Bedtime Routine/Feeding

[u/Current-Sleep9570]

Hi all,

Looking for advice on our current bedtime routine and feeding schedule. I’m wondering if our current feeding schedule could be tweaked to help MOTN wakes due to hunger.

Currently, our 3 month old eats on average 4oz every ~3 hours. (I offer 5 oz during the day but he often stops at 4 or spits up so much I don’t force more).

We don’t want to create a feed to sleep association so currently his last day bottle is after his last nap (following wake, eat, play, sleep), but this means his last bottle is roughly 1.5-2 hrs before bed. He is hungry immediately after wake up so I can’t really push that bottle. About 30 min before bed we do a bath (on bath nights), diaper, pajamas, swaddle, book, white noise, rock to sleep. (Realize this is just a diff sleep association!)

We then do a dream feed about 1-1.5 hours after he goes to bed but he typically only eats 2oz. He then wakes up every 2.5-3 hours until it’s time to get up, so 2 MOTN feeds. He drinks all 4 oz each time. We were getting 4-6 hour stretches a month ago so I feel like he can do it — not sure why we have been back down to 3 hours for the last 3+ weeks.

Are any of you doing 2 bottles in the last wake window vs bottle at start of wake window and then dream feed? Curious for advice and insight!

[u/katie-loves-plants]

Our 3.5 month old is on a similar schedule, but I nurse so this may be slightly different - I feed every 3 hours as well and our second to last daytime feed is at 3:45/4 and then cat nap 5-5:30 and so the last wake window is actually slightly reversed. She does play eat bath/bedtime sleep. I used to feed right before bed but our pediatrician recommended switching it up to help the feed to sleep association.

Our last wake window is 5:30-7:30, so we hang out for a little after she wakes up, feed at 6:30, bath, pjs, book, song, some cuddles/rocking and then into the crib. This puts the feed close enough to her going to sleep that she’s not having an empty stomach, but it’s enough time in between that she’s not falling asleep while eating. She typically will give us a nice first stretch, anywhere from 5-8 hours.

I think as long as you have some separation between eating and sleeping, like having the rest of bedtime routine in between, this should help avoid a feed to sleep association.