feedino schedule

[JAJuly2013]

Need advise, do you feed on a schedule or feed on demand when formula feeding?

(I have a 4 week old)

 

[Melly Belly]

We do on demand feeding...sometimes she will nap for a few short naps in the mornings, sometimes she will nap for a few hours...at night she usually falls asleep at 10p ish and we will wake up around 3a (for my to use the bathroom and a change and bottle for her) and fall back asleep until about 6:15a...so it would be hard to keep a "schedule"....and i hated when we were in the hospital and they wanted me to BF her every two hours...i should have just let her sleep and wake me up when she was hungry so far we have let her be our guide, she lets us know when she wants a baba, or if she just wants her nap and her binkie

 

[Bunnikins]

Fed on demand. In these last few weeks though ive noticed its pretty much the same time now everyday so its kind of like scheduled but HER schedule she created herself

 

[Rosie06]

i started out on demand but he kinda fell into a 3hour or so routine sometimes its 2half hours sometimes 3 half but mainly 3 hours he has a bottle at around 6.45pm i do a dream feed at 11 and he sleeps through till half 7 ish x

 

[Starry Night]

I believe in flexible schedules as I think that helps teach babies to differentiate between day and night. During the day I started a basic every 2 to 2 1/2 hours and then let her dictate at night when she wants to wake up. If she wants to feed outside of that schedule I let her but it really didn't take long for her to adapt to the 2 hour schedule. Some days I marvel at her internal clock as she begins to fuss nearly on the minute. I will wake her up for a feed during the day if it's going past the 3 hour mark though.

I had a much stricter schedule with my son but now I'm a bit more relaxed in that regard. I'm trusting she will steady on her own as she gets older. I find schedules help me figure out why she's crying. "Oh, it's been 2 hours, she's probably hungry". My DD tends to skip the early hungry cues and goes straight to screaming. lol

DD is not sleeping through the night yet though she has done 7 hours a few times. We're still trying to find a consistent nighttime routine that will help her settle. We do aim for bedtime to be between 10 and 11. I need a more consistent wake up time but it's so hard to drag my own sorry carcass out of bed. ha ha