Waking early for feed? And middle of the night feed?

[larz]

Hello
I have my 4 week old on the 3 hour easy routine. If she wakes half hour early for feeding, 1. Do I feed her or try to get her to last for another half an hour, 2. If I do feed her do I then bring the rest of the routine forward half an hour ie if she was due for a feed at 11am but awoke at 10.30am if I feed her at 10.30 do I then make her next feed at 1.30pm, or keep it as 2.00pm?

Also in the night she usually wakes at 1.30am and 4.30am for her feeds, for the last couple of nights she has woken as normal for the 1.30am feed, but at 4.30 she has woken not wanting her feed, but just bit unsettled and I have tried to feed her, when she wouldnt I would settle her and put her back to bed till she would wake up for the next one at about 7.30,, as she isnt actually hungry I assume she is almost waking out of habit, how do I handle this? How can I get past the 4.30 slot now she is not actually wanting to eat? Do I just keep getting up and settle her and then she will eventually sleep through this feed? Advice would be great.

Thanks
Lara  :?

[Maddy's Mum]

Hi there,

Congratulations on your little one...is DD breast or bottle fed? I had a similar situation with Mads when she was tiny - I got so used to the 4am feeding that as soon as she fussed, I would whip her out of the crib, change her and go to feed her, and it was only that I noticed after a few nights that she was actually still asleep when I was putting her on the changing mat, that I realised perhaps she just needed a little bit of reassurance and not necessarily a feed at 4am...so I used pat/shush and she dropped back off to sleep and her routine adapted.

Dee
x

[larz]

Hello

DD is bottle fed,, I was hoping she would eventually adjust her routine,,

Larissa x

[Maddy's Mum]

I am just going to run your post past the EASY mods...can you just confirm what your days look like with naps/feeds as it sounds like DD is able to adjust her routine to go longer at night because she is getting enough calories during the day...which is very good for a 4 week old!

How big was she when she was born?

Dee
x

[Pendle Girl]

1st of all well done for getting ino any routine by 4 weeks!!

I'm no expert by my dd is now 9 weeks so I can tell you what we found.  During the day we established a loose 3 hour routine - if she woke early and was hungry I'd feed her and then wait for her sleep cues for her next sleep - sometimes that fell into a 3 hour routine, others it was 2 1/2 and sometime 3 1/2.  She'll let you know and as long my dd was basically doing EAS in that order I didn't worry too much about the times between.

Our nighttime was almost exactly the same as yours and I left her to find her own way during the night.  By 5 weeks we were at one wakening around 4am (with a couple of days of disruption around 6 weeks from a growth spurt) and then by 8 weeks she was going through from her dream feed at around 11pm to around 7am.  She still varies slightly on her wake up time, so sometimes it's before 7am and sometimes after.  I think the main thing I learnt was to be disciplined myself and not get up when she just murmured and stirred - she easily soothed herself - and just got up when she was awake and rooting for food.

Good luck and I'm sure you'll find a nightime routine that suits you both.

I hope that helps - I

[larz]

Hello again
DD was born 7lbs 6, and last Thursday weighed 9lbs 11. Her feedind is roughly 8, 11, 2, 5.30, 7.30, 10.30, 1.30, 4.30, then 8 again. Sometimes she will wake an hour or an hour and a half early for her feed, so I will feed her and bring her routine forward, trying to keep her 5.30, 7.30 and 10.30 feeds at roughly the same time. She only eats at the most 4oz per feed, but at probably half of the feeds she will only take 3oz or less.

Thanks again
Larissa x

[Maddy's Mum]

Hi there - you are both doing brilliantly and it definetly sounds like she is getting lots of regular feeds through the day so it able to start stretching her asleep time at night - what an absolute star! Try gently patting and shushing her when she starts to stir at 4.30 and let her sleep until she is ready for the next feed.

I hope we do as well as you with no.2 !!

Dee
x

[larz]

Hello again
After the previous posts, I have had two really bad nights. My little one awoke every hour, sometimes two, I am shattered. What can cause a change like this? How can I get her back to how she was. Nothing in her routine seems to have changed.

Larissa x