feeding at 4 months

My babies are 4 months and we've been working very hard at getting them to sleep through the night. They've been pretty good and have been going to sleep like 10-00 or 11-00 and waking at 6 or 7. The problem is that they are very bad nappers and nap for a very short time so at 7-00 or 8 they are passing out so last night we put them to sleep at 8 and every time they woke we popped the pascifier and 1 slept through andc the other woke at 4-00. I feel a little cruel not feeding them for soo long but, it would be great if they could go to sleepp at a normal time. Is this O.K for 4n months or do theey need to eat more?

 

My babies are 4 months and we've been working very hard at getting them to sleep through the night. They've been pretty good and have been going to sleep like 10-00 or 11-00 and waking at 6 or 7. The problem is that they are very bad nappers and nap for a very short time so at 7-00 or 8 they are passing out so last night we put them to sleep at 8 and every time they woke we popped the pascifier and 1 slept through andc the other woke at 4-00. I feel a little cruel not feeding them for soo long but, it would be great if they could go to sleepp at a normal time. Is this O.K for 4n months or do theey need to eat more?

 

I think it depends more on how much they're eating during the day. Ours just started sleeping through (2 nights in a row now!! Woo hoo!). We put them to bed about 7:30 and they sleep through until 6:30 - 7 the next morning.
They have their last bottle at about 7 regardless of when the last feeding was (by this I mean if it was less than 3 hrs before) and I just give them as much as they'll take and then it's off to bed.
I took a quick tally and yesterday DD ate 34 oz total (she weighs about 12 lbs) and DS had 37.5 oz (he weighs about 15 lbs) So they're eating plenty and I think that holds them for the night. It's not cruel to not feed them if they're eating enough during the day and they quiet with a paci at night. If they're truly hungry I don't think the paci would quiet them for very long and they'd wake up again in a few minutes. How much are they eating for the day?

 

My twins are a little younger. They eat around 25-30 oz per 24 hours. My dd is 12lbs and my ds is 11lbs. My dd will do an 11 hour stretch (6.00 - 5.00) and my ds will wake an additional time around midnight. I fill them up too. I want them in bed by 7 pm, whether they had their last bottle at 3, 4 or 5. Just top it off. I did that with my oldest as well. By 7 pm all 3 kids are down.

My ds still needs to eat, he won't go back to sleep for very long (1-2 hours max) if I don't feed him and he has reflux as well so that makes things a little more complicated too.

 

I agree with Trillian. As long as they are eating enough during the day, they are fine to sleep at night. And she's right about the paci too. I quiet my boys with a paci as much as I can during the night (we give them their last bottle at 9pm no matter what), but, when they are ready for their bottle (usually around 5am), they keep spitting out the paci as soon as you put it in their mouths and they scream. So, if that's not a big enough hint that they are hungry, I don't know what is.

 

I believe that sleep training is a function of age and weight. I'd ask your pediatrician what those guidelines are before you start cutting out food at night. Most sleep training books suggest waiting until 6 months.

I think that is because babies change their schedules alot up until 6 months.. if I had tried to sleep train at 4 months it would have been a waste as the boys were not ready for it. Finally at 5 months we had a more rigid schedule and now at nearly 6 months, I find it's hard to vary from it without big meltdowns.

Good luck, sleep is a precious commodity these days.

Teri D

 

quote:
Originally posted by tdemarco01:
I believe that sleep training is a function of age and weight. I'd ask your pediatrician what those guidelines are before you start cutting out food at night. Most sleep training books suggest waiting until 6 months.

Teri D


I have to agree with this. I should add that we didn't do anything special to 'make' our babies sleep. They just started doing it on their own once they started eating more during the day.

 

The girls just dropped their nightime feeding on their own (it helped when we did a 10:00 dreamfeed). Now we do our last bottle at 7:00 and they sleep until 7 or 7:30 usually. They drink about 25-30 oz. a day so that seems to be enough for them. I wouldn't worry about yours needing more at night unless they seem to be hungry.

 

Our girls didn't real start sleeping better until we added solids around 5 months. Even now we still do a 10pm feed and then they sleep sort of until about 6am. Megan usually wakes up to talk around 3:30 or 4 and will go on and off til 6am but she isn't hungry. She is just weird.

 

My guys go to bed around 7pm and sleep until we wake them at 6-6:30am. They could probably go longer, but we need to get them up so we can get to work. I could probably try putting them down sooner, but it's just not feasible with our current work schedule.

As long as they are eating during the day and gaining weight, it's fine for them to sleep that long. At this age, they should be sleeping 10-12 hours at night and 3-5 hours during the day. I hope that helps. They'll let you know if they can't make it. Just know that it may take a few days (and maybe weeks) until they stop waking for the paci. It took my guys awhile to figure out that they could just continue sleeping. They haven't eaten anything at night for over a month, but it was only just recently that they stopped crying at night and actually slept allthe way thru.

Shannon