How Many Hours Between Daytime Feedings

we have our boys on a 3.5-4 hour feeding schedule - they are 7 weeks old, but "zero"/newborn adjusted age. they sleep about the same time amount at night rtight now and take 2-3oz each feeding. do you think we should feed them more frequently during the day, and if we do this will it possibly lengthen their time b/w night feedings a bit?

 

I think we were on that exact feeding schedule at 7 weeks only I think mine were taking 3-4 oz every 3-4 hours. It won't hurt to feed them more often if you like but I doubt it will lengthen your time between nighttime feedings. You might just give it a try for a couple of days and see how it goes. Don't be surprised if they take less at each feeding if you feed every 2-3 hours though. Something you might try is giving them a bit more formula/bm at the nighttime feeds and see if they will go longer.

 

I would possibly try to feed them more frequently. To me, four hours on 2.5/3oz doesn't seem like a lot, in the sense of I would think they'd be eating more frequently. But I could be dazed and confused! :laughing:

You could try adding half an ounce to an ounce to their formula, and bumping up their feeds to every three hours during the day. Are you waking them to feed? Or are they waking on their own at night? How long are they going at night without waking?

Don't worry-they WILL start sleeping longer. I promise! We are all survivors! Have you and dh been able to sort out a sleep schedule or anything?

 

MEG:

Waking them to feed? No, usually just waiting for them to wake as they usually wake before the 4 hour mark. If one is sleeping still we will wake that one to feed at the same(ish) time.

Going between feedings at night without waking?
Graham (our bigger guy although we have no clue what he weighs now) goes 3.5/4 hours between, Josiah is all over the place, but mostly 2.5 hours and then he has some little reflux issue or gas or something and then sleeps lightly with intermittent "wakings" and thens ooths himself back to sleep over the course of the next hour or so. :-( Is this normal???

We sort of figured out a sleep schedule....but my DH thinks it is better when we both get up tofeed as it takes less time (half hour compared to 45 mins-hour) but that is because he is not tandem bottle feeding them yet. I seem to be the one who is more prone to getting up between feedings and dealing with any intermittent "wakings" though so it does not always seem like a solid chunk of sleep

Hopefully this ends in a month or so!!!! Sorry to say after 7 weeks we are getting sick of this newborn stage!!

 

Our 7wk olds are on the same exact schedule and eat the same amount. We have tried to feed them more but they end up spitting it up. Ocassionally they want more, but not all the time and they have only had one or two instances of sleeping more than a 3 hour stretch. Last night they went 5 hours from 10pm - 3am. THAT was nice, but then from 3am only until 6am, so no consistency on added sleep. I'm hoping soon though!!

 

At this stage eating every 3-4 hours around the clock is what they need to grow. I've never seen it work (feeding them more during the day) to stretch out the night feeding...they tend to spit it up, babies eat what they need. BUT within the next 8 weeks they will start to grow rapidly and usually by 3 months they drop a night feeding. GL!

 

we fed every 3 hours from the time they came home to now at 9 months. we clustered a couple of feeds 2.5 hrs together before bed, to stretch the nighttime feeds farther apart. That was our hope. They did start to drop nighttime feeds around 8 or 9 weeks, by 12 weeks they slept through 9pm to 5 am or so.

Prev posters are right though, as you give more formula, if you push the amount too much too fast, they will puke it back at you. They will tell you when they have had enough!

 

I agree that they may need to eat a little more frequently since they are only eating 2-3oz. Also, spit up is normal for newborns - not sure how much they spit up when you feed them more or more often... but some spit up is normal. My boys were spitting up - until they were about 4 months - then it just seemed to stop.