Feedings

My husband and I are strong advocates for "scheduled" feeding. We had done alot of reading about this versus "on demand" feedings before Kellen was born. We had decided early on that we would attempt to schedule his feedings 2-3 hours apart from birth. When we were in the hospital the feedings were going good, however, we quickly learned that Kellen was struggling with jaundice and having trouble gaining weight. So after speaking with our pediatrician we decided to stick to 2 hour feedings. This left me doing nothing but feeding 24/7. Thankfully, after a few weeks he started to gain weight and began sleeping through the night. I was able to alter his feedings to every 3 hours. That left us feeding at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, and 10pm. We continued this schedule for several weeks. Then one night I decided to cut out his last feeding to see if he would still sleep through the night. Of course when I woke up at 7am the next morning and he was still sound asleep, I thought, "wow, it worked". So I continued to only feed him 5 times a day (total of 25 ounces). We followed this schedule for the past 6-8 weeks.

On Sunday, I decided to try to stretch his feedings to every 4 hours. So I started out with his first feeding at 7am, and then he ended up taking a really good nap in the morning until his next feeding at 11am. Then I fed him again at 3pm and 7pm. I still wasn't sure if he would sleep through the night; however, we did increase his ounces from 5 to 6 and gave him 7 ounces at his last feeding. This kept his total number of ounces the same (25). So he's in taking the same amount, just over longer periods of time. So far, so good! He's done really well with the transition, and now I don't feel like I'm spending all my time making bottles and feeding.

In the beginning it can be difficult knowing how much to feed and when to feed. However, I do feel that Kellen responds very well to the schedule. He knows what to expect, and he knows when its time for him to be hungry. I don't ever question whether or not he's crying due to hunger because I know how much he's eating and when he's going to be ready to eat again.