So, long story cut short.....

My LO is now 5 months old

His weight has been off the bottom of the WHO charts since he was 9 weeks old.

At around 16wks onwards his weight jumped back onto the very bottom of the charts - I started waking him at night for a feed or 2 and this must have helped.

Anyway, at 5 months now he is 12 lb 10 oz, 6 lb 4 oz at birth.

He is very settled, goes down at night around 9/10pm, I pick him up for a feed around 3am, he goes down easily and then I have to wake him for the day around 9am - he likes his sleep!!!

I had been considering not waking him for a feed, a couple days ago I didnt wake him around 3am and I woke up at 6.30am and was in agony!!!! I picked him up, fed him, was still in agony, it took ages to get him back down to sleep as he had had more of a sleep and was quite alert, eventually when I got him down I had to go express as I was still quite full......so all the pain and all the faffing around - letting him sleep made things so much worse!!!!! And by the time I had done all the expressing etc I was wide awake so didnt go back to bed - so had been up since 6.30am too!! I usually lay in til 8.30!!

If I were to let him sleep through and it was going to be like that each day, then I would rather pick him up for a wee half hour feed around 3am.

I know that after a while of no night feed my body would adjust and not be so painful in the morning (assuming I dont express after the first feed!) How long would it take til my body adjusts??

As he is sleeping so well and I guess you could say we have our routine of a feed around 3am then back down, I am not sure if I should alter things???

Any advice??

I personally wouldn't wake him, and your body should adjust in a few days. You keep mentioning your baby is at the bottom of the charts but he has doubled his birthweight well within 6 months which is quicker than many babies.xx

I wouldn't wake him either, your body should adjust as summerrain said, it would take 2-3 days though. If you express it will keep signalling to make more, what I do is gently hand express a small amount or just let any excess drip out (I can drip 2-3 oz on the side that's not been fed from), I am more comfortable after a warm shower too.
x

Hmmm I would leave him and carry on feeding on demamd for now. If his routine is sleeping through, then your body will catch up and as PP says hand express a little to ease the pressure but not enough to keep your supply up at that time.

Weight wise my LO has had weight issues, starting on 75th centile and now on 2nd. We have been to the hosp because of this and the consultant there said they normally expect babies to double birth weight by 6 months. My lo is feeding well atm (albeit with lots of night feeds!) and maintaining weight on the second line but def wont double his birth weight at 6 months. So if your lo has already doubled bw at 5 months that sounds good to me!

Agree with the rest - I would feed on demand and not wake LO.

But interesting about doubling birth weight - our regular doc says they generally look to double birth weight by 4 months. Crazy how much things vary depending on location and the doc that you have.

WHO (whose charts our charts are based on) say 6 months, according to the new growth charts if some babies follow their birth centile exactly it will be 5 or 6 months before they double birthweight, to double before this would involve jumping centile lines on these new charts. My son was born 8lb 2 and had he stuck to his birth centile he would have doubled his birthweight by 21 or 22 weeks, as it was he dropped about half a centile space and had a few weeks of poorer gain and so he only doubled by 24 weeks xx

My LO hasn't doubled his birth weight yet.
x

Yes - I just was mentioning what my regular doc says and she is definitely old-fashioned when it comes to most things. I personally don't worry about weight gain as long as they aren't dropping massive amounts of weight!
If they are eating well, lots of diaper changes and alert/happy then generally all is well - some babies just gain faster than others.

I just find it interesting the different advice that people give in regards to weight gain - especially when BF.
I wonder how many women have topped up with formula because their totally healthy LO hadn't gained fast enough for our doc.

I often wonder the same... I have been stressed out about DS's weight, but if his red book didn't exist then all the worry about him gaining would just not have happened! This is an interesting point. He is otherwise a happy little boy and I think the main reason for his slow gain is all the illness we've had.. chickenpox at just 12 weeks old followed by numerous coughs, colds, ear and throat infections urgh. Now he is over the worst he is a lot happier in himself and gaining weight on the 2nd centile, and development wise is doing brilliantly! He is now sitting with support and was rolling at 15 weeks! So I'm not concerned about that, and sometimes the professionals worry us unnecessarily.

So I think the bottom line is we all needed to be guided by our babies, take advice on board but trust our instincts

Totally agree! x