My two-month-old son isn’t sleeping through the night
My mother gave me all of the Contented Baby books before my son Pasha was born and I had read the book, made my charts and was ready to have him on a schedule from day one. He was born a healthy 7lbs 10oz and today, at eleven weeks he weighs 12.5 lbs.
Unfortunately Pasha was born with jaundice and I had to feed him every two hours for the first two weeks of his life which made putting him on a schedule very difficult. He is bottle fed.
I have been following your schedule for the past month and everything has been going smoothly – he naps well during the day and goes to sleep very happily at 7:00pm. We wake him up at 10:30pm for his final feed but unfortunately he is still waking up at 4:00am. How can I start to have him sleep through the night? I feel like he has an automatic alarm clock because whether we feed him at 10:00pm /10:30pm or 11:00pm, he will always wake up at exactly 4:00am. He will sleep until 7:00am after his 4:00am feed (3oz). What should I do?
Another concern is that, according to your book, he should be eating around 35oz but his general daily consumption (including the 4:00am) is 28oz. I feed him 5oz at 7:00am, 11:00am, 2:00pm, 6:00pm and 10:30pm and 3oz at 4:00am. But my doctor says he should not have more than 30oz per day and no more than 5oz per feed, so do you recommend a extra feeding time slot and if so what time?
Many thanks in advance for your assistance.
Many babies are still waking in the night for a feed when they are Pasha’s age. Most babies are able to sleep through by the time they are about 12 weeks old or weigh over 12lbs but many don’t do this automatically. As he is about the age and weight when he is capable of getting through the night without a feed, you could begin to very slowly push him on.
When he wakes at 4am give him 10 minutes to see if he will go back to sleep himself. Sometimes we are so used to being woken at the same time each night we just get up to feed automatically without waiting a little to see if a baby will settle himself.
If he still wakes and doesn’t settle himself within 10-15 minutes then very, very gradually begin to reduce his feed. Instead of 3ozs, give him two and a half for several mornings, then reduce it by another half ounce, again for several days in a row. If Pasha will settle with a very small amount until 7am then replace the milk with a drink of boiled water if he stirs and wakes.
Some babies will drop this feed of their own accord whereas some need a little gentle “pushing”. When you feel he is ready to go without a small feed, and seems to be waking from habit rather than hunger try to settle him with a cuddle. He may begin to just sleep later and later or need a quick resettling, at 4am to get him through.
The amount of milk for Pasha your doctor has given you is totally correct. At Pasha’s weight, taking 28-30oz of milk is an appropriate daily amount. To work out how much your baby requires, allow two and a half ozs for each lb of body weight: 2.5 x 12 = 30. If five to six feeds a day are given, the bottles will be five and half or six ozs maximum. When Pasha does drop a feed in the night, those three ounces will be assimilated into other feeds, probably at 7am, 11am and 6pm so each bottle will become 6ozs.