cluster feeding

[Charlotte01]

My baby is now 4weeks and usually sleeps 6 or 7 hours through the night although this always seems to be preceeded by on average 4 hours of what the midwife advised was cluster feeding due to a growth spurt. This has now been going on for over a week and means that i either have to start his evening feed at 8 to aim to finish at 12 or start at 10 (as per Gina Forde) and finish at 2am, neither are doing me any good. Any ideas of what i can do to reduce this feeding time and also how long i should leave him to cry if i resist his demands to feed like this? Thanks in advance x

[Stinkerbell]

my baby was like this for the first few weeks too although settled into a pattern of having a fed at 7 sleeping til 10.30, feeding at 11 sleeping til 2 or 3 etc, the only thing I can maybe suggest is what i did with my first daughter and that was to give her formula milk in the evening and this seemed to settle her enough and she was sleeping through the night from then on 8 pm til 8 am. I would advise that you feed from a cup though so as not to discourage from breast feeding and also speak to the health visitor if you need to. Other than that I really dont know, I am of the belief that you shouldnt leave babies to cry for long as I find that they can get themselves so upset they wont feed. hope ive helped a bit.

[Gathorne]

We used a very gentle controlled crying on ours at 2 weeks to get them to go to bed at 7: we started by letting them cry for 1 minute, then 2 and so on. I will say that I've been blessed with babies who got the idea very quickly so I don't think either went as far as 10 minutes, and if they got hysterical we would go in. In the evening my partner would do most of the comforting because he didn't smell as tasty as me(I am breast-feeding) so his cuddles were just about comfort. When it was time to go in we would cuddle and comfort the baby until she was completely calm again before we put her back in her cot, and then walk away even if she started crying as soon as you put her down.

All babies are different though, and I'd probably be lost if I had a persistant cryer. I find it very tiring being a milk-cow though, so often used to hand over to my partner(although sadly not for the feeding!) who was much more successful at settling them. Your baby is still very young so don't get disheartened - this kind of behaviour doesn't last very long, and soon it'll be smiling which makes it all seem much more worth it.

The last thing I'd like to say though is, even though I'm a great believer in routine even for very young babies I found Gina Forde to be too dictatorial and a great stress inducer, so set the routine that suits you and your baby.