"Grazing" throughout the night

[Shaz]

HV came yesterday and I explained to her about Connor's unusual night time feeding habits and how I was getting upset about them. Basically it's the following pattern.....bear with me!!

11pm - Daddy gives last bottle takes 4oz the sleeps
2am - Daddy gives another bottle - usually takes 4oz then sleeps
4am - Mummy gives bottle - only takes 2oz, then sleeps and if you try to give more splutters and cries and won't take any more.
6am - same as 4am!!
8am - Mummy gives bottle - back to 4oz no trouble!

We're careful to wind him each time and once he settles back into his crib he'll sleep quite well.

It just seems when I do the feeds in the morning he won't take much milk - am I just keeping him topped up from the big 11 and 2 feeds?

Does anyone elses little one do this? I thought it was comfort sucking, but he does drink the milk rather than chewing on the teat.

I feed like a bad mother - Daddy gets him to drink it all - I can't!!

 

[mum2A&L]

alice gets a 3-4oz feed at 11 - 11.30. then wakes at 3 and maybe takes an oz and then back to sleep. then wakes 6 ish and takes 4 oz. Im lucky if she takes more than 4 oz at the moment. but she is gaining weight so i don't worry

im hoping she will evently drop the 3am feed.

 

[kellie80]

Nathan has his last bottle at 11pm and he has 4-5oz then he wakes at 3am and just plays with his bottle, maybe drinks 2-3oz then back off till 6.30-7am. So now where near as bad as Connor but he still plays with his bottle in the middle of the night. It seems as though he is drowning on it but hes fine in the day so don't know what the problem is

 

[skatty]

Shaz how old is Connor? Maybe he is just transitioning through sleep cycles and will go back to sleep without a feed at 4am. I used to feed Leorah evertime she woke a bit when we co slept and it wasn't until I put her in her own room I realised that she wasn't waking every time because she's hungry and I'd leave her for a minute to have little moan and she'd go back to sleep. Also she still sometimes wakes in the night crying when she is ill or not at home and just needs a little cuddle and she drops of again. I am sure you will soon find he will drop that 4am feed, maybe you could give him a cuddle and a dummy and wait for the dummy to fall out before putting him back to bed, we find this works great

 

[mum2A&L]

Shaz how old is Connor? Maybe he is just transitioning through sleep cycles and will go back to sleep without a feed at 4am. I used to feed Leorah evertime she woke a bit when we co slept and it wasn't until I put her in her own room I realised that she wasn't waking every time because she's hungry and I'd leave her for a minute to have little moan and she'd go back to sleep. Also she still sometimes wakes in the night crying when she is ill or not at home and just needs a little cuddle and she drops of again. I am sure you will soon find he will drop that 4am feed, maybe you could give him a cuddle and a dummy and wait for the dummy to fall out before putting him back to bed, we find this works great

ooo i might try that with alice for a few nights.

 

[Sassyminx]

it must be common, the past few nights finleys been doing exactly the same he only seems to have 2oz and fall back asleep and wake up 2hrs later whereas he was having 4oz and sleeping 4hrs or so, im not that tired though but it is strange!!!

 

[Urchin]

It is very common, Brody did this alot too.

All I would say for now is to maybe try and get them off without feeding. I'm not talking about letting them cry and cry, but perhaps seeing if they will go back off after a few minutes moaning. Obviously if they get very upset I would say just to feed them, but lots of times its so easy to jump up and feed without giving them the chance to learn to go back to sleep by themselves.

GOOD LUCK!!