Hi everyone,

Our girls are 5 months (11 weeks adjusted) and weigh between 10 to 12 pounds. We currently have them on a 4 hour schedule.

However, my DH and I still sleep in shifts and would love desperately to change this schedule so that we can be on the same schedule. My questions are:

1. I noticed some of you mentioned your kids sleeping through the night--does this involve waking them up to feed? If not, how were you able to get to that point?

2. How many hours of sleep should they be sleeping?

Thanks so much in advance,
Tran

I didn't consider my kids to be sleeping through the night until they didn't have to wake up to eat. And I also consider sleeping through the night to be 10-12 consecutive hours. It sounds like your kids are big enough to at least be spacing out their night. For instance, if you feed at 8, 12, and 4, then you could try feeding at 8pm, 2am, and 8am. That way you drop only one night feeding but still keep it spaced out well. That's what we did, then we moved the 2am feeding to 3am, then 4am, then 5am, then dropped it completely. You just want to make sure they they are taking in as much formula on a daily basis as they were with more feedings. We started spacing ours out in mid-November (about 10 weeks adjusted, I think) and they were sleeping through by early December (about 13 weeks adjusted). For the first few days we had one daughter who would wake up early and hungry (around 5 or 6am), but we just fed her a few ounces and put her back to bed.

Good luck!

GGB born 6.25.08 at 30w
Piper ~ 3 lb. 2 oz.
Henry ~ 3 lb. 15 oz.
Rosemary ~ 1 lb. 14 oz.

G born 08.10.2010 at 39w4d
Penelope ~ 7 lbs. 15 oz.

www.threeleesinapod.blogspot.com

We got ours to sleep through the night at about 8 weeks. For us at that time it meant at least 6 hours straight. And like the pp said you need to make sure they are still eating the same quatity of formula throughout the day. Here is what we did.

Last feed was at 11p-12a ish. Then they would go down for the night. If anyone woke up we would give them less than a whole bottle (ie, normally eats a 6oz bottle we would give 4oz) and put them back to sleep and let them sleep till they wake. When ever one woke up in the am that would be the time to get up for the rest of them so the schedule started at the same time each day. Also we only did a night feed on whoever woke up not all 3. We had one baby that slept thru the the night the first night.

With regards to the bottle if they woke up. Each night that one of them woke up we would give less and less till they didn't get a bottle. The whole process took us about 2-3weeks to get them to sleep thru. Also by that time they were sleeping 8-10 hours. Enough for my husband and I to sleep on the same shift again.

HTH

Wendy

http://stefansix.blogspot.com

Reese 6/24/03
Riordan, Cordelia, & Cuinn 8/19/08 @ 35w 2d

Ours are 31 weekers and started STTN at 4 1/2 months actual. One thing that really really helped us accomplish this was sticking to feeding them every 3 hours during the day. They started sleeping 6 hours, then 10, then at about 6 months they went to 12 hours and are still on that schedule today.

Our Blog http://tripmomma.blogspot.com/

Hi everyone,

So sorry it took me awhile to respond. I sincerely appreciate all your responses and advice. I do have one question however:

In adjusting your trio's nightime feeding schedules (extending it during the night or giving only a bottle to the one who wakes up...) does this interfere or change their daytime feeding?

While we hate the sleeping in shifts, my DH and I love their 4 hour feeding schedules (it took us forever to get here). We want to know what to expect during the day when we start changing their feeds during the night.

Thanks so much again and BTW--I'm so envious

tran