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question about clusterfeeding at night

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micah'smom:
hi everyone,

i'm trying to switch my 15 wk old from a 3hr to a 4hr easy. he's been waking up a lot at night to make up for short feeds throughout the day, and once i kept him up almost 2hrs and he took a 2hr nap instead of his usual 45  :shock:  so i figured it was time for the switch.

ANYWAY. my question is - i'd like to clusterfeed him at night since he is still young, to get him through the night. do i just wake him up to feed? how do you clusterfeed without getting baby into the habit of waking up at that time after he doesn't need the clusterfeed anymore?

also, how many times a day should an avg 15 wk old feed? (EBF)

thanks!

Angel Face:
Hi,
I found for my DD cluster feeding worked best in the evening before bed time. When I moved her to the 4 hour schedule in the evening she would eat twice 2 hours apart (ie once at 3 pm, then 7pm, 9pm then to bed). You want to "tank up" the baby before bed time so they will have more to make it through. Was he making it through before you moved him to 4 hours? I liked the "tank up" thing and it did help my DD to make it longer at night.
As far as how much, hard to say because each child is different, I know that doesn't help you much... Good luck

annamum:
When you clusterfeed, you do this before your baby goes to sleep. As Rebecca said, you can feed your lo every 2 hours prior to sleeptime. You probably confused clusterfeed with a dreamfeed. Dreamfeed is a feed when you have to slightly rouse but not wake your baby.

A 15 week old should nurse at least 6 times in 24 hours, in my opinion. I know babies who nursed more often, like 7 or even 8 times.

If you are planning to switch to 4 hours, you should do this rather gradually and observe if your lo is getting enough (diapers) and if he is content and happy. Some los are able to go 4 hours and gain well early but some are not, especially that yours is still too young for solids. My Anna didn't do a 3 hour schedule till she was 4.5 months. So it really depends on a baby. Just be careful as switching to 4 hours can also impact your supply.

micah'smom:
hi rebecca,

i like your psalm quote - it's one of my favorites  :D

ds was sleeping from 8-4am, feeding, then sleeping until about 7am. then he got crazy and ate short spurts during the day and woke up ravenous twice each night!  i'll try the clusterfeeding before bed... thanks for your advice!

Angel Face:
How did last night go? What is today's schedule looking like?
Just thought I would check and see how things were going!!
Keep us posted!

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