Our girls are currently on a 3 hour schedule (12-3-6-9-12-3-6-9), but semi-regularly are hungry between feeds.
Abby and Lily are 7lbs 13oz and are taking about 3oz a feed. They can finish their 3oz about 75% of the time.
Emma is 6lbs 8oz and is taking about 2.75oz a feed and can finish about 95% of the time. However Emma will often ask for more early.

What guidelines did you follow to get to 4 hours?

Ryan & Megan
GGG Born 8/9/10 28 weeks 5 days
Lily Ann 2lbs 12oz. 54 days in NICU
Emma Grace 2lbs 6oz. 55 days in NICU
Abigail Rose 2lbs 7oz. 55 days in NICU
http://thesmithfamilytriplets.blogspot.com/

It is normal for them to still be on a 3 hour schedule at their size. My 7 month olds are still on a 3-4 hour schedule, even after introducing solid foods. If it is ok with your doctor, you may consider offering them an extra oz per feed. Sometimes, though, with growth spurts, mine wanted to eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours until they were around 12 - 15lbs. It did get better at night though at around 4 months. Hang in there!

My guys are between 6lbs 11oz & 7lbs 3oz and they came home on a four hour schedule. They eat 3 oz at each feed. They sometimes get hungry in 3 hours and we can distract them for about a 1/2 hour. I don't know the criteria to put them on, but I do know it's possible and can work. We do 6-10-2-6-10-2. You guys must be exhausted! We are too, but that extra hour can make a world of difference! Good luck!!!

Renee

DS born 5/15/06 @40+ weeks 7 lbs 12.5 oz
BBB born 9/13/10 @ 31 weeks
3 lbs 4 oz (33 days in NICU)
3 lbs 3 oz (49 days in NICU)
3 lbs 4.3 oz (45 days in NICU)
http://doublethelanglais.blogspot.com

Hi there -

My GGG are just over 4 months corrected age now. We were on a 3 hour schedule for what seemed like a long time however, our pediatrician wanted us to stay on it as one of our girls had a difficult time with higher volumes. We fed them 80 mls (just under 3 oz) every 3 hours. We stayed on the 3 hour schedule while we started dropping the the night feeds (the 2 am feed) and let them get more sleep but maintained the calories during the day. Our last visit to the doctor was about a month ago and she gave us the green light to try the 4 hour schedule - the girls were about 13 lbs by that time. In our case, it was not so much a weight issue as it was a capacity issue for our one girl.

Based on advice from our pediatrician, it's what is going to work best for your family. If you think your girls can tolerate a higher volume to get the calories in (as you'll be skipping one feed on a 4 hours schedule) and they continue to gain weight as they should - then there is no reason for you to keep them on a 3 hour schedule. As others have posted, many babes come home on a 4 hour schedule. It's really about the weight gain and can they maintain it.

Our girls have done fairly well on a 4 hour routine. We're giving them about 3-1/2 oz during the day/night and then 4 oz at bedtime for a total of 6 feeds. We do however have to flex this a bit depending on the early early morning feed - ie 4am vs 5am vs 6am. The first feed of the day changes according to when they were fed in the night and we get back on track from there.

I hope that helps and I haven't rambled too much...
PS - had a peek at your blog - your girls are gorgeous! Congratulations!!

Janet
G - 12/07 35 weeks
GGG-04/10 30 weeks

Thank you...we're kind of fond of them ourselves. I think we're going to try to take some better pictures this weekend in their good clothes.

Thanks all.

If I do the math right, at our current volume we'd have to go from about 3oz a feed to 4oz a feed to keep the current volume. Emma would have the hardest time with that...though I did see her eat 2oz and then 2 more about an hour later.

I think realistically we're a couple weeks away from giving it a try. Though maybe we can try extending the nighttime feeds to 4 hours, Megan says sometimes at 3am she has to wake them up...Perhaps they are ready for longer stretches at night, but keep the daytime feeds.

Ryan & Megan
GGG Born 8/9/10 28 weeks 5 days
Lily Ann 2lbs 12oz. 54 days in NICU
Emma Grace 2lbs 6oz. 55 days in NICU
Abigail Rose 2lbs 7oz. 55 days in NICU
http://thesmithfamilytriplets.blogspot.com/

After the last feed of the day (which for us is 11p) we started to let them demand feed. We let them sleep as long as they wanted. If one wakes, we mark that as the next feed time...so it might be 4am, 5am or manna from heaven - 7am!! Regardless, we wake them all and feed them at that time. You'll still be cutting out a feed - for us they have consistently slept through the 2 am feed so we still adjusted the volume but not as drastically as jumping to a 4 hour right away.

good luck

Janet
G - 12/07 35 weeks
GGG-04/10 30 weeks

Congrats on the babies!
Ours were on a 2-3 hr schedule for what seemed like forever. I tried to get them to go to a 4 hr schedule but it never worked very well for us (ultra fussy) and they were eating way above the recommended amount. Our pedi wanted us to stay under 36oz per baby per day, they averaged 42-52oz per day... crazy I know. Anyway as they got older and started eating 3 solid meals a day (about 5-6 months old) they started to stretch themselves. Now they take 3 bottle a day plus sippy cups of water and juice.

www.thetripletlife.com

http://www.zazzle.com/the_triplet_life


""

We made the switch for nigh time only when they were 3 weeks and at about 5 lbs with the Ped's blessings. They eat 2.0 to 2.5 OZ per feeding. We still wake up and check in on the babies at the 3 hours mark, but they are usually still fast asleep so we go back to sleep for another hour. At the 4 hour mark, at least 1 or 2 are usually starting to move around or are waking up. Then we feed all of them. During the daytime, we're still pretty much at every 3-3.5 hours, but will sometimes wait for them to start waking up. Our babies aren't fussy at all and happy-go-lucky it seems.

-Paul