61/2 month old eating every 3 hour's at night

[TraciG]

he has made up for the time of not gaining, he's now a little chubby boy ! The doc doc said he shouldn't be eating anymore then he said I can give a bottle around 11 or 12 then that's it until morning.

Tonight he ate at 7 & went to sleep so he will be up at 10, like clock work !!

Last night he ate one of the watered down bottle's & was sucking so slowly , I knew he wasn't really hungry then he threw it all up in my bed, so he just ate it to suck maybe BUT he does have a cough now so that probably had something to do with it !

I thought he was having to many calories because the doc said he doesn't need to eat in the night .

Even if my DH feed's him I'll still be awake because he's in out bedroom, samll apt !

[kijip]

I highly recommend sharing feeding duties with your dh! Since you are bottle feeding now there is no reason he can't pull his weight. Heck, if I were you I would take the night off completely and let him take care of the whole thing. Get caught up on sleep. I would do it in a heartbeat (and my dh would willingly do it too- he's a sweetie ). Like pp said- you work too. YOu have as much right to sleep as he does.

Don't dilute the formula. I agree, this is something that you can consider at closer to 12 months but now is no good.

It's time for you to take the night off. Get some rest. Then create an alternating schedule with your husband. At 3 hour stretches, that gives you each 6 solid plus whatever you catch at the beginning and the end of the night. After months of sleeplessness, 6 hours feels like heaven. If need be, the person on the next feeding sleeps in the room with baby and the person off for the next feeding sleeps in the living room with earplugs. Seriously. Get some rest now. You deserve it.

[SnuggleBuggles]

It's time for you to take the night off. Get some rest. Then create an alternating schedule with your husband. At 3 hour stretches, that gives you each 6 solid plus whatever you catch at the beginning and the end of the night. After months of sleeplessness, 6 hours feels like heaven. If need be, the person on the next feeding sleeps in the room with baby and the person off for the next feeding sleeps in the living room with earplugs. Seriously. Get some rest now. You deserve it.

Yep, when I wasn't on shift I slept on a mattress on the nursery floor while baby was with dh those early weeks. I would do all the feedings and if it was his turn baby would go back to dh or I'd keep him if my shift. It worked great!

I really and truly think your ped is giving you *bad* advice, Traci! I still nurse my ds in the middle of the night and I feel pretty sure that he needs the milk. I don't buy that at X age we can be absolutely, positively certain that they don't need to eat at night. What about growth spurts? Those show up at all ages and baby could be legitimately hungry. It's like I wouldn't withhold food from my 6yo if he said he was really hungry just because he just ate- he might really need it that day even if he didn't need it other days. kwim? GL with it all though but I really don't feel that there is a one size fits all answer for baby care. I hope you don't end up causing another series of eating troubles for ds by withholding bottles or watering them down. Just keep an eye on him and follow your instincts. They are probably better than the peds, imo.

Beth

[Carla0823]

I know how you feel, because I am going through the same exact thing. What I do is thicken his formula with tons of baby oatmeal and banana baby food in his bottle before going to sleep, give him a rub down with baby vapor rub and out he goes for at least 5 hours. That is my sanity and his belly is full. I am 43 years old and I had a baby 6 1/2 months ago, I learned with my first son who is 22 today!! I hope that this helped. Email me if you need any help with the little one.

Carla..

[JBaxter]

I know how you feel, because I am going through the same exact thing. What I do is thicken his formula with tons of baby oatmeal and banana baby food in his bottle before going to sleep, give him a rub down with baby vapor rub and out he goes for at least 5 hours. That is my sanity and his belly is full. I am 43 years old and I had a baby 6 1/2 months ago, I learned with my first son who is 22 today!! I hope that this helped. Email me if you need any help with the little one.

Carla..

This thread is from SEPTEMBER. Vapor rub is not recommended for children under 2yrs old there has been recent warnings in the news
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...lth&id=6602829

[Nooknookmom]

Babies with reflux are NOTORIOUS for being poor sleepers and wanting to eat WAY more often than the "standard" advice.

What she said. DD2 did the same thing but we went to bed at 9, up at 12, 3 & 6 until at leat 9 months. Then it was 2x's a night then 1 time. She did not sleep through the night until 14-15 months.

She had severe reflux and between the pain waking her up and the pattern that ensued from never "learning" to fall asleep on her own, it was a vicious cycyle.

Her Pedi GI would say that she doesn't *need* to eat every 3 hrs as well, and would tell me to stop feeding her. One time I asked him if he would like to come stay overnight so that he could try to stop the screaming. He declined

I am not a *cry-it-out* person either, there was a time after she was much older I would say NO go back to sleep!!! Sometimes she would after fussing a few minutes.

I SO know how you feel. I think I am still catching up on my sleep and DD is 20 months. I swear it will get better, if slowy!