Author Topic: MOTN EBF feedings?  (Read 754 times)

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Offline Huntersmama

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MOTN EBF feedings?
« on: March 13, 2013, 12:02:55 pm »
How do you ladies truly know when your EBF baby is waking MOTN due to hunger or comfort? My son is 5.5 months old and waking 2-3x a night. After reading BW, it seems my LO shouldn't be waking that much. I cluster fed, did a dream feed, & it made no difference. Some nights ill give in to nurse & I can tell only afterward that it was for comfort as he barely sucked. Then other nights I hold off as long as I can & when I do nurse he is ferociously eating.  I'm at a loss as I need more sleep and don't think 3x a night is normal, but I also don't want to leave him hungry. Thanks!

Offline jessmum46

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Re: MOTN EBF feedings?
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2013, 12:19:16 pm »
(((Hugs))) honey, it's not unheard of for EBF babies to need a couple of feeds overnight at this age, especially if they are not yet on solids.  A good rule of thumb is that they should be able to go as long between feeds at night as they do during the day, so if he is doing 4h between daytime feeds, then he shouldn't need to nurse more frequently than that at night.  Does he settle independently at bedtime?  You could set yourself some 'rules' e.g. If he wakes and it hasn't yet been 4h since a feed, use shh pat/PUPD to resettle him all the way to sleep, then feed him the next time he wakes up assuming it has now passed the 4h mark.  You can then try extending that out so that you go to 5h, then 6h by which point you should be at only one or perhaps two feeds.  What do you think?