Two hour night feedings KILLING ME!!

[CapitalChick]

OK, so my baby is now 3.5 monthos old. She's mostly bottle fed. For all intents and purposes, she's a bottlefed baby.
Anyway, she does quite well with sleeping. She goes to bed at around 6:30 and sleeps until 5:30 in the morning with one feeding in the middle. Great, right? Ok, but here's the kicker...the night feedings takes up to two hours!!! It's usually around 1.5 hours, but some nights it takes 2 hours. IT KILLS ME. I'm exhausted. I'm SO tired. I might as well be waking up 3 times per night with her. When my breastfeeding friends tell me that they wake up 2-3 times with their babies for 5 minutes each time, I'm jealous!!!

How can I function when I'm awake each night from 1:30 - 3:30??
Does anyone know how I can shorten the feeds? It's not the actual milk intake that takes so much time...it's getting her back to sleep and keeping her asleep!
I keep the room dark and I try not to interact with her too much...I don't even change her diaper. I'm just out of ideas!

 

[Pink_Witch]

Does anyone know how I can shorten the feeds? It's not the actual milk intake that takes so much time...it's getting her back to sleep and keeping her asleep!

if i put ernie in his crib after his night feed he would lie there for hours,just looking round and grumbling!-even if he had fallen asleep after his feed,so i just put him in bed with me and he is alseep within 5 minutes!!!

I have tried to put him down,and the longest i have laid there waiting for him to nod of is an hour!!,so now i give it 10 minutes,and if he doesnt start to go i just put him in my bed cuddling him and off he goes-he now will sleep anything up to 5/6 hours if he is being cuddled!! We always have the light on because he doesnt seem to like the light off,and i change his nappy while i am waiting for his bottle to warm up.

I know having baby in bed with you doesnt suit some people,but that is what works for us to get some decent hours of sleep,and tbh the rare nights when he does sleep in his crib i miss sleeping with him!!

 

[Wobbles]

Thats a pretty lenghty time to take the bottle!

Is LO actually wanting this bottle & awake the whole time?

What bottles are you using?

What teat number are you using?

 

[sam*~*louize]

oh wow! that's mad! as wobbles said, he is really wanting it or kinda comfort sucking

 

[CapitalChick]

Hi there
Sorry, I should've been more clear: The baby is actually only drinking the bottle for, like, 30 minutes. After that, the baby usually falls asleep. The issue is that the baby is a very light sleeper and continuously wakes up over and over and over again. Sometimes I have to put her back to bed 4-5 times before it actually sticks and she stays asleep.
Sorry if I made it sound like a feeding issue when it probably isn't. I blame sleep deprivation!!!

 

[faille]

Do you take her out of bed when she wakes up?

If Violet falls asleep downstairs, she gets woken up whilst I'm changing her and getting her ready for bed and can be a pain to get back to sleep again - she wakes herself up.

What I found is the worst thing to do is pick her up! Just regiving her her dummy and gently stroking her nose and up and over her head whilst whispering sshhh shh shhhh makes her drift off again. And if she wakes herself up, rinse and repeat.

Then again, she'll only go like a minute before waking herself up - how long does your LO go before waking up again?