help!!! with feeding / sleeping - 8 week old

hi all,

just after some advice re feeding / sleeping. my DD is 8 weeks old this friday she's formula fed. she had jaundice when born so i was told to wake her every 3 hrs to feed. jaundice went away but she seemed to stick to waking every 3 hrs for the first 4-5 weeks. since about 6 weeks she can sometimes go up to 6 hours (night & day) today she did a 7 hour block. but she does wake up crying a little (lets say after 4 hrs) i then put her dummy in, & she goes straight back to sleep.... should i be feeding her when she grizzles the first time?? is it bad to let her go so long without feeds? when she's hungry she's normally screaming, so i'm assuming her little grizzle after a few hours of being asleep isn't associated with hunger? how did your 8 week old bubs feed/sleep? what do you all think? her last feed was 1.20pm, she's still sleeping... it's now 7.45pm.... i don't know if i should wake her or not! i hope i'm not starving her? :(

TIA mummies xx

If she has a 4 hour sleep, i would get her up and feed her rather than resettle with a dummy, particularly during the day. You want her to learn the difference between day and night. Screaming is quite a late sign of hunger, does she give you other signs that she is getting hungry?

DS was formula fed by 8 weeks and he had 6 bottles per day. 3 hourly during the day and by demand over night which was usually twice. He was a shocking sleeper at that age so rarely did 4 hour stints but if he had of I would of fed him at the 4 hour mark if he grizzled. I always made sure to give majority of the bottles during the day in the hope he could go for longer stretches at night which he did eventually start doing. At night when he woke prior to it being 3/4 hours since his last bottle I would resettle with the dummy.

It will be a bit different when babies are formula fed as it's a different food and there's a tendency to be parent-led, rather than based on the baby (though you can certainly demand feed and pace feed, so baby decides when and how much to eat), but what's normal for infants is to feed 8-12 times in 24 hours and at irregular intervals. If your baby is growing and developing as expected, you can simply feed them as often and as much as they wish (when bottle feeding you can use pace feeding techniques to avoid overfeeding, which can be a problem when using bottles).
Crying is a late sign of hunger, and with time you might see other, earlier signs that she's hungry.
If she's hungry, obviously it's better to give her a feed than a dummy; you'll figure out with time and through trial and error which is required. The exact numbers are not so important as how she's going, if that makes sense.

My DS was Breast fed.
He too had jaundice as a newborn.
He was appalling at letting me know when he was hungry and even had a few good LS's stumped!
He just didn't show hunger signs. I had to feed him to a sort of timetable and no matter how much I tried to wait for him to "demand" feed he just wouldn't. Due to this I was put under enormous pressure to bottle feed but I stuck to my guns (or boobs in this case). He didn't thrive in the early days which was due to him not being an avid eater.
I think your LO sounds like him.
I would always feed him when he woke after a nap (even if it was less than 2 hours). I just had to assume he was hungry which is what woke him.
I then sorta did an "eat, play, sleep" kinda thing which seemed to work for us.
When he stirred in the night I'd feed him. I reckon he'd have slept right through the night, resettling himself, if I didn't respond quickly.
My advice is to feed but that comes from someone who had a tiny little baby.
I don't really remember him ever really screaming for a feed and I have a friend who's baby is excellent at going from 0-100 in no time. Mine just never did that.
I did end up (after about 4 months) feeding to a schedule as it was easier to plan my days. I could have done any schedule though because he'd have happily just slept if he didn't get fed.
I would always be asked if he was listless or lacking energy and he wasn't. I spent time with MHCN's who were very good who were surprised about this.
I would say if your little one is waking at that age I'd feed but maybe just enough. I'd also say be really on the ball about not going too long without feeds as they need lots of little bits at that age.
Also remember you are the mum so you probably know what's best. I knew BF was best for my DS (and I have no problem with bottle feeding if you need to) so I hung in there.

I suppose the important question is: Is your baby thriving? If so, all good. If not, feed more.

^^^ this!
DD was the same as our little one for the first 9 weeks then bammo, she started sleeping again 6 months ago ;)
She was one of the few that thrived on 6-7 feeds a day. So few feeds! Honestly if someone told me she could feed so little now, I think my jaw would hit the floor. I had to offer feeds every 3-4 hours to even get her to show an interest. DS feeds about 3 billion times in 24 hours, he lets you know clearly when he is hungry. Other end of the scale!

Agree on the resettling with a dummy though, I wouldn't be doing it after such a long nap. If she's stirring then it might be time to wake her. There are generally signs of hunger before bubs get to the screaming stage :)

Was the re-settling after 4 hours in the day or night??

If it was at night, I would've done the same thing, and if he went back to sleep, the he obviously didn't need the feed.

We tried to 'demand feed' DS1 on formula and we ended up giving him a tummy ache.
At 8 weeks old, I'd be doing 4-hourly feeds during the day, a dreamfeed, and then hoping he sleeps through the rest of the night.
Some kids can do it, some can't - DS2 did so I was lucky!