DF he used to sleep from 6.30pm till around 11.30-12.30

[deb]

Ok.... NW's are going to happen at fairly predictable places in the sleep cycle, not just from hunger. It's when he's waking already he'll wake up fully if he happens to be hungry then, I think.

When you do a DF, they do stir a bit, a sort of jolt in the sleep cycle, which is why W2S works the way it does; it "re-sets" a little bit.

What happens if you shift the DF one way or the other by, say, half an hour? If he'll sleep a bit longer, can you do it maybe 20-30 minutes later, see if he takes a fuller feed, and sleeps thru the next break in the sleep cycle? If nothing else you'll have reset the sleep cycle to a different place, with any luck. Or you can try a W2S if you happen to be awake to use the bathroom in the hour before he normally wakes for a feed anyway.

[*Jo*]

well I used to do the DF at 10.30 but he was waking earlier, at 1am for another feed and then another at 4.30am so I changed it to 10pm and we got a better result. Ive tried doing 11pm but its just too late and if i go to bed early and set my alarm im so exhausted that i actually sleep through it everytime.

so if I stick to the DF (do you think I should?) when should I do the W2S? his waking isnt habitual thats the thing, it varies which tells me its most likely to be hunger and when I try to resettle him hes mad and wont resettle.

he just got weighed this morning and hes put on 1.5kg in about 3 weeks so hes definately eating enough, hes jumped up from the 15th centile to just over the 50th centile now

[deb]

Hmmm, will have to think about that then. Probably better to go with the flow for now. Altho if he's put on that much weight so quickly (if I'm doing my metric conversion right, anyway), he might've sneaked in another GS on ya!

[*Jo*]

I did wonder about that, was gonna post and ask if it was possible to have two GS in two weeks but thought I was just being paranoid about his eating lol

with any luck he did the 3 month adn 4 month GS all at the same time and saved me from doing it later lol

[*Jo*]

ok deb, get this.

so he took 4 hours to settle last night (from being awake at 3.30pm till FINALLY falling asleep at 7.30pm) I had fed him at 6pm and he wouldnt settle, i made another bottle up at 7.30pm because he hadnt eaten that much that day, i think there had been too mjuch excitement going on with family members being over and he wanted to play rather than eat! so I gave him another bottle and he took about 100mls and went to sleep. I decided to try and not do the dreamfeed and he woke at 11.10pm, so I fed him and he took about 120mls (so not a massive amount like he usually does at the DF of 180mls) and then he slept till..... wait for it.... yep its coming.... here it is.... 5.30am!

he actually woke at 3.30am and I thought oh its another nightfeed, better get up and make the bottle, well by the time the jug stopped boiling (cos I cant hear him crying when the jug is boiling) he had fallen back asleep. I went into his room and yep, out like a light! then Caleb woke up with a nightmare screaming and I thought "oh no! Levi will definately wake for sure now and want a feed, its been more than 4 hours, he will be hungry" So i quickly went in and grabbed Caleb, who by then had started one of his coughing fits, carried him into my room and put him into bed with me. Levi slept through the whole thing!! hooray!

of course though, waking at 5.30am is not ideal because thats when he starts his day if its that early. I put him straight back to bed but I dont think he slept again. I heard him cry out at 6.30am so I got him up, didnt feed him (what was the point, he had only eaten 45mins earlier) watched for tired signs and he was back asleep by 7.20am

Im exhausted from trying to work all this out in my head while it was happening through the night. but its given me hope.

what is interesting though, is that even at that 5.30am feed, he wasnt that hungry... but I couldnt resettle him hmmmmmmmmmmmm

[*Becky*]

of course though, waking at 5.30am is not ideal because thats when he starts his day if its that early. I put him straight back to bed but I dont think he slept again. I heard him cry out at 6.30am so I got him up, didnt feed him (what was the point, he had only eaten 45mins earlier) watched for tired signs and he was back asleep by 7.20am

Im exhausted from trying to work all this out in my head while it was happening through the night. but its given me hope.

what is interesting though, is that even at that 5.30am feed, he wasnt that hungry... but I couldnt resettle him hmmmmmmmmmmmm

This is us!

[Dench]

My DS is the same and he's nearly 24 weeks old now!  I've been searching on here trying to find if I should drop the DF, that he might sleep better/for longer.  I'm going to chance it tonight, you've given me hope - but like you I will probably have a very early start tomorrow so I may go to bed right now (it's nearly 9.30pm here in England).
My extra issue though, is that he doesn't eat a lot during the day but takes bigger bottles at his DF and NF, but then in the morning he doesn't want anything, then when I do eventually feed him it's a very small amount, gradually increasing as the day goes on.
Anyway, good luck, hope you start getting consistenly good results

[Dench]

Can I just add Jo and Becky that I've read many of both your posts as I think we all have very similar problems with our LOs - I only have the one to deal with though! I don't know how you cope with more than 1