These darn night feeds have taken over!

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Little miss Emily is almost 5 months old  She is EBF and usually eats between 3.5-4hours during the day. But she isnt really that interested in the feedings. The issue is, at night time, she wants to eat, eat, eat! She doesn't have her nights and days confused but it's like since my supply is larger in the middle of the night, that's when she eats. What can I do about this? It is very tiring feeding her 4 times a night!

[Erin M]

At 5 months, my general rule of thumb was not to feed more often at night than during the day.  So, if she can go 4 hours during the day, she can go 4 hours at night.  We do a df, so for us, it ends up looking like df around 11, nf around 3, wake up time around 7-8 (sometimes I actually get an extra hour in there!).  If she's taking in so many calories during the night, she probably isn't interested during the day. 

Is she a 2-sided feeder or one?  With the girls, I used to be able to get away with only feeding from one side if they woke at night -- or would try to get by with a small feed.  You could also go the pu/pd route, not sure how you feel about that....and remind me, does she have reflux?  PU/PD and reflux don't work so well together.  Any luck resettling her any other way?  Sometimes with James, I find that it's much easier to settle him in his crib, as if I take him out, he's immediately thinking he's going to get fed. 

What's her day sleep looking like?  Do you think it's just hunger that's waking her at night or is she waking for some other reason and needs to nurse to go back to sleep? 

[shivi]

the other thing is, maybe during the day she has more important things to be doing, listening to or looking at?

My two were awful from this age, if not earlier, at getting small, low cal, distracted feeds in if we were out and about or anywhere apart from in their room, in the dark. With E it was essential that I fed her on wake up or just before she woke from a nap to get ANY decent feed into her....otherwise it was lots in the night.

S x

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

She appears absolutely starving at night. Empties both sides. Simply will not calm without eating. Doing a DF gives me an extra half hour but that's all so I rarely do one because I  usually in bed since I'm awake in the night so much. I completely get that she's not hungry during the day because she definitely eats all night. She does have reflux so PU/PD probably won't work but she does respond well to shhpat. I try every feed and she is literally screaming herself hoarse wanting food and then empties both sides.

She is feeding as soon as she wakes up so maybe I will try and feed her in her room in the dim light and hope there is less to distract her. Her big brother doesn't help out much there

The way she acts, I would say its huger in the night. Her daytime sleep has been decent these past couple of days.

[shivi]

How about feeding her while she's still asleep in the day?

S x

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

She literally has no desire to eat during the day. After 4 hours, she won't even latch.

So she woke at 5am and had a full feed and then didn't go back t sleep
9am feed but latched foraybe a minute and this is right as she woke and in the dark in her room.
Then 12pm I tried to feed her. She wouldn't even latch.
Now at 4pm she pretty much did suck swallow suck swallow and that's that.
So basically that's 7 hours and she still didn't eat. No wonder she's up all night feeding. SO annoying. I tired when she was still asleep but she just woke up and smiles at me and wants nothing to do with my boob.

Then at night she will eat at 7 which still is neer a good feed. Then wales up at 9:30 starving. Then she wants to eat at 12am and 3am and 5:30 typically.

Wth?

[becj86]

Rascally little night owl! Is there something different at night (beyond the darkness)? Is it quieter, cooler/warmer? Are you more relaxed? Are you wearing more/less/different fabric? Do you smell different?

I'm really clutching at straws here, but maybe she's sensitive to something that happening during the day... how about dinner for breakfast and a pyjama party day?

[Erin M]

So, I think she's reverse cycling, which usually happens when moms go back to work and the baby doesn't want to take bm from a bottle, so instead just nurses all night to make up for it.  It's nice to know she has the potential to go long stretches without eating, just unfortunate she's picked the wrong time to do her long stretch.

OK, so what you need to do is shift her calorie intake from night to day.  (Much easier to type that than do it, I know.)  So in theory you either need to reduce the number of nursings or reduce the length of the nursings so she's taking in less calories.  It sounds like she's very resistant to not nursing -- maybe try only nursing one side -- or starting on one side, popping her off quickly, and then popping her on the other side so she thinks she's getting both sides?  (I've been trying to figure out if that would work for James as he's pretty insistent he needs to eat at night too, but not to the same extent.)  

Would dh try to settle her for one of the feeds?  It seems like you've got a lot of calories to shift, so you probably don't want to do it all at once!  Maybe start by trying to push that night feed back later?

Something else that was suggested in some of the stuff I was just reading, is to wear her some during the day or do some skin on skin so she's reminded that she really does want to nurse.  Would that be possible?  

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Thanks Erin. That is super helpful. I did a bit of that last night and it was slightly better, however, today she has had no appetite again.

[Erin M]

I might think it would take some time for her to flip her feeding schedule - I'd just keep at it, as little fun as it is. 

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

I definitely agree that it will take a bit. Probably for my supply too. I have just been encouraging her to nurse often today.

[Little toes]

Woke up today asking the universe for help.....haven't been on BW site in a long time, but I'm here now and I'm following along....I'm in the same night time bf boat.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Hey sweetie! Haven't seen you around for a while!

Slowly this is working, I think. Still getting lots of NWings but I'm not letting her nurse for as long. We will see how much I can get her to eat today.

[Little toes]

I know, it's been a long time! Haven't been on since the july/aug thread. Had a healthy boy, now he's keeping me up constantly at night so I can relate entirely to what you wrote. I'll try to do a shorter feed at night but he only takes one side so not sure how that'll go. And he's really hungry, freaks out if he doesn't eat. Then all morning refuses to eat.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Ugh. Yes that's what is happening here! It's so frustrating! Emily is getting a bit better though just by me not letting her finish nursing. I basically have to let her nurse at this point or else she screams the house down but I'm not giving her a full feed. She actually took some feeds during the day today so there is hope!

Congrats on your little boy!!! That's awesome!