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night feeds at 4 months??

mandy711 Joined: 16/11/2008 Posts: 8 night feeds at 4 months??

Hi all.. my lil girl is 4 months now and i'm BF her and she's still wakin every 2 1/2 hours at night to be fed! Is this normal? Don't get me wrong, she's an angel about it and she doesn't even open her eyes and goes straight back down, but to be honest with u this unbroken sleep is killin me! lol..My  two baby neices are the same age and are being bottle fed and both are sleeping thru..so this makes me think it's sumthing 2 do with my milk?.. maybe it's not enough for her although she has fruit for brekkie and rusk or rice pudding for tea at 5pm (ish)...Any tips??...thanks...

Francesca911 Joined: 08/02/2009 Posts: 19 Re: night feeds at 4 months??

Hi, my little man is 4 months and I'm mainly breastfeeding with one formula feed a day and not weaning yet. He still wakes once or twice a night for feeds (though likewise is very good and usually goes straight back to sleep) although at the moment must be going through a growth spurt as is waking up 3 times a night. Last night he was in bed by 7pm and woke at 9.30pm, 12am and 4am then got up at 7am. So you're not alone! I'm hoping he'll stop soon and go back to once a night or even sleep through (he's done it 3 nights total). I think they digest BM a lot quicker so if they're growing they will wake up more for feeds at night but it should get better once they're over it. Good luck, hope you get some sleep soon! 

Jennifer011 Joined: 29/03/2008 Posts: 143 Re: night feeds at 4 months??

Have you tried leaving her a little to see if she goes back to sleep? It may be that she is waking out of habit not hunger. My boy is 3 months and exclusively breastfed and sleeps from 6pm till about 4am, has a good feed and goes back till about 7am - which is brilliant compared to my older boy! Another thing is how long she feeds for, I read that in the first 5 minutes or so of a feed the milk is different - i think it's called foremilk and hindmilk. Bascially the milk after about 10 minutes fills them up more. So if she's feeding less than this it might be she's not getting that milk.

I also express milk and he usually has a bottle of this milk before bedtime when I'm putting my older son to bed. It' about 5 ounces which is a really good feed so I know he's full up.

Also, as she's on solids already it could be affecting your milk supply.

Mention your concerns to your health visitor as they usually have good ideas.

All the best x x

nicola2308 Joined: 20/11/2009 Posts: 6 Re: night feeds at 4 months??

hi there have you tried giving ur child one formula bottle before bedtime. Many parents dont want to give a formula bottle but it means someone else could do the last feed at night while you have an early night. i expressed my milk for my twins but a formula feed at night and i thought it satasfied them more to sleep all night. you should even try to express milk for the last feed as an average newborn baby will only feed 8mls of bm. so ur child will only be taking 3 or 4 ounce of milk tops. baby expresing around 5-6ounce wil satasfy your child for longer.

caa206 Joined: 06/10/2009 Posts: 596 Re: night feeds at 4 months??

hi. are you getting on any better? i think it's normal i'm afraid. don't compare with your neices, they're all different and you'll end up driving yourself crazy!

i agree she could be waking from habit as well as hunger but that's what comes with breast feeding. they also like the closeness. your doing well stick at it. mine was 4mth when i weaned as she was a hungrey baby. it helped no end. but i found she still woke alot more than bottle fed babies so did my 2nd. try giving more rice in the day half way through her feed it will help a little at night but you may find the next problem is stopping the habit of waking. it's hard to tell which it is when your weaning.

i expressed but didn't bother with my 2nd. i found it really time consuming and it didn't make much difference in the end. with both i fed untill around 15mth while i weaned straight onto cows milk so it really is worth it. stick at it!

if your comfy with it she could go in her own room, if she's not allready. you wont hear her so much on the monitor so sometimes she may settle herself and she won't wake to look round to your bed for you. she'll scream if she wants you!

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