Can a 4-week old manage with just 1 night feed??

[ChocCake]

I'm following Gina Ford at the moment, but am not sure if I'm doing the right thing for the night feed. My ds is 4-weeks old, and taking 4oz at 10pm, then wakes at 2-2:30am for feed. At this feed, I would give him 3oz. Then he would settle back until 5am, which I then give another 3oz. And then he's up again at 7am to start the day.
This is fine, except it's very TIRING! So I tried giving him extra oz at the 2am feed, in hope that he'll wake up that bit later, to coincide with the 7am feed, but that didn't work. He still wakes at 5-5:30am!!
Any suggestions? Or is he still too small.... to give up that feed?

[suzywong]

too small, IMO

[nailpolish]

at 4 wks i think babies have to be fed on demand, sorry

itll get better soon though, i know its tiring

[Amanda3266]

He might still be too small - if he's only waking once or twice a night then you're doing really well with him. It's always really tiring at this stage - I don't think anyone can prepare you for the tiredness of the early weeks. It's still early days - if he's only waking once or twice a night then the chances are that by 8 weeks he may have dropped these feeds but he may not - it all depends on the baby. As far as I recall - Gina suggests that the night feeds are smaller as he's already had the bulk of feeds during the day and shouldn't need too much extra. The fact that your DS is requesting the extra suggests he needs it. I would go with what he wants and hopefully as the weeks progress and he grows a bit more the need will diminish.

Mandy

[mears]

Too small - feed him as he needs.

[mummytosteven]

sorry, too small.

if you have a partner, could he do ther 10 o clock or 7 o clock feed to give you a chance for a decent patch of sleep?

[LIZS]

sorry, I think that sounds normal - 4 hours sleep at a stretch is pretty good. Not much consolation for now I suspect but it will get better, perhaps reasonably soon (I seem to recall 6-8 weeks as a turning point for mine) and probably when you least expect it. Can you catch up sleep during the day ? Do you have anyone who could take him out for walk while you snooze and put your feet up during his naps.

[ChocCake]

Thank you all so much! Yes, I gathered I'm just being a little impatient. Yes, my husband does the 10pm feed, so that I get a good stretch until 2am. For now it's ok, as I'm still on maternity leave, but I'm back at work in April -- so hopefully it'll get better by then!!
Thanks again!!

[Anchovy]

I did "Gina Ford-lite" and I have to say that DS was only ever fed once during the night. (I can remember one night when I got up to him twice but that was when we were away from home and it was very cold). We would stuff him to the gills with feed at about 11pm (bf at that age, ebm from DH in a bottle later then formula after that). We used to make sure he was really awake, (wake him up a bit in advance, lights full on etc) and not let him drop off mid feed (eg change his nappy if he was getting sleepy). He then would sleep to about 3am and would take enough then to get through to 6.30/7am. He was 8.2 at birth and packed on weight quite quickly. I never let him cry at that age, but he genuinely did not wake up more than once a night for a feed. I really agreed with the GF structuring of feeds - he was probably going straight through from 10.30/11pm to 6.30'ish by about 11 weeks.

(It wasn't all plain sailing as he used to be a bit of a bugger to settle after his feeds!)

[ChocCake]

Guess what's interesting! Last night, he took his 10pm feed like normal (4oz) and woke up like normal at 2am and took 3oz. And guess what... he didn't get up again until 6:30am! When I heard him, I looked at my watch and thought.... oh dear, no wonder I feel so refreshed! haha...
Let's hope he does that again tonight!