not enough hours

[MrsG]

Hi all,

I think i have seen this posted before, but i cant find the thread.

Charlotte has been sleeping through from 9-4 since eight weeks old. she has been on a four hour routinue for a while now and I have been slowly increasing her bottle amount, she is now taking 6oz a feed. (cant get her to take anymore) the last couple of days she is now sleeping from 9-6, which is fantastic

however I am a little confused on what to do about her feeding. she has been having five feeds of 6oz everyday on a four hour routine.
I always do her last feed at 08:30 so we can stick to a 9 o clock bedtime, well now she is sleeping later I dont have enough hours to stick to a four hourly routine. any suggestions on what i should do?

I have adjusted her feeds for the last couple of days to 3.5 hours between each one. should I stick with four hours, and then top her up with as much as she will take before bed?? could I drop a feed?? or is changing it to 3.5 the best thing?

 

[Lucy]

Hi

I breastfeed so I don't have any direct experience but I would say that you'd need to change to a 3/3.5 hour routine during the day if your wee one is sleeping longer at night. It's very important that they get enough milk at this age, and also if Charlotte isn't getting enough during the day you might find she starts waking up during the night from hunger.

Not sure if I've helped at all, some experienced bottle feeders should be along soon!

Lucy

 

[Em78]

we had the same problem with alex and we dropped a feed (to 4 feeds a day). but then he would sleep through for 2 nights and wake on the third.

so we tried a 3 -3.5hr routine instead so he was back on 5 feeds and that night he slept through and did for ages (does mostly now but occasionally teething problems). after he was back in the habit of sleeping through and was taking a bit more milk (esp before bed) we changed back to 4 hourly. and he was fine.
up to you though if you want to try and drop the feed and see how it goes - at least you'll know what the problem is if she starts waking (call me dumb but i really couldnt figure it out and it was dh that said well isnt he losing a feed a day? ) but for us it didnt work and changing the routine was a better plan.

hope it works out ok!

x

 

[Kim]

When Rubie started doing this I dropped a feed (i just fed on demand and she only asked for 4 feeds) she is still sleeping through now.

 

[michelle82]

i would go with her and feed evry 3.5/4 hours she will wake if shes hungry. I still feed matthew on demand if i try shoving bottles in every few hours its pointless as he will only take a few oz instead of the whole bottle then it throws him out for the next bottle

 

[melhoney]

we had the same problem as well, so at first, I reduced to 3.5 hours, or 3hours, and it was ok for a while, but then, she started fussing about eating, she would not take her feed fully, so I tried every 4 hours again, and dropping a feed, and she has been fine since. I think she just wasn't hungry enough to take a full bottle every 3 hours!

Hope you find what's best for her!

Mel xx

 

[MrsG]

thanks Ladies.

well she has been feeding every 3.5 hours now for a few days and has been taking all six ounces so i think I will carry on with that for now. If she then changes and doesnt want as much I will go back to four hours and drop a feed.

many thanks