Argggh, help please..

[lozenge]

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I am so tired! Recently my LO has been going for 4/5/6 hour stretches after his 11pm feed, and then a further 4 hours. So until about 3/4/5 am, which has been great.

However, the last two nights he has woken at 2am, 5am, 7.30 am, and so on... I am knackered! I changed his milk from SMA Gold to Aptimal 11 days ago, so I wondered maybe it could be that? I heard that Aptimal was thinner and goes through them quicker- but surely he would have reacted straight away to that. Or could it be a growth spurt?

The other thing to mention is that he has always been a rubbish feeder. Sometimes takes him an hour or more to take most of a bottle, or sometimes he just falls asleep after 70/80 ml and has more next time, or wakes up half an hour later. He seems to be constantly snacking during the day- it is a nightmare!!

Last night he took 80ml at 2am, then 110ml at 5am, and only 40ml at 7.30 am, so I am not even convinced he was that hungry at the last feed- however he seemed to be starving and was going crazy at the time, knawing on his hands etc.

I am at a loss- has anyone had a similar experience or got any advice?!

Well done if you got this far... x

 

[Eala]

I feel for you. Your experience sounds very similar to mine in parts. My LO was (and still can be) a snacker (gosh, it sounds like a crime, doesn't it? ) I don't know about the overnight thing, sorry.

Regarding during the day... could you be confusing tired with hungry? It is *such* an easy mistake to made - we did it! Romilly's "hungry" sign when she was little would be to stick her hands in her mouth... our problem now is that she's actually discovering her hands, and so gnaws on them a lot . Arcanegirl suggested to me to try, when we thought she was hungry (and less than 3 hours since last feed), to try and soothe her (bouncing, rocking, whatever works) for up to 10 minutes. We've never reached 10 minutes . She's almost inevitably tired (sometimes just wants a cuddle) and ends up falling asleep. She's now going 3 hours+ fairly easily. If we get it wrong, and think "Oh yes, she's hungry" then yah, she will take the bottle, but she'll only take tiny amounts (as she's not *really* hungry) and that starts off the whole spiral.

I hope he settles down soon

 

[faille]

Have you tried the next stage teats?
We had to switch at about a month old.

If he's going crazy at first but then just kinda loses interest then he might be getting fed up of not being able to get the milk that he wants.

 

[aimee-lou]

I feel for you. Your experience sounds very similar to mine in parts. My LO was (and still can be) a snacker (gosh, it sounds like a crime, doesn't it? ) I don't know about the overnight thing, sorry.

Regarding during the day... could you be confusing tired with hungry? It is *such* an easy mistake to made - we did it! Romilly's "hungry" sign when she was little would be to stick her hands in her mouth... our problem now is that she's actually discovering her hands, and so gnaws on them a lot . Arcanegirl suggested to me to try, when we thought she was hungry (and less than 3 hours since last feed), to try and soothe her (bouncing, rocking, whatever works) for up to 10 minutes. We've never reached 10 minutes . She's almost inevitably tired (sometimes just wants a cuddle) and ends up falling asleep. She's now going 3 hours+ fairly easily. If we get it wrong, and think "Oh yes, she's hungry" then yah, she will take the bottle, but she'll only take tiny amounts (as she's not *really* hungry) and that starts off the whole spiral.

I hope he settles down soon

Thanks for that really useful post. Earl is now 'discovering his hands' too which means that hubby tries to feed him 30 minutes after his last feed lol.

 

[lozenge]

Thanks, yes I think that might be what it is some of the time, he is definitely discovering his hands, sucking on his fingers etc. When he is hungry he will root if you touch his cheek.

He is on the Stage 3 teats as he kept falling asleep on anything less.

He has been a lot better today, I made him wait a little bit longer and he has taken full bottles all day, 3 hours apart Lets hope it lasts. x