3 month old difficult bottle feeder

My 14 week b/g twins could not be more different in their eating habits. My milk supply never came in fully, but I tandem fed them both just shy of 3 months and have always supplemented with expressed milk and formula. My girl went on a boobie strike about 1 month ago and now is exclusively bottle fed. The problem is she only wants to drink when she s asleep or sleepy so she is getting most of her calories at night. They both are still on a 3 hour schedule feeding between 3-4 oz 8 times a day (not sleeping through the night yet). She seems to be gaining weight fine so the doctor is reluctant to say anything is wrong and to let her drive her eating. She get's highly distracted during the day and even though I feel she is hungry she will fight and push the bottle out. So on average she may skip 1 or 2 feeds or only take 30 mls on 3 of the bottles but will always finish the midnight and 3am bottle. My concern is we are starting to sleep train and are weaning the 3am feed, but she may not compensate during the day and she will take in even less overall.

Has anyone else experience this? All I seem to do is worry about her eating and if she is geting enough. Otherwise she is a happy camper, sleeps and naps well, although does have intense crying fits when something sets her off.

best,
theresa

 

I think it's pretty common to have babies who want to feed more at night, so it sounds normal on that front. And basically, as long as she is gaining weight, has wet diapers and is alert I'd say you're doing something right!

What are you doing for sleep training? To be honest cutting out feeds at 14 weeks sounds a little early, especially if she's willing to feed at night and you're worried about her intake. I'd probably try to maintain a schedule at night until she's ready for longer sleeps on her own and keep the other twin on the same schedule so that you don't have to wake up a million times a night.

Have you tried putting her back on the breast to see how she does? That could make night feedings a little quicker for you and she'd be able to drink as much as she wants. Although it's pretty handy to supplement, sometimes it has the effect of making the baby lazy and willing to hold out for the bottle. If you wanted to get her back to the breast you could just hold a nursing marathon with her.

Hang in there.. it won't be long before everyone is sleeping longer stretches and she'll be doing all of her eating during the day

 

She no longer takes the boob, the other day we did a mini experiment and no go, she no longer latches and is very feeble about the whole idea. Breastfeeding has been extremly difficult as my supply is just low. They use to breastfeed for about 30 minutes and then still be extremely hungry and then supplemement another 2-3 oz of pumped milk. I've been pumping 7 x a day since day one and that generally yileds 2-3 1/2 oz a session total, and then I do only formula at the 3 night feeds. BB breastfeeds in the morning, but that is getting trickier to as I feel my supply is plateauing despite all of my efforts to increase it (domperidone, fenugreek, mothers milk etc.). Today BG barely took in her 6am feed and 9am feed.

We have not really started to sleep train officially except for reducing the 3am bottle by 20ml (it's down 90 mls right now) and increasing the midnight bottle to 130ml, so the idea being we gradually reduce the 3am bottle down as that is the one we are trying to drop first while increasing the bottles before and after. If you have any other ideas about sleep training let me know.

It's all so daunting as you are constantly second guessing everything and fixating on it all, which is very stressful, especially when you are so sleep deprived!

 

have you changed her to a faster flow nipple? she could be getting frustrated with the slow flow nipple...my son would "snack" all day long (an oz or 2 here or there) until I changed the nipple out and what a difference!! you may have to feed her semi sitting up for a few days till she gets used to it and doesn't choke but it made feeding SO much easier!!!

also too 14 weeks (which is just shy of 4 months) is a little early to start dropping bottles - some babies need to eat overnight until after 9 mos old...