Should i stick to routine or feed on demand?

[Gem13]

Hi,

LO is 3 weeks old today and was 9lb 5oz born and weighed at 10lb 12oz at 2 weeks so a big girl! She is currently on 180ml /6oz every 4 hours. During the day she can easily go the whole four hours but after her 6pm feed she seems to be hungry again by 8/8.30 but not sue till 10pm.

We feed her at 10pm then tend to go to bed, sometimes she will fall asleep on the last of that bottle then other times she will be wide awake - I don't think she wants any more as she doesn't always drain the bottle. Last night she didn't sleep till 12 but that's another story! But slept straight past her 2am feed - my alarm can't have gone off - then woke at 4am for a feed.

So, basically should I feed her on demand or stick to my routine? And should I be waking her for a feed at 2am or letting her wake me? Sometimes she cries just before 2 and others I wake her.

Also....I'm using the Tommee Tippee bottles but having real problems witht he teats sucking in every time she feeds - I've already upped her teat to number 2 but it's not making much of a difference - does anybody have any experience of the variflow teats? Don't want her to choke on it as she is only 3 weeks but the teat is doing my head in!

Thank you for taking the time to read this essay

 

[justplay91]

Tommee Tippees are terrible for that, no matter what size. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do about it. I would switch to a different brand. We like the Lansinoh or MAM bottles. As far as when to feed goes, you're LO is still very young. At 3 weeks old, routine isn't necessarily something she'll be able to handle. We fed our son on demand and now at 5.5 months he's gotten himself into his own routine. He started to become more routine when he was around 3 months old. So it will happen for you.

 

[mel28nicole]

I agree on feed on demand. Shell wake when she's hungry, it'll help you sleep. After DD was a week old I stopped waking her. Turns out she could go 4-6 hours without a feed and by 3 weeks she would sleep at least 8 hours a night. I would keep the bed time bottle but any other time just feed when she wants.

To solve the nipple problem, pull the bottle out of her mouth to let the air out. Eventually your baby will let go themselves when they aren't getting the milk. I think DD started to around 3 months

 

[Kitters]

Now that she's regained her birth weight you should be fine to feed on demand.

With the teat problem, make sure you pinch the valve before you screw the teat on to the bottle. The cleaning process can make it stick to itself and stay closed, just give it a squeeze to open it up and it'll work fine. If it's stuck closed it can't let air into the bottle to correct the pressure as the milk leaves, and so the teat collapses.

 

[mummytobe_93]

Feed on demand I would say she will eventually get in to her own routine. She's only new born so she will go through growth spurts where's she will have more than usual and sometjmes she will have less. Just takes time to get in to more of a routine x