For those of you formula feeding your 4-5month olds

Over the past few days, (after browsing the book Babywise) I slowly went from a 4hr feeding schedule to a 3 hr. The book pretty much says don't switch to a 4hr until they are sleeping through the night. This gives them 5 bottles instead of 4 before bedtime. It hasn't seemed to change things, they still get up at the same hours at night to eat. Taylor wakes twice at 1am and 5am and Abby wakes once around 3am. It just makes more work for me during the day on top of my sleepless nights. What is everyone's experience with this? Just wondering if I am doing the right thing. The lazy part of me just wants to go back to q 4hr feedings!

 

It will take more than a few days for their bodies to realize they are getting enough calories in the day time that they don't wake as often at night. How you handle the night time feedings and wakings also matters. Give them some time, stay consistent and you'll reap the benefits. We did every three hours until they were sleeping through which was between 8 and 12 weeks for all of mine. Once we added two solid feedings, they weren't as hungry for the next bottle so I slowly moved them from 3 hrs to 3hrs 15min to 3hrs 30min to 3hrs 45 min and finally 4hrs at just over five months. You might not go to 4hr feedings for a bit longer since your's will sttn later.

 

I had read Babywise too and wondered about the every 3 hour thing. I felt like we had "trained" them to wake every three hours to eat, because it seemed to be like clockwork. But looking back, I doubt that was true. We had a couple days after they turned 3 months that their schedule got messed up during the day and we went closer to 4 hours between bottles. Since they seemed fine with it and were still not really crying for the bottle even at that point - it was just me panicking like OMG we forgot to feed them! After that we decided to just switch to a 4 hour schedule and see how they'd do. At the time of the switch they were down to one feeding at night that was all over the place. Sometimes they'd get up at 1 sometimes 5, most often it was between 2-3. Anyway the day that we switched to the 4 hour schedule (upped the bottles from 5-6 oz to 7-8 oz) they slept through the night that night and continued to consistently do it until they hit the 4 month regression.

Probably was a coincidence, but I was like man we should have switched sooner if it meant STTN and less feedings during the day! But the other thing we did that same night they first STTN was wrap my daughter in the miracle blanket. Since she was the one who usually woke first at night and then we woke my son, I think this is the more likely reason they (she) started STTN. Anyway, the 3 hour schedule didn't seem to make a difference to us as far as night time sleeping goes.

 

Mine didn't sleep through until 7 months... they will do it when they're ready. IMO though, it's best to feed more often during the day, they often get more food that way and are less likely to be hungry at night.

 

Ditto what the pp said about every 3 hours. We kept ours on every 3 hours pretty much until they were on table food. Long after they were STTN. At first they would wake up during the night at the 3 hour mark on their own, but by 12 weeks old they started going longer stretches at night. Are they taking all 5 bottles? If so I would keep giving it to them.

 

Mine are just over 6 mos old and we feed every 3 hours, and have since they were in the NICU, except for growth spurt/feeding frenzies when they ate constantly. We did CIO at 5 months and they very easily adjusted to not getting their 2am bottle. They have started sleeping later and going to bed earlier (to bed at 7pm, up at 6-7am), so they've gone from 6 bottles a day to 5, still on the every-three-hour feeding schedule, starting at 7am. I just tried stretching them to 3 hours and 15 minutes, and it wasn't happening. The more I thought about it, if they're eating five good bottles, it seems they need them, and they've dropped the sixth bottle just by sleeping more at night. We're doing two or three solid meals/snacks a day, one hour after bottles, and that doesn't seem to be affecting their bottle intake. I'm planning on staying on the every 3 hour schedule until they're on table food.

 

They eat around 7am, 10, 1pm, 4pm, and 7pm. They sometimes take a mini nap from 5:30 - 6:15pm, when we start baths, then 7pm bottles.

A month ago I was doing a 6am, 9, 12:00pm, 3, 6, and 9pm bottles. I would wake them up at 8:15pm to do baths and bottles. I found they were in a deep sleep at 8:15 and would cry when I woke them for baths, so we started that routine at 7:15pm and then recently moved it to 6:15pm, where they're much happier and awake. They also started sleeping until 7am instead of 5:45-6:00am, so we changed the schedule to 7am-7pm.

 

My DS slept through the night at 8 weeks on their own but doubled up on bottles throughtout the day. I couldnt get them to 4 hours until we started solids at 6months. I just let them tell me when they want a bottle. My boys have had huge appetites since they were born!