Demand feeding and setting a bedtime routine/time?: On Huggies Baby Forum | Discuss pregnancy, parenting and everything in between

Demand feeding and setting a bedtime routine/time?

Posted 16 March 2010 - 06:03 PM Breegirl Posts: 18

I have a gorgeous 4 week old baby girl whom I'm demand bottle feeding - I find she's feeding every 3-4 hours very rarely its 2 1/2 hours.

I want to be able to start a bedtime routine which I do give her a bath, massage, bottle and bed but I'd like to have an approximate time say between 6-7pm so my husband and I can actually have some plan of attack at dinner time etc...with the demand feeding though its hard to have a structured time schedule and with her being so young I dont expect her to be perfectly programmed yet.
Does anyone have any ideas? Should I wake her regardless at 6:30pm - 7:00pm or just leave her to her own device????

Posted 16 March 2010 - 06:45 PM

I have a bottle fed 2 week old, I demand feed him through the day then bath and bed at about 7-7.30. I offer him a top up bottle then if he wants it (doesnt usually drink much, just enough too make him sleepy, as he has usually had a bottle about 5-6pm) then at about 10pm, I go in and give him another bottle just before I go to bed, I dont wake him up as such, just get him out of bed and offer the bottle and he generally stays asleep to drink it. I have found by doing this he wakes about 2-3am for a bottle then again at about 6am. It seems to work for us. I am trying to aim toward a 7pm bedtime everynight, but with a demanding 2 year old also, it is a little hard especially on the nights my hubbie is working. I figure he will be used to this soon and when daylight saving stops, bed time will be 6pm.......bliss!!

Posted 17 March 2010 - 07:52 AM 4everyoung Posts: 1

One of the most helpful books I read about feeding and sleep is called Babywise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. Using the program set out in the book, my son was sleeping through the night by 9 weeks old. I never woke him up to feed him. If your baby is hungry she'll let you know. I think setting up a bedtime routine is a great idea. Baby starts to learn that once all of those things have been done, it's time to sleep for the night. I would personally keep up the bedtime routine, and let baby sleep until she wakes up. I tried in the beginning to wake my son up at 10:30 to give him his last feed, and it was more hassle than anything. Once I stopped doing that he'd sleep from 8-2 before needing another feed. If your little girl is not asking for the food, I wouldn't try to re-program her body clock to want food at that time. Hope this helps...(I highly recommend the book. Best advice I ever got when I was pregnant!!!)

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