Dropping Night Feeding - More in Daytime Bottles?

Does he consistently drink all 5 oz. every bottle? If so, I would go ahead and increase it a bit. Many 5 month old can drink 6-7 oz formula bottles by that time, so I'd give it a try. It's a little tricky because you don't want to waste pumped milk, but you want him to get his fill. Solids/cereal will not help him sleep longer at night. Though breast milk is digested faster, it doesn't mean they are hungry more often. By the time we started solids at 6 months, my first son was down to eating 4 full meals a day and he was breastfed. I couldn't feed him more often if I tried. I think my second son was at 5 meals a day when we started solids at 6 months. It's more a matter of how they've learned to sleep than factors like solids and digesting too fast. May work to add an ounce to help him sleep through...who knows how much he eats when he's with you so maybe he can handle more than 5 ounces at a time now. I'd say it's worth a shot to increase bottles a little so you give him the opportunity to drink more without wasting what you've pumped. Best wishes to you!

YAY! Good for you for sticking with it exclusively :) Here's the only "problem" with breastfeeding (and when I say problem, I mean, the one and only drawback we moms have to deal with when picking the best for our babies...) : breast milk is crazy-easy to digest! Now, you will hear from some moms that their kid slept through the night from 6 weeks on, and bully for them. However, no matter what your pediatrician says (mine said at four months he should sleep through the night), it is very unlikely that adding a feeding before bed or amping up what's in the bottle will make any difference. The truth is, you are in the minority of your exclusively breastfed baby sleeps 8 hours, most are up every 2-4 until solids are started and many still after that. My son didn't sleep more than 3 hours (with the exception of a night here or there) until he was 6 months and he was on 3 meals a day.
Don't fall in to the cereal-in-the-bottle routine either. Yes, it helps some babies, but it really isn't a great idea before 6 months and it doesn't help them all. Besides, it means you get one less nursing session to bond after being gone all day.
I'm sure this isn't what you hoped to hear, but it really does sound like he's already sleeping more than most moms hope. Aren't you sometimes hungry or thirsty when you wake up in the middle of the night? And you probably had a nice full meal, all he got was liquid that, while it couldn't be better for him, runs through him like spicy Indian food runs through the rest of us...lol...I love Indian food:)
Stick with it another month until you start solids, then, if he doesn't sleep through the night when he's getting 3 solid meals a day, look in to night weaning.
Good Luck!

Here's a quick story that will make you feel better: My friend's baby was up every 1.5-2 hours for the first 7 months, around the clock, no matter what she did. Then, one night, she almost had a heart attack when she woke up and realized he had slept more than 8 hours and was still asleep. Her poor boobs didn't know what to do with all the milk! hehehe

Hi L.!

You sound like a fabulous mom! You are absolutely correct in your thinking about adding the extra milk during the day. I would also like to compliment you on breast feeding your baby. Breast feeding isn't for everyone and that is perfectly okay.

Some moms go cold turkey but I preferred to wean both you and your baby of the night feeding. You could try what worked for me. Nurse him a shorter time from your breast and if he is still fussing, possibly a little water to get him through. I always felt this was a more gentle way. Also you won't have the pain of engorged breasts waking you up! It was a smooth transition for me. Sometimes they just want that closeness with mom. It is one of the most wonderful experiences of mothering.

Good luck, I know you will be successful. Keep up the good work!

J.

I think your baby is sleeping well, and I wouldn't fret about the nighttime feeding. If it were me, I'd just tuck him in bed with me and let him nurse, and then put him back in the crib when he's done. You don't really need to be awake for that, so there is minimal disturbance. I would think it helps your milk supply to feed "on demand" as well.

Just some suggestions.

Good luck!

First of all, you are blessed that he only gets up once a night. My son is 4 months and weights over 18 lbs, and I increased his daytime bottles to 6 oz of breastmilk and it didn't make a difference at night, he still gets up and snacks throughout the night. I think he has started to train me and depends on getting a snack at night to help him go back to sleep. They say that babies don't need a nighttime feeding at this age, but I don't really believe that, I think all babies are different and I'm not sure if that is just true for formula fed babies.
What is your trick to get him to sleep so long at night? :)

8 hours is technically sleeping through the night. Consider yourself lucky! I still cant get my 9 month old to sleep 8 hours at a time. As he gets older, he'll start taking more each feeding. you can try increasing the amount of milk in his bottles by an ounce.

L.:

sleeping through the night is not about having a full stomach it is a developmental milestone. He wakes and nursing is what he knows that comforts and soothes him.

we all wake to some degree at night - for a myriad of reasons. Some babies have better feeds at night than during the day as there are less distractions. for those babies taking away the night feed may cause them to loose weight.

P., RLC, IBCLC
Parenting Coach and Board Certified Lactation Consultant

When your son decides to drop his nighttime feedings he probably will increase how much he drinks during the day. But kids are pretty smart - they only eat until they're full - and I doubt that offering him more will encourage him to drop his night nursing, though it doesn't hurt to try. (Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!) You'll probably notice him pushing his night feeding later and later (maybe now it's at 3:00 AM, and it will drift towards 4 and then 5 AM) - once he makes it to 5:00 he's probably ready to drop it. Some moms think that their kids sleep longer when they start on solids (I never personally observed any connection between the two with my son) - you'll see in another month whether that's the case for you.

I know that some people wake their children up at 11 or so to feed so they will then sleep through. But I couldn't bear the notion of waking a sleeping baby and anyway I go to bed earlier than that. So instead I tried to top my sweetie up as much as possible before putting her down at 8pm. As I breast feed, I amn't exactly sure how much she gets. She started to sleep through the night around 4 months. She did sometimes wake around 4am but I tried to let her fuss a little and see if she would go back to sleep which she did and so gradually she got to sleeping through from 8pm to 5-7am.

My doc told me at her 4 month visit that when she was waking at 4am that she probably didn't really need to eat, she just wanted some loving. he was definitely a greater advocate of letting her fuss than I was able for but by degrees it stretched out and she did sleep through the night. Somewhere around 4 and a half months she started to more reliably sleep through the night. Now she sleeps through without fail except for when she is teething.