Feeding FAQ: 8-12 weeks – Formula Feeding

My 9-week-old son has begun to need a feed earlier in the night

My son had been going to between 5-6.30am for about two weeks with some 7am starts in between. He has now reverted back to between 4 and 5 am. I have been doing the “core night” when he wakes, giving him boiled water – he does not take much and protests quite a bit. I try the dummy and sometimes he settles for 10 minutes. He always seems hungry at this time, sucking his mitts or fingers until eventually I have to feed him. He is taking about 4 oz then a top up at 7.30 of 2-3 oz. Should I up the 10.30pm feed? He is taking 6 oz of SMA white, taking SMA gold during the day. The CLB mentions that we should try not to increase this. I have increased his day feeds last week anyway as he was nine weeks and due a growth spurt.
He weighed 11 lbs two weeks ago, so will probably be about 12 lb this week as he always has good weight gain.
Feeding chart: 5/6am 4-5oz, 7.30am 2 – 3 oz, 10 – 10.45am (split feed) 6oz, 11.45am-1-2oz, 2.15pm 5 oz, 5pm. 4 oz, 6.15 pm 3oz, 10.30 – 6oz
Sleeping – 9 – 9.45am, 12 – 2.15 pm [he is sometimes unsettled but usually tries to get himself back to sleep], 4-4.20/30.
This morning however, I went in at 4.10am when he woke, tried the dummy then left for 5 minutes; he wouldn’t settle. I went back in and he took 2 oz water and settled this time with the dummy. He slept until 6.50am, he may have been awake earlier because I had turned the monitor right down as he woke me up every time he woke and started talking to himself. Now I only wake when he starts to get upset. I am not sure if this is a good thing either. Because I wasn’t sure what time he woke, I let him have a short nap from 7.30 to 7.45 then fed him his top up as normal.
My health visitor had told me the same about the SMA white, but he has had no problems with it. He doesn’t seem to be constipated and at the beginning I think this was making him go longer in the night.

From what happened this morning you seem to be getting the “core night” to be beginning to work. Always offer him water first when he wakes before 5am as he has shown he is capable of going this long. It is difficult to be persistent in the early hours of the morning but it will work if you keep doing the things you already are. The amount of milk he is taking in 24 hrs is enough for a baby of 12lbs. It is usually best to keep the 10pm feed to 6ozs, providing your son continues to feed well in the day. Always increase the daytime bottles first – especially those at 7am, 10.30am and 6pm. It may take a few mornings more of having to encourage him to go a little longer before he is able to do so without you giving him water and a dummy.
Once your son manages to get to nearer 7am, even with the use of water and a dummy, he will be ready for a full feed. This will mean you can cut out the top up at 7.30am. You then can begin to push the 10am feed to nearer 10.30am if he is able to do so.
Providing you are within earshot of your son when he is crying you will find that both he and you probably sleep better without a monitor. You may well have been going into him when he was only stirring and not fully awake. He now has the chance to resettle himself when he stirs around an earlier time.
Check that he is well tucked in with a cotton sheet, and if needed a cotton cellular blanket, now that the mornings are becoming colder. Make sure both sheet and blanket, if used, are secured firmly down both sides of the cot.