Nightime Feeding

[Bonfire Bride]

Evening ladies, I'm hoping someone can help??

I am exclusively breast feeding Oliver and he is a very frequent feeder - he is a big boy and is on the 91st centile. I am loving breastfeeding and am so glad that we both took to it so well. However, I see on here that some ladies have younger babies than me and they are going 6+ hours between feeds.

In the evening, Oliver sleeps downstairs in his moses basket from about 8 till 11 and then I take him up to bed. I then give him a feed in bed and he instantly goes back to sleep and I put him in his moses basket. But he will never go more than 3 hours between feeds.

Should he be going longer now at 6 weeks old? He already cluster feeds between 6pm until he falls asleep around 8pm so I'm wondering if there is anything else we can do?

I am starting his routine tomorrow of bed, booby, cuddles and bed so maybe this will help??? If this is normal then I'm happy to continue feeding as he will go straight back to sleep after a feed which only takes about 10minutes now.

Thanks in advance xx

 

[knopk@]

Hi hun, totally normal, all babies ate different too. At 6 weeks they also have a big growth spurt so feeding on demand is what he needs.
I know some ladies express during the day to top up in the evening( dreamfeed) so they go.longer but i find expressing such a faff i cant do it

Tapatalking so cant see signatures

 

[AmyQ]

Sounds just like Evan did at that age. As knopk says, all babies are different and as long as it's still working for you he must be a very happy baby . It's also better to wake, feed and have him go back to sleep straight away - some ladies are stuck up for hours at night with a screaming baby at that age xx

 

[Bonfire Bride]

That's a relief, thank you

He has been extra fussy today and basically feeding all day so I'm guessing that it's a growth spurt. I've been expressing but that's because we're going to a wedding, so want to be able to have a glass of wine in the evening. Hoping I can continue expressing while he's going through this growth spurt x

 

[Bonfire Bride]

Sounds just like Evan did at that age. As knopk says, all babies are different and as long as it's still working for you he must be a very happy baby . It's also better to wake, feed and have him go back to sleep straight away - some ladies are stuck up for hours at night with a screaming baby at that age xx

Thank You. He is very content and I always get to him before he gets upset. We have been very lucky during the nights as he has gone back to sleep immediately after feeding from day 1. I was just concerned that maybe he was falling asleep too quickly before getting his fill during the night feeds, but I'll keep at it.

 

[AmyQ]

It just means he's probably a very efficient feeder. Evan rarely feeds for longer than 10 minutes and has done since birth xx

 

[SaraLouise]

Its only in the past week or so that H is going 5.5 hrs then 4.5 hrs, before it was every 2-3 x

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[Nutsyputs]

My lo is a big boy too and at 5.5 months very rarely goes longer than 3 hours between feeds through the night. But that's not to say yours wont just that it can be normal.


- now Free

 

[stargirl]

Hi hun, well done for sticking with it. My lo is 16 weeks now and although he goes every 3 hrs during the day he very rarely goes 5 hrs in the night, if he does it only for the first half if the night, come the second half and he can be up every 2 hours. Normally I up 3 times with him in the night. X

 

[babybee]

My lo was going only 2 hours between feeds until she got to around 22 weeks! Then she started going every 3-4 hours. Now at 30 weeks its every 5-6 hours with weaning now in the mix!
Each baby is different so I would just follow your lo's lead. They'll eventually go longer.x

 

[buggy1]

I'm mix feeding as I don't have enough milk for my lo, but she rarely needs a bottle in the night, just a bit of breastfeeding normally tides her over but she will only sleep for 3 hours, maybe 4 occasionally! I'm hoping she will just naturally sleep for longer as she gets older without the need for the extra feeding in the night, I'm hoping a big bottle before bed will last her!

 

[PeaPod]

If it's any reassurance (or maybe a worry!) my son has only gone longer than 3 hours over night a handful of times and he's just over 11 months old ( and between 91st and 98th centile). He doesnt have much milk during the day but often feeds at least 2hourly over night, if im lucky, 3 hourly. During teething he became like a new born and we had hourly feeding again. If you're happy to keep feeding on demand, try not to worry about what everyone elses baby is doing and go with your instinct. If you want to try to change it, im sure the lovely ladies on here can advise. XxX

 

[BunnyN]

LO is 4 months and rarely goes more than 4 hrs at night or two in the day. I think babies are just different, it isn't anything to worry about. There is a good chance he will go longer soon and if not you will get good at feeding him without hardly waking up! If it is driving you crazy then there might be ways to extend the time between feeds but I'm a believer that usually a baby will work out what is best for his own needs.