Author Topic: 11(9adjusted) month old feeding every 2-3 hours at night  (Read 2185 times)

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Offline claredm

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11(9adjusted) month old feeding every 2-3 hours at night
« on: January 05, 2018, 21:09:00 pm »
My 11 month old (9 months adjusted - born at 32 weeks), is waking every 2-3 hours at night to feed.
75% of the time she takes both sides (I breastfeed), so she is hungry. The ~4am one is the one where she often isn't hungry, but it's a "dangerous" wake up - if I don't feed, she may not go back to sleep, and 4am is too early to start the day.

Being a premie she is small (~3rd percentile for weight) and she also had a food aversion, so only started actually eating solids at ~10 months.  But now she is actually eating, I'd like to address the night wakings. I totally accept she may still need to feed at night, but she isn't a newborn, so I think every 2-3 hours is too much. I'd like to know what is the best way to address this. Do I  try to wean her off one feed at a time - perhaps by offering only one side? Do I do a dream feed (I go to bed about 8pm so it's not that much later than she goes down)?

She is currently on 3.15 wake time before naps, and about 3.30 before bed

She only eats very small meals, and because her general food aversion, our Dr suggested we can offer food before BF

An example day:

5.30 wake up (typically its between 5 and 5.40 am - i have an alarm so its never later than 5.40)
6am (small breakfast with me -cereal) (I would have BF her at 3/4am)
7am (small breakfast with her brother - toast)
7.30 (BF)
8.30 (top up feed)
8.45-10.15am nap (I wake her after 1.5 hours otherwise the afternoon nap is very hard to get her down)
11am (lunch)
11.30 (BF)
1.15pm (top up feed)
1.30/45-2.45/3 nap
4pm BF
5pm dinner
6.15pm top up BF
6.30 bed (she's been resisting bedtime, so I may need to put her down later, or cut the naps a bit)

9.30pm wake up
11.45pm wake up
2.30pm wake up
4am wake up










Offline Erin M

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Re: 11(9adjusted) month old feeding every 2-3 hours at night
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2018, 20:15:43 pm »
Hi there!
I'm sorry your post has gotten missed - there was some weirdness with the forum that was making it hard for people to log on!  Are things still pretty much the same?  Looking at your EASY, I'm wondering if you're feeding her too much during the day?  It seems like she's gotten used to eating smaller amounts quite frequently.  Do you feel like she needs all those top up feeds to keep up her weight?  If she does, I would keep them by all means, but if not, I wonder if you need to try to get her to eat a bit less often and take in more at one time.   So, with solids, it looks to me like she's eating at 3/4 AM, 6 AM, 7 AM, 7:30, 8:30, 11, 11:30, 1:15, 4 PM, 5 PM, 6:15, and then at her night wakings.  If she nurses when she wakes, and then does solids about an hour/hour and a half later, I would see if you could hold her out until after her next nap.  I think part of the eating so frequently is just habit. 

As for night wakings, do you have someone else who could try to settle her when she wakes?  The problem with you going in these is that as soon as she sees you, she'll think that it's time to eat.  Sometimes that can help as well - I do think that if you work on consolidating some of the daytime feeds, your nighttime will improve.

Offline claredm

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Re: 11(9adjusted) month old feeding every 2-3 hours at night
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2018, 22:45:21 pm »
Hi
Thanks for the post.
Yes, things are basically the same.
I'll try the feeding schedule change for the next 5-6 days, then deal with the nights next weekend with my husband (perhaps trying to offer less overnight in the mean time so I don't get mastitis (again) going cold turkey on all the night feeds next weekend). Are you suggesting we cut ALL the night feeds? (in some regards this makes sense because it would be confusing to her, to be allowed feeds sometimes but not others...).

Offline Erin M

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Re: 11(9adjusted) month old feeding every 2-3 hours at night
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2018, 22:45:09 pm »
Again, apologies for the delay!  Been a busy week!  In regards to cold turkey, totally up to you - you either want to pick a time you won’t feed before and stick to it or just don’t feed at all.  But generally, don’t feed more often at night than you do during the day - so 4 hours or more.  If you’re worried about mastitis (understandable, it’s just the worst!), I’d express a tiny bit so you don’t feel quite so full (but just enough to get rid of the fullness) - your body should figure it out after a few days!

Offline claredm

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Re: 11(9adjusted) month old feeding every 2-3 hours at night
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2018, 02:38:48 am »
So we've been doing the altered feeding patterns during the day.
She's been waking pretty much every 3 hours at night (10.30, 1.30, 4.30)
I think I will cut one of the feeds every x days.
I'll tackle the first feed I guess, and not feed before midnight, and hope she gets used to being without a feed from ~6.30-midnight (5.5 hrs).
She's generally pretty adaptable, so hopefully it wont be too awful.

Offline Erin M

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Re: 11(9adjusted) month old feeding every 2-3 hours at night
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2018, 22:38:59 pm »
How’s it going?  Any luck with reducing feeds?  Sorry, I read this and thought I replied but apparently I did not!

Offline claredm

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Re: 11(9adjusted) month old feeding every 2-3 hours at night
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2018, 22:35:32 pm »
Hi
So we started to address this in a dedicated fashion 3 nights ago.
We decided that there would be no feeds before 12, and I would dreamfeed her at 12, and then no feeds until after wake up time (typically 5-5.30am).
First two nights were ROUGH!
Husband did the stretch until 12. I did 12-5am. First two nights she woke every hour. First night clearly some of that was hunger, second night less so.
Night 3 we switched things up, and we do a pick up if needed, then tell her 'we are going to lay you down, give you a pat, then go', and we'd do that and say our sleepy time phrase. That helped a lot. (nights 1 & 2 we stayed in the room until she was asleep - but this didnt work much after 3am because it was so near wake up time, and she is super light sleeper and we have wood creaky floors).
Third night I swtiched to no more dream feeds, but will 'allow' one feed, as long as its after midnight.
Third night she woke but resettled herself with minimal fussing no crying. At 3am she woke, I fed her, and she was hungry (but not as ravenous as the first night at midnight), so I have hope her feeding patterns are shifting (shes drinking and eating more in the day) and she will STTN soon.
All in all a success.
My fear it would be terrible for 2 weeks weren't true, and I wish Id started earlier... But i was so tired and couldn't face it.
I think the issue was a combination of using BF to go back to sleep, and feeding too much at night, so she was actually hungry at night.
Thanks for the help and support.