How many oz and bottles a day?

My girls STTN, they go to bed at 830 and wake up anywhere between 6 and 7. It used to be 6 all the time so we would feed every 3 hours, except for the last one we would feed 2.5. So our schedule consistantly was
6
9
12
3
6
830
all 6 oz bottles, one twin does not always finish her bottles(smaller of the two)she just does not seem to be as intersted in drinking as her sister. And sometimes she could EASILY take an hour to finish a bottle. But I stress about it, because I want her to keep gaining and grow well like her sister, they are about 2 pounds apart in weight, and they used to be aroubnd the same weight til about 3.5 months old.

we started eating half a jar of baby food and two tablespoons of oatmeal with our dinner bottle, but i felt that was alot to eat a whole 6 0z bottle, oatmeal ad a fruit or veggie. so i thought we sohould go down to 5 bottles and break up the dinner bottle and dinner(baby food)

but do not know if 5 bottles is too less at this age. so i would do every 3.5 hours to feed. also didnt know if i should do that because what if my lil twin does not finsih a bottle, then she is really getting less oz.

my doc said to do 5 for one twin and 6 for the other (but NO,, we stay on the exact same scheudl!!) so ican stay sane!!

plus i thought about going to 5 because thye have been waking up later (closer to 7) and its hard to get 6 bottles in by bed time( not having to feed them any less then 3 hours apart!)

what would you do? how many bottles a day were your twins getting? BTW they will be 5 months next week. how many oz and how many bottles?

TIA!!!!

 

It honestly sounds like they are doing great! You should be aiming for 28oz day, up to 32oz. Feeding

Every baby is different though, so some may have a little more, some a little less. If you wanted to go down to five bottles, I would maybe up the oz in the bottle at the other feed. Or I would probably skip the dinner bottle-if it were me. Seeing how they are getting solids, and a bottle, and then another bottle 2 hours later. I would just do the solids, then a bottle after that. It may take some toying with the schedule to figure it all out. And there were days when my boys wouldn't finish bottles consistently, or their solids. It all was just dependent on the day. Some were better than others!

Good luck figuring it out! But if you do change, remember to give them time to adjust, as well as yourself. I'm sure they will figure it out in no time!

 

I purposefully dropped our LO's to 5 bottles around 4.5 months. I took the amount they were eating and divided it among 5 bottles rather than 6, and they did fine. Our schedule became approximately 6, 10, 2, 6, and we would wake for a nighttime feed at 10pm. (we were able to drop the 10pm feed finally recently as they got on more solids). Best thing you can do is just try it and see what happens. See if you can take the amount and divide it among the 5 bottles and if they will still eat the amount they need. A 4-hr schedule worked for us, but you may be able to do 3.5 or something like that if you want them in bed earlier.

As far as one being 2 lbs bigger than the others, our guys are still almost 3 lbs apart. The smaller of the two had horrible reflux and ate about 5-6 ounces less a day than his brother for several months. They eat almost the same now, but their weight gap has stayed the same. However, there is also a height gap - he is 50th percentile and big brother is 90th percentile. The doc says they are both fine, so I don't worry about it.

 

I forgot to mention, our guys were getting 35 oz and 29 oz at almost 5 months. They were not on any solids at all. (We tried solids at 4 and 4.5 months and it was a disaster, so we ending up waiting until 6 months.) It took 35 oz. a day to keep the big guy satisfied and not crying and wanting to eat every 2-3 hours. As soon as we were able to get him on solids, the doctor had us cut him back to 32 oz. I think the "normal" range for that age is 28-32 oz. a day.

 

My girls are 4.5 months and they only get 4, 6oz bottles a day. They go to bed between 6&6:30 and wake up around 6:30-7a.m. I was really worried about them not getting enough formula, but my pedi said not to worry about it. He said they would eat when they were hungry and not to force it on them. Other people on this forum have suggested dream feeds, but my pedi was against it. They have been at this amount for about a month and are still steadily gaining weight.

I also have a smaller twin. She weighs just over a pound less than her sister, but they have been like that since birth, so I just think she is smaller. She doesn't always finish her bottles either. Her sister is a much better eater.

However, both of my girls have severe reflux. They are both on zantac and I also have to put 1tbs. of rice cereal in every bottle to try to help keep it down. They also get either a veggie or fruit midmorning and rice cereal with fruit after their bedtime bottle. This probably helps with the weight gain. I hate that we had to start solids so early, but my pedi suggested it to help with reflux.

So, I think you should do what works for you. As long as they are gaining weight, you'll be ok. Even if one gains slower than the other, I think as long as she IS gaining it'll be ok.

 

I know where you're coming from- I hate changes, especially when we have a well oiled schedule. But I had to realize they do change as they grow anyways. It may be harder for a few days, but they'll settle into the new routine, too. As Eagle said, you have to try and see what works best for you.
My boys ate about 28 oz of formula a day (5 bottles) and 2 small solid meals (2oz at each feedings). We had a bottle at 6.30,10.30,2.30,6.30 and a forcefeed at 10pm.
We had this schedule until the boys turned almost 8 months. Then we dropped the 10pm feeding.
Btw. there is at least a 4lbs difference between my boys.

 

Around 5 months old, we went from 5 bottles to 4 bottles because they dropped the middle of the night feed and slept thru. We feed on a 4 hour schedule 7, 11, 3, 630. Bed time is 7pm, wake up around 630.

Our babies used to be 2 pounds apart around 4 months or so, then the smaller one eclipsed the bigger one and is now atleast 2 pounds heavier. Just shows me that all babies grow differently. The bigger one now is also a much better eater, which I'm sure is some what of the reason. However, our smaller girl is still gaining and staying on track with her growth percentile, so no reason to worry.

Our smaller one has always been a small eater. She takes about 24-27 oz a day of formula, plus we feed solids 3x a day. She is not a morning eater and some times I can only get 4 oz in to her and she will refuse to take solids...some times I stress, but she usually makes up for it later in the day. The smaller one will take any where between 4 and 8 oz of solids per day. Our bigger one takes 28 oz of formula a day and will eat anywhere between 6 and 10 oz of solids per day.

If you are worried that dropping a bottle might disrupt their sleep at night, add some more solids. In my experience, I have found that doing solids 30 mins to 1 hour after the bottle usually works best so as not to disprupt the next bottle too much as formula/milk is still the most important source of nutrients until 12 months.

I would try to get to 4 bottles a day for your sanity, of course so long as it works for your babies