Author Topic: Night wakings... should I feed  (Read 1310 times)

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Offline cfarrinford

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Night wakings... should I feed
« on: April 27, 2018, 05:50:25 am »
I have an 8 week old who follows a 3 hour easy routine. She used to be great at night, sleeping from 7:30am until 3 or 4am and then until 6 or 7am. She was very easy to settle after each feed and went to sleep quickly.

She had a bad night about a week ago, when she was very hard to settle and fed 3 times and cried lots. Since then she's woken at about 12:15 and is just grizzling in her cot. We can delay feeding her until about 2-3am but I think she grizzles all this time. She is very hungry to start with but often only takes about 3oz. Sometimes she then settles quickly, sometimes not.

Sometimes she is very hungry at a night feed, sometimes appears v hungry but then only takes a little. Sometimes she settles well after a night feed, other times not and she'll lie awake for ages. I know she can do longer than 7pm-midnight as a few weeks ago she was regularly doing until 3 or 4.

My question is, should I feed her as soon as she wakes and starts to grizzle in the hope she'll go back to sleep faster, or leave her until she cries in the hope that she'll start to wake later? I don't know what is causing her to be so a ale at night. She's having 4-5 hrs of daytime sleep

Offline *Ali*

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Re: Night wakings... should I feed
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2018, 06:32:19 am »
 Yes I'd absolutely feed her.  Crying is a late sign of hunger so I wouldn't wait until then. At this age waking and grizzling are her early hunger cues. There will be lots of changes in her sleep pattern as she goes through various leaps and growth spurts so just because she didn't wake for feeds when younger does not mean she doesn't need them now.  3oz is no small amount for an 8wk. It's far healthier to eat smaller feeds more frequently.
Cadan Dec 2009 and Colby Aug 2011