Exhausted mom looking for a bit of advice please.... sorry if its a long one.
My daughter is 9.5 months. In the beginning she was always a good sleeper, doing 5 hour stretches within a couple of weeks and then doing 12 hours from around 2 months old. I was BF (although she always had formula before bed) and I'd wake up so engorged and she would just guzzle every last drop of milk in the morning.
We hit a sleep regression at about 5 months and everything went out the window. We would occasionally offer a night feed during this time but mostly just to feel like we were doing something and it wasn't every night.
We got through that and she started sleeping through again. This was OK for a week or two and then she started waking up in the night hungry.
Sometimes she's too tired to drink much at bedtime so I thought I'd start offering a dream feed before I go to bed.
She goes down anywhere between 6pm and 7pm. I started offering a dream feed her at around 9.30pm and was drinking it all and sleeping through.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, she's still taking the dream feed (and in fact she wakes up crying with hunger if I'm late with it) and she also wakes up at 4am hungry. She's literally feeding more than she did when she was 2 months old and I'm just totally knackered, and worried about when I go back to work (although my partner and I will split the nights then, he just helps on weekends now and even then he doesn't hear her so I have to tell him to go).
I'm just wondering if anyone else experienced this? I thought babies drank less as they got older and had more food. I know some babies always want a night feed but I am just surprised that after not having one for months she now wants two.
I spoke the HV a couple of weeks ago and she told me my baby should have at least 20oz of formula a day. At the time, she was having around four 5oz bottles a day so we just hitting that, but her appetite has really increased in the last fortnight.
She has:
7.30am breakfast
9.30am 5oz bottle
12.30pm lunch
2pm 5oz bottle
4pm occasional snack if she seems really hungry (not everyday)
5pm dinner
6pm 5 or 6oz bottle
9.30pm 5 or 6oz bottle
4am 5 or 6oz bottle
So at least 25oz a day, plus 3 meals and the occasional snack. I feel like this is too much? And it seems to be increasing instead of decreasig... should I be offering more food?
Have I created a monster by offering her the dream feed as she now expects it?
I will call the HV but I feel like they just read the NHS website out to you which says no snacks until they're a year. Her meals are already pretty big to be honest, although mostly bulked out with fruits and veggies.
She's not a huge baby, born on 90th centile but has stayed around the 70th ever since. She's tall more than chubby.
Thanks so much in advance
My daughter is 9.5 months. In the beginning she was always a good sleeper, doing 5 hour stretches within a couple of weeks and then doing 12 hours from around 2 months old. I was BF (although she always had formula before bed) and I'd wake up so engorged and she would just guzzle every last drop of milk in the morning.
We hit a sleep regression at about 5 months and everything went out the window. We would occasionally offer a night feed during this time but mostly just to feel like we were doing something and it wasn't every night.
We got through that and she started sleeping through again. This was OK for a week or two and then she started waking up in the night hungry.
Sometimes she's too tired to drink much at bedtime so I thought I'd start offering a dream feed before I go to bed.
She goes down anywhere between 6pm and 7pm. I started offering a dream feed her at around 9.30pm and was drinking it all and sleeping through.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, she's still taking the dream feed (and in fact she wakes up crying with hunger if I'm late with it) and she also wakes up at 4am hungry. She's literally feeding more than she did when she was 2 months old and I'm just totally knackered, and worried about when I go back to work (although my partner and I will split the nights then, he just helps on weekends now and even then he doesn't hear her so I have to tell him to go).
I'm just wondering if anyone else experienced this? I thought babies drank less as they got older and had more food. I know some babies always want a night feed but I am just surprised that after not having one for months she now wants two.
I spoke the HV a couple of weeks ago and she told me my baby should have at least 20oz of formula a day. At the time, she was having around four 5oz bottles a day so we just hitting that, but her appetite has really increased in the last fortnight.
She has:
7.30am breakfast
9.30am 5oz bottle
12.30pm lunch
2pm 5oz bottle
4pm occasional snack if she seems really hungry (not everyday)
5pm dinner
6pm 5 or 6oz bottle
9.30pm 5 or 6oz bottle
4am 5 or 6oz bottle
So at least 25oz a day, plus 3 meals and the occasional snack. I feel like this is too much? And it seems to be increasing instead of decreasig... should I be offering more food?
Have I created a monster by offering her the dream feed as she now expects it?
I will call the HV but I feel like they just read the NHS website out to you which says no snacks until they're a year. Her meals are already pretty big to be honest, although mostly bulked out with fruits and veggies.
She's not a huge baby, born on 90th centile but has stayed around the 70th ever since. She's tall more than chubby.
Thanks so much in advance
