Q re upping calories

[melulla]

Hi girls,
Have justed posted on naps board but need your adcice too please.

i have just changed my lo to 3 and a half hour easy as the dreaded 45 mins naps had started. Yesterday went great - I extended his A time and his naps seem to be sorted. However his nights are still over the place.
Up until a week ago he was typically waking once a night for a feed. This changed when the 45 min naps started and he began feeding twice and waking a few extra times for soother etc.
I had hoped that the nights would settle as day time sleep improved but last night was worse than ever- he fed three times and woke extra again for soother etc.

He is 16 weeks and is EBF. He is teething a tpresent and is just getting rid of a cold. I think by reading other posts that i need to up his calories during the day. Just want to confirm how to do this. He is napping at the mo and is due his next feed around 10.30. So.............. I plan to feed him as normal from both sides then.( he has fed like this for the past 4 weeks or so and demands it !) He feeds in approx 10 mins. Do i then feed him again and hour later. Do i do this for alll his day feeds for the next few days. Shoould i offer him both sides again or just one.

Any tips would be much appreciated. As always girls ye are amazing!! and have helped me so many times over the past 16 weeks. Thanks for everything - ye are a fantastic bunch of women!!

Melulla
xx

[rosie and joe's mummy]

he should up his own calorie intake himself.

obviously with an exclusively breastfed baby it's difficult to get them to take in more milk, however as he grows he will actually do this, and you wont' really know. You might even go through a stage of thinking you're not producing enough, which is actually that he's taking lots and you don't feel full because of it.

as they get older the become very efficient at feeding and feed for shorter times but take more milk. Practice makes perfect!!

Rosie started waking more in the night as she got near to 16 weeks, and from not waking at all between 8 and 16 weeks she then started waking once, and then twice and then when we got her onto solids at 24 weeks she stopped. NOT that i'm recommending you go onto solids just yet.

I found the other way you can increase calories is not to feed more frequently during the day, but you can cluster feed every 2 hours at night OR what I did which was to express after the first feed in the morning. The milk is very calorie rich then and there's usually plenty of it. In addition taking an expressed amount (even a fwe ounces) will help increase the milk available through the rest of the day. I then gave that expressed amount after she'd finished feeding at her dreamfeed, so she was absolutely totally stuffed as full as she could of milk.  that was how we got her going from 10pm until 6 am in the frist place actually.

[melulla]

Thanks for that Rosies Mum,
Ive actually been pumping twice every am to build up freezer stash for going back to work. So think ill just stick to that and try and concentrate on tanking him up a little more in the evenings. Id love to be able to top him off at night but since been sick with a puking bug two weeks ago hes now refusing the bottle!!!. Will start addressing that one in a few days when his cold lifts - God it never ends does it!!

Thanks for the tips
MElulla
xxx

[rosie and joe's mummy]

rosie never liked taking any milk from a bottle either. I only had to do top ups for a few days before my own milk seemed to catch up and she wouldn't take any more as a topup because she was so full from what was there.

[jbepko]

If he normally feeds from both sides, offer him the first side again. I do that during growth spurts (right-left-right-and sometimes left again) to help increase amount of hindmilk received.