Author Topic: Do you wake to cluster feed?  (Read 1454 times)

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Offline tisdallmcphee

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Do you wake to cluster feed?
« on: May 18, 2006, 05:55:02 am »
Hi,

Aisha will be 5 weeks old on Saturday.  I am breastfeeding (one side at each feeding) and she is feeding every 3 hours. I want to encourage her to feed every 4 hours at night if possible, so I am going to start cluster feeding this weekend.  This is her feeding schedule now: 7am,10, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10:30pm dream feed, 1am, 3:30am.  To cluster feed, I was going to go for 4,6,8pm with a dream feed at 11pm....my questions are should I wake her for the 8pm dream feed?  She goes to bed at 7pm.  Or should I do a 5, 7, 9 (wake her at 9pm to feed) and dream feed at 11pm?  Or should I start the cluster feeding earlier (ie 2, 4, 6 and top-up at 7 before bed...then dreamfeed)? If I do the 5, 7, 9pm...what do I do with the 4pm feed as she won't wait until 5 pm to feed following her1pm feed. Do people usually wake their babies to cluster feed....or do they put their babies to bed later?

My hope is that if I start cluster feeding and then dream feed at 11pm, she will sleep until 3 or so and then on til 7am.  Is this realistic? 

Thanks!

Offline Kimberly®

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Re: Do you wake to cluster feed?
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2006, 04:39:34 am »
try leaving things as they are for now, waking her may just make her cranky.
Kimberly

Offline Finns mum

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Re: Do you wake to cluster feed?
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2006, 11:45:59 am »
My 7 week old is doing the 3 hour EASY too, but I'm feeding on the half hour (7.30, 10.30 etc). I do a sort of cluster feed at 4.30 and then again at 6.30 ie 2 hours between the last 2 feeds. We then put him to bed around 7 and do a dreamfeed between 10 and 11pm, and at the moment he sleeps through until about 5am or sometimes even later. He was a big baby and can go a while longer than smaller babies between feeds I guess, but doing the 2 hour feed before bed seems to have helped. He's breast-fed during the day but we give him a bottle of formula at the dreamfeed (mostly so my husband can feed him, and I could never express enough in one go at night) - this means he gets to drink lots in one go to help through the night, and it does seem to have helped him sleep longer. I've by no means got this EASY thing sorted yet, but I hope this might be of some help!