my 12 wk lo is snacking at bedtime & df - how do i get him to eat more?

[nona]

i'm not sure where to post this so feel free to move!

i have a new problem this week. my 12 wk bf ds is starting to "snack" at bedtime & df  (nursing around 10 min only). i think this is contributing to more frequent night wakings due to hunger.

during the day, my ds nurses like a champ for 20-30 min until he's finished. however, when we nurse before bedtime he is so tired that he falls asleep shortly after our nursing session begins. not sure if this is a contributing factor, but i have not been able to get a late afternoon catnap in him at all this week. (we usually take a walk in baby bjorn but it has been too cold and icey this week.) when i df, he is still only nursing for about 10 min. last night he woke around 9:45 (my fault) and i purposefully changed his diaper beforehand to get him angry and awake but it still didn't make a difference. additionally, when he does wake during the night he only feeds for a few minutes. if he feeds for longer its always his first night waking. if he wakes around 4-5, i am usu unable to soothe him but he nurses for only a few sucks.

any ideas on how to get him to nurse longer before bedtime and df?

[GG]

Other BW moms please correct me if I'm wrong.  It sounds as if, when Cade wakes up in the middle of the night and snacks, it most likely means he's not hungry but that he's gotten used to nursing to sleep at this time. I would suggest keeping track of when he wakes up and how much he eats so that, once you've figured out the time that he's really chowing down, you can just get him back to sleep without feeding him the other times.  That should help with his snacking at bedtime since he'll need those extra calories. You may also need to drop the df now that he's a bit older.

HTH

[Meggie]

Could you maybe try offering the night time feed a little earlier?  Maybe 15-30 minutes before bed instead of right at bedtime.  He might then be more awake and able to take a full feed.  Are you cluster feeding?  If you are, then the night feed might just be a top-up and he will not take as much.  Could you post your routine so that we have a better idea of when/how long he is eating and sleeping.

[nona]

i'm not clusterfeeding - i stopped a while back. last night i tried burping him a few times to get him to wake and it only helped a little.  we went out of town this past weekend and his schedule got messed up this past week. i'm worried what would happen if i drop the dreamfeed . i'd like to go to bed earlier so maybe i'll experiment this week.

Last night was completely different. He still didn't take much before bedtime as I mentioned. Then he woke up 1.5 hrs later (heard daddy laughing really loud at TV movie  ). We were unable to soothe him back to sleep, so I nursed him again. He fell right to sleep when i laid him down after one little fuss. Then I df at 11pm exactly. he woke at 3ish and 6ish (which i thought was great.) I can't remember how long he nursed at 3am though....so definitely need to start writing in down. i'll get my paper/pad ready for tonight!

Here's our routine. Morning waking varied every day this week. I kinda feel like this schedule is a big fat lie. We followed EASY as a routine but the wake time varied day to day creating a different bedtime for everyday for this week. Past weeks, schedule was more like 7 wake up/7 bedtime daily. Additionally, he usually takes decent naps (usu > 1 hour) but yesterday he had one 45 min nap, one 90 min, and one 60 min. His "A" time seems long but i try to get him to settle before then.

E 8:30ish
A
S 9:45/10ish
Y
E 11:30ish
A
S1ish
Y
E 2:30ish
A
S4ish
Y
E5:30ish
A
S no catnap  we tried hard  this week but usu gave up....
A 7/7:15 bath, jammies
E 7:30  - ONLY 2 HRS FROM LAST BF
S 8
df 10/10:30

By looking at my schedule, there is probably not enought times btwn bf for him to be hungry in the evening??

i feel guilty not feeding him at night. what if he's having a growth spurt since he's 12 wks? He doesn't like the pacifier so its really hard to soothe him back to sleep. I tried to get DH to try and soothe at 6am to make him sleep another hour but it didn't work so i just nursed him and he woke an hour later. Its frustrating....he is in our room in a co-sleeper but plan to move him out next week 

[Meggie]

If your LO is refusing to take a catnap, you are going to have to move bedtime up by at least an hour.  He is probably way overtired and this might be causing the night wakings.  Is he waking up at 5:30 from his 4pm nap?  If he is waking up early, then I would suggest that you feed right when he wakes up, then feed again right before bed (7pm maybe) this will bring your feeds very close together, like a cluster feed, but then he might be tanked up for the night, and will not be so over tired and sleep better.

Your Schedule could maybe look a little more like this
E 8:30ish
A
S 9:45/10ish
Y
E 11:30ish
A
S1ish
Y
E 2:30ish
A
S4ish
Y
E5:30ish
A 6:00 Bath/Jammies
E 6:30  - Clusterfeed top-up
S 7
df 10/10:30