Hellobee Boards

I also second the idea that perhaps she needs to eat more at each feeding. Not to discount also the 4 month sleep regression, because sometimes with that all bets are off.

For us, around 4 months DS started the switch to eating more ounces with less feedings throughout the day. I think he increased to about 6-7 ounces at that time. Plus, he eats A LOT before bedtime. He would still wake up around 2-3 for another feeding, but would easily go back to sleep and not wake up until 7.

I combo fed too - he got like 22-24oz of breast milk that I pumped everyday, plus about 6-8oz of formula - whatever I needed to get the 28-30oz. I think he maxed out at 30-32-ish ounces at 5 months and by 6 months he was back down to 24oz with the addition of solids. Then he ramped down slowly to 16oz a day by 1 year old. So you're entering their heaviest milk consumption age range. I would just give her as much as she wants to eat at each feeding and let her take the lead. My son would puke immediately afterwards if he overate (he was a reflux baby so nothing new there), but you can just dial it back. I would breastfeed and then offer like a 4oz bottle of formula and see how much of it she takes and use it as a gauge for how much you should top her off with in the future.

If she overeats, she will puke and then its no harm - just try again the next feeding but offer her a wee bit less. My son immediately puked if he took a drop over 4 ounces until 12 weeks and then he suddenly just took 5 without any problems, but we experimented with that extra ounce for a while before we got there. Plus they never eat the same amount at every feeding, so its no harm in offering a little more than they need and see what they want to do. Lots of schedule babies tank up before bed like @eko said, so just see what she wants to do. Once she starts STTN, she may want a big breakfast bottle too, so short of wasting formula, there's no reason not to try a little more and see what happens.

@buttermilk: it was definitely experimental on upping LO's ounces. Some days he definitely needed more and others he didn't. But then it started to where the higher dose was all the time. For us, he never threw up if he overate, but definitely was spitting up more. I learned his cues for him being full (wiggling around, becoming uninterested). I always offered more at each feeding, whether he ate it or not. You could offer just an extra ounce and see how she does with that. It was a little trial and error for a couple weeks.

@buttermilk: we did arms out at 4 months.

So, I'm of the mindset that this has nothing to do with hunger, but is likely developmental. Sounds like the 4 mo regression to me. Which means just hang in there. Ours lasted a week or two. We used a swing overnight to survive. Then eventually it was just "over" and we were back in the crib doing ok. Hang in there mama. Baby sleep is hard. And a mystery.

@buttermilk: Hang in there, folks are right in that there is a 4 month sleep regression that is SUPER common. But I do think she may need more than 4oz at a feeding, so use your judgement on that.

If you're committed to staying with a schedule, I would encourage you to just keep sticking with it - as a schedule mom myself, it helps to have some kind of template to return to when you're in the weeds like that. When we were going through it, I found a lot of comfort in the fact that the 4 month sleep regression is where their brains are actually rewiring themselves out of the newborn phase and into more mature, adult-like sleep cycles.

4 months is also when we introduced a lovey to start self-soothing with. We just threw it in there to create an association and while he didn't do anything with it during the regression itself, over time my son would babble at it, or throw it, and then eventually started sucking on its ear to self-settle at night.

I hear you about wanting to protect your breastfeeding relationship, but as you indicated elsewhere, not sleeping isn't going to help your milk supply either. You can try to ride out the 1-hour long wake ups in the night by trying to side-lying nurse, snooze, and perhaps transfer a sleepy baby once she's relaxed on the boob, or you can try to offer her a little warm formula and see if she will go back to sleep easier that way, and hopefully give you a little more fullness in the breast to offer in the morning. I think the big thing is to try and get BOTH of you some more sleep so you can protect your milk supply because exhaustion, frustration, stress all have negative impacts on your supply. If you're worried, see if you can pump longer or more frequently at work and after a few days may tell your body to make more milk. The swing suggestion might also be a good one. You can wean the swing by slowing down the rate, then shorter durations of swing, and then finally sleeping in a non-moving swing if you're worried about bad habits.

Also, don't beat yourself up about doing your best the pumping/BFing ring. It took me a LONG time to get to 22-24oz a day, and it was only because I was pumping like 3 hours a day. I was at home and I had no life because of it. It was totally miserable. I'm pregnant with LO2 and while I hope our BFing relationship is better than with LO1, I will not put myself through that again and will just supplement a little more heavily. Supplementing actually helped me BF longer because I didn't have to worry about his intake and could actually enjoy the snuggles and comfort nursing when he needed it.