Hi there! Al is now six weeks old, his feeding has slowed down and he no longer gulps so much air when he feeds. His suck has completely changed, is quite half hearted and he is easily distracted while feeding. He is still waking once in the night apart from the last night when he slept 12 hours. He has been waking at exactly the same time every night and then only taking a 2oz bottle which indicates habit waking instead of hunger. To help break this habit of waking I will use the 2 minute rule of waiting before reacting and then try to resettle him without feeding. People often ask if giving water at this time is a good idea. No is the answer as you are still giving him a bottle and he is still reliant on drinking to get himself to sleep. This creates an additional problem as water is thinner than milk so will flow faster through the teat causing gulping and uncomfortable drinking which can stimulate your baby awake, making it hard for him to settle back to sleep. Not the dream feed you were after!
As Al is a big baby, I have introduced hungry baby formula for his last feed of the day to give him a boost through the night and, with a few tweaks to the routine, I am hoping that he will continue to sleep through at night. I can’t give all my secrets away; you will have to wait for my book to be published!
Twins next stop…………..