What are we doing wrong? (Newborn feeding)

Hannibal Smith

Our little fella will be 3 weeks old this Thursday and is feeding round the clock, every 3 hours. That's 8 feeds a day. He will wake in time for his feed, drink about 2-3 ounces and then fall asleep.

Some people have said feed him every 3 hours and he'll sleep through the night, so that's what we did. Except for during the night he's actually waking half an hour before the feed is due. Which means absolutely no sleep for us at all.

Others have said, leave him the four hours and he'll be so hungry he'll drink the whole 4 ounzes and then won't wake up for another four hours. But to be honest with us being so tired all the time I can't possibly listen to him cry for a whole hour before feeding him. Not to mention it sounds a bit cruel to me

I can't remember going through this on my first, so what are we doing wrong? Surely 8 feeds a day is a huge amount? Is there a magic way of getting him to drink more and last longer, aside from starving him for an hour beforehand? Is there something we're missing?

Oh you see...I'm so tired I've posted this in the wrong place...this was supposed to be in newborn and toddlers...could some one move it for me please lol

cbyrd

There's no way a baby this young is going to give you anything resembling a nights sleep let alone a schedule.. :pac: he sounds completely normal unfortunately.. we're about the same age wise and i've had one night that he went 7 hours and i nearly died when i woke up.. i didn't want to look in the cot :eek:
i'd say if you take the night feeds in turns at least you'd have some hope of getting some sleep, of course you have the added joy of not being able to sleep during the day cos you've another little one..

i feel your pain i'm breastfeeding so i think i've had 2 hours tops in one go apart from the one 7 hour stint.. the only other thing is the hungry baby formula but i'd wait him out another week or so and talk with the phn.. although i got a bítch of a phn last week.. oscar only put on 2 ozs.. (we think cos the week before the gp weighed him in his nappy and vest so it wasn't accurate) he'd been feeding like a legend i was so disappointed:( made me feel like i was starving him.. i got so fecking paranoid this week i hope he's put on a half a stone just so i can thumb my nose at her:D i think i have pushed through the exhaustion barrier though this week and i'm now making some sort of sense again. . let us know how it goes . .

Cat Melodeon

God Hannibal I can't believe he's 3 weeks already! I'm not going to be much use to you I'm afraid - at his age, 8 feeds of 2-3 oz in 24 hours sounds pretty normal to me. My lad was feeding (breastfed) every 2.5 hrs until he had the 3 week growth spurt and only started stretching out to every 3 hours after that, didn't sleep through the night (and even then just 6 hrs) until he started solids :eek: It's normal. some babies can go for longer quicker, others need smaller feeds more frequently.

Is he in the room with you? All I can suggest is maybe try cosleeping with him for a bit and for the night feeds use some of the premixed formula cartons at room temperature so you don't have to get up to prepare the feed. You might get more sleep that way. Not an ideal solution, but maybe there's a growth spurt coming up that'll see him boost how much he can take in a feed and will let him sleep for longer.

Hope you get some sleep soon pet!

Hannibal Smith

Well I am actually happy to hear that it sounds pretty normal. 8 feeds sounds a be mental to me...the first fella only had 6 in a day and I had the nerve to complain about that :eek::D At least it's nothing we've done.

The eldest will be in creche for the next three days so hopefully I'll catch up on some sleep over the next few days. I bloody dread night time though...I used to look forward to my lovely bed and now it's like a torture chamber

Though I do like the idea of the cartons of pre-made formula at room temperature...I think I might give that a go.

Yes, he's still in the room with us, which is half the problem, he's a bit of a noisy sleeper (just like his big brother was) so even when he's sleeping he's keeping me awake (hubby goes out like a light no matter what :rolleyes:)

The other half is a legend it has to be said. We take all the night time feeds in turn. It worked great in the beginning but the baby just doesn't seem to settle very well at night so we're always on the alert.

Moonbeam

I would feed on demand at that age unless they were never looknig for it.
and even with my amazing sleepers it was 6-8 weeks before I got 8 hours sleep.

January

Completely normal... at least you're not struggling to get the bottles into him... Ellen is totally gone off hers over the weekend (she has a bout of thrush in her mouth) and I have to fight to get her to take an ounce or two every couple of hours, whereas she was drinking 4oz every 3 hours last week... I resorted to cup feeding the last feed into her because we were both getting so upset.

Hannibal Smith

He takes an hour to get back to sleep after a feed....and last night he was waking up half an hour before his feed was due, which gave us an hours sleep between each feed. But of course you can't just switch off (well I can't) so that's about 2 hours sleep in total.

So how are/did you ladies cope with the tiredness?

How Strange

God that brings back memories. Try to nap when your baby naps although that's easier said than done when the kitchens a mess, the dinner needs to be made. I breastfed so I couldn't get my husband to do an evening feed but I used to go to bed after 9pm feed and try sleep until the 11pm feed. My husband would look after my son. Perhaps get your husband to do the 9pm feed and go to bed at 8.

Hannibal Smith

How Strange wrote: »

God that brings back memories. Try to nap when your baby naps although that's easier said than done when the kitchens a mess, the dinner needs to be made. I breastfed so I couldn't get my husband to do an evening feed but I used to go to bed after 9pm feed and try sleep until the 11pm feed. My husband would look after my son. Perhaps get your husband to do the 9pm feed and go to bed at 8.

Yeah, I tried that last night. But the toddler kicked off and didn't go to sleep until 9.30 lol

I try to nap when he does, but to be honest I think I'm so wound up about it now, I'm finding it so hard to switch off and by the time I do, it's time for another feed lol

cbyrd

Well 4 and a half ounces this week which is a relief.. he's 7lbs 9.5ozs almost a pound heavier than his birth weight and slept 6 hours last night... in bed beside me but i don't care.. it was sleep :eek::pac: i feel like celebrating sorry hannibal.. i'm not rubbing it in

Hannibal Smith

cbyrd wrote: »

Well 4 and a half ounces this week which is a relief.. he's 7lbs 9.5ozs almost a pound heavier than his birth weight and slept 6 hours last night... in bed beside me but i don't care.. it was sleep :eek::pac: i feel like celebrating sorry hannibal.. i'm not rubbing it in

woohoo nice one little Cybrd....would you believe our fella actually slept between his feeds last night....but the eldest fella kicked off....back to not sleeping in his bed running into our room every 5 mins...they're like a tag team...just when one cuts us some slack, the other one acts up :rolleyes::D

How Strange

Yeah Hanninal Smith its easy for me to say as I've only one. That's what I'm dreading if/when we have no.2.

Hannibal Smith

How Strange wrote: »

Yeah Hanninal Smith its easy for me to say as I've only one. That's what I'm dreading if/when we have no.2.

I thought it was going to be so easy, coz I've done it before. I wasn't counting on the eldest fella kicking off too :eek: