taking away a night feeding

Hi everyone,

I've been reading books on sleep and feeding and obsessing on this topic. When do you know it's time to cut out night feeding. My b/gtwins (born at 33 wks) are 7 wks old actual and are good sleepers and eaters usually (thankfully).....they eat every 3 hrs and sometimes I think they could go longer but I wake them to stay on schedule.

When do you know it's ok to increase their feeding amounts and take away the 230 am feeding (my choice of course).....I'm worried they won;t tolerate more food. I know they'll cry at first and they may not make it from 1130 to 530 but I could handle pushing it slowly like 300 then 330 etc.

What have been your experiences?

thanks

Nancy

 

I am curious about this also-I would love to cut out the 2am feeding...actually mine have started to do this on their own, they are now sleeping until about 3:30 before waking up on their own hungry. I am thinking that eventually they will just sleep through it-I am hoping anyway
I am watching your post now to see what others say-thanks for posting this!

 

Once I was sure my girls were gaining weight well and they were both over 12 pounds, I let them wake themselves up for the middle of the night meal. They had been getting up at 2am to eat and slowly they moved to 2:30, then 3am, then 3:30, etc. My girls were born at 34 weeks and were both under 5 pounds. They gained weight really fast but needed to eat every three hours until they were about three months adjusted. Sadly, that meant in the middle of the night too.

For your situation, I wouldn't think that 33 weekers would be ready to go six or seven hours between eating this early. If they're only seven weeks actual, then they're really only "just born". Unless they were huge at birth and are growing incredibly quickly, I'd give it a couple more months, honestly. I remember being in your shoes and desperately wanting (needing?) more sleep... but your babies are still so little and their stomachs are still so tiny that they need to eat every few hours.

 

Ditto pp. Mine were 36 weeker but were under 6lbs each and were slow to gain. Around the 4 month mark (3 months adjusted) is when I let them sleep past a feeding (they were eating every 3 hours) and would get them up about a half hour later to feed. AFter doing that for a couple of weeks, I would let them sleep through that one and push it back some (and sometimes move a feed up)...and eventually all the night feedings merged into no night feedings. For us, we STTN without night feedings at 7.5 months (mainly because mine are a bit on the small side and just weren't ready until then).

ETA: We kept one dream feed from about 6-6.5 months until we just let them sleep through at 7.5 months. They might have done it earlier but I wanted them to get the extra calories from the dreamfeed.

 

First of all, your babies are newborns. You'll probably find it helpful to go by adjusted age for everything - it will give you a much better idea what to expect.

I wouldn't do ANYTHING to try to get your babies to drop feedings this early. The only thing I'd do is ask your pedi if it's ok to just let them sleep as long as they'll sleep at night without waking them every 3 hrs to eat. If so, then go for it.

But it would not be a good idea to try to get newborns to go 6-7 hrs with no food and water. They are in the process of doubling their body weight - on stomachs the size of a marble. They can only take in so much at once comfortably, and you don't want to distend their stomachs and train them to ignore their "full" signs and overeat by putting the "dropped" feeding into other bottles.

Can you get anyone to help you out with the night feedings so you can get the sleep you need?

 

QUOTE(fuchsiagroan @ Mar 18 2008, 09:27 PM) [snapback]675464[/snapback]
First of all, your babies are newborns. You'll probably find it helpful to go by adjusted age for everything - it will give you a much better idea what to expect.

I wouldn't do ANYTHING to try to get your babies to drop feedings this early. The only thing I'd do is ask your pedi if it's ok to just let them sleep as long as they'll sleep at night without waking them every 3 hrs to eat. If so, then go for it.

But it would not be a good idea to try to get newborns to go 6-7 hrs with no food and water. They are in the process of doubling their body weight - on stomachs the size of a marble. They can only take in so much at once comfortably, and you don't want to distend their stomachs and train them to ignore their "full" signs and overeat by putting the "dropped" feeding into other bottles.

Can you get anyone to help you out with the night feedings so you can get the sleep you need?


Sorry to hijack, but I have a question. I've heard people talk about doubling their birthweight, but I'm not sure what it's all about. Sleep related or feeding related? My DD has almost doubled her birthweight so I would love to know the significance of this! Thanks!

About the original topic, I had to wake my twins up for a long ttime before they were able to go longer than three hours. They were so small and need to eat at least that often. Do your babies wake on their own or do you have to wake them?

 

QUOTE
I've heard people talk about doubling their birthweight, but I'm not sure what it's all about. Sleep related or feeding related? My DD has almost doubled her birthweight so I would love to know the significance of this!


I don't know if it has any significance as far as sleep/feeding - it's just a totally awe-inspiring thing that babies do! I think they're supposed to double their birthweight in the first 6 mo (though many do before then).

Some people will say that when babies are x weeks old or weigh x lbs they should be able to go x hrs at night without a feeding - personally, I don't really buy that. I think there's just tremendous variation. Some big babies will need to eat frequently at night for months and months, some small babies will go long stretches almost from the beginning. And to the OP - you're the mom, you'll know when they're ready! And in a few months (at the latest) they will start giving you some longer stretches of sleep.

 

My girls were born at 35 weeks and are 11 weeks old (I guess 6 weeks adjusted) and they gave up their 2:30 am feeding on their own starting last week without me changing anything. It just sort of happened. I guess they were getting enough during the day that they no longer needed this feeding. Now they fall asleep around 9pm and wake up around 5 am.

 

QUOTE(fuchsiagroan @ Mar 18 2008, 05:51 PM) [snapback]675653[/snapback]
I don't know if it has any significance as far as sleep/feeding - it's just a totally awe-inspiring thing that babies do! I think they're supposed to double their birthweight in the first 6 mo (though many do before then).

Some people will say that when babies are x weeks old or weigh x lbs they should be able to go x hrs at night without a feeding - personally, I don't really buy that. I think there's just tremendous variation. Some big babies will need to eat frequently at night for months and months, some small babies will go long stretches almost from the beginning. And to the OP - you're the mom, you'll know when they're ready! And in a few months (at the latest) they will start giving you some longer stretches of sleep.

I totally agree. And yes, your ped will like to see double birthweight by 6 months and triple by 12 months. It's not the end all be all if it doesn't happen, but that's the trend that peds watch for (indicator that they are staying on their growth curve fairly well)...we just barely made to it both but made it nonetheless.

 

Mine are 34 weekers and were on the every 3 hours around the clock schedule until about 2-3 months old (actual not adjusted). We also had to wake them to feed.

At around 2ish months they started stretching it out to every 4 hours around the clock on their own. By 4 months we let them sleep thru the 4am feeding and they did sleep from 12am (ish) until 6am (ish). We continued to wake them for the midnight feeding, which we gradually moved up to 10pm (so we could do it before going to bed ourselves), and probably did that feeding longer than necessary.

Finally at around 8 months old when it was nearly impossible to dream feed them because they were COMPLETELY asleep, we dropped that bottle and increased the amount they ate during the day. DH and I laugh about it now. We were silly first time parents SO worried about them getting enough to eat, but really by the time they were 8 months old they were so fine with only eating during the day.

Have you talked to your pedi about how much they should be getting overall throughout the day? Are they on high-calorie formula, regular formula or breast milk?

 

QUOTE(snoopytwins @ Mar 19 2008, 08:23 AM) [snapback]676591[/snapback]
I totally agree. And yes, your ped will like to see double birthweight by 6 months and triple by 12 months. It's not the end all be all if it doesn't happen, but that's the trend that peds watch for (indicator that they are staying on their growth curve fairly well)...we just barely made to it both but made it nonetheless.



I think 6 months sounds a little late for doubling birth weight for preemies or low birth weight babies. My girls have tripled their weight. I agree with PP that eating and sleeping are not related to weight. At this point your looking to feed feed feed babies as much as they want! Dropping feedings comes much later.

 

QUOTE(Mel G @ Mar 18 2008, 05:37 PM) [snapback]675486[/snapback]
Sorry to hijack, but I have a question. I've heard people talk about doubling their birthweight, but I'm not sure what it's all about. Sleep related or feeding related? My DD has almost doubled her birthweight so I would love to know the significance of this! Thanks!

About the original topic, I had to wake my twins up for a long ttime before they were able to go longer than three hours. They were so small and need to eat at least that often. Do your babies wake on their own or do you have to wake them?


My kids wake on their own during the day (maybe because they were trained to eat every 3 hrs from birth when i did wake them due to low birthweight. Now I think I can stretch the night feeds becasue they haven't been waking on their own - I've been waking them at 230 and 530 am and they have not been taking their whole bottle...i agree it's too soon to lose the 230 feed totally but I do think they're reading to stretch the time - I'll try it and see what happens...My ped never says to wake babies anyway to they say it's ok to let them sleep at night.

Nancy

 

my girlswere born 34 weekers and just did it on their own at around 3 months... i just kind of woke up in the morning at 6 kind of in a panic because the girls didnt wake to eat (since i was just so use to feeding late at night) .... and i just went along with it and its been like that ever since and now they r asleep for 12 hours straight at night and make sure to stay on schedule during the day and that they have enough to eat .... but in my opinion 7 weeks is way too early to not have a night bottle wait it out a lil longer and just go with what ur babies want for now

 

I think it was around 10 or 11 weeks when they told us we could stop waking them at night. They were gaining like crazy though- 2 oz a day for awhile. We then fed them around 11 pm or 12 am and just let them wake us up. That gradually went from 3-3:15-3:45-4-4:30 and has just jumped this week to 5:30. (I had to wake them at 6 this morning!). I need them to get up at 5ish since I go back to work next week so we are going to start backing up the late feeding and see how that goes. DH will be happy that one is his responsibility.

We started with two longer stretches of 4 or 4.5 hours at night then as the first one stretched out we've slowly dropped a feeding. They still eat 4-5 oz 7 times a day and if they want more they get more. Also we still have a few nights mixed in where someone is hungry at every 3 hour mark - you just have to go with it and let them call the shots overnight this early.