Moved to 3.5hr EASY too early? Or hit growth spurt?

[violagal]

Hi ladies,
DS2 is 9 weeks today. He is a big boy, 8lbs3 at birth and at 6 weeks weighed 12lbs6. He is mixed fed (combination of bfeeds and formula) and drinks a lot - when he takes just a bottle he will drink 6-7ozs.
He was on a 2.5hr easy for about 4 weeks then stabilised at 3 hours. He did really well at night normally cluster feeding from about 5-9pm then sleeping for a 7/8hour stretch.
Last week he started to appear not very hungry at the 3 hour mark or would fuss and only feed a bit on and off for 45mins-hour. Two days I ago I moved to 3.5hrs and in the day he seemed to it straight away - hungry enough to take a full feed and taking it in about 20-30mins. However the last two nights he has done his usual and crashed out between 8-9 but then has woken up around 12.30-1am hungry - I have tried sshing, dummy etc but he was having none if it - so fed him but he only took 2-3ozs then slept again to his previous wake up time of between 3-4am.
Have I moved him to soon to 3.5hrs and he's now making up for it with this extra half feed at midnight? Or is 8-9 weeks growth spurt time??

[jessmum46]

Hi sorry you've had no replies as yet. I don't *think* there's a typical growth spurt at 8/9 weeks (6 weeks and 3 months rings a bell) but they can be random and unpredictable.  I think you're doing the right thing feeding at any rate.  When you moved to a 3.5h EASY did his usual daytime intake drop at all? Does he finish all his bottles or is there usually a little left?

[violagal]

Hi Jessmum,

We seem to be out the other side of it now as he slept 8.30pm - 4am so fingers crossed it was an unpredictable growth spurt! Today was a little hit and miss due to having visitors so didn't really note when I fed.
No his daytime intake didn't seem to drop - although it's hard to tell when I'm mixed feeding. He seemed to feed a lot better in general though but perhaps it then leaves him less time to tank himself up before his long sleep?
In general would 9 weeks be too early to move to 3.5hours do you think?
There's always 0.5-1oz left in the bottle. He just drinks so much - on Thursday between 6.30am and 8.30pm he had 3 breastfeeds and 4 x 7oz bottles....!
Maybe tomorrow I'll leave until 3.5 hours if he is happy rather than offer at 3 hours and see where we get to...

[jessmum46]

A lot of babies who are formula-fed (or part FF) will happily go 3.5/4h between feeds from very early on, almost from birth. It can just take a little while for A times to catch up, so parts of your day may look like AEAS for a while but that's fine