How to Schedule a Formula-fed 6 mo.

amother

Thu, Jan 23 2014, 10:46 am

My baby is 6 months. I've always nursed before and never felt the need to schedule the babies. But my current baby is formula-fed and middle of the night feedings are killing me. I read somewhere, I think on imamother, that by this age, a baby can go 10 hours at night without eating. So I think I need to put him on a schedule but don't know where to start. What does the nap/awake/feed time look like in the day of a 6 mo. and how do I get that for my baby?

wife2

Sat, Jan 25 2014, 8:48 pm

I do not remember how much they need or when they start sleeping through the night.
However, the more a baby eats in the day, the less they wake up at night.
If the baby is waking up at night hungry, it means he didn't get enough calories during the day. Did you start solids yet? That can influence if the baby wakes up. The more you feed in the day, the more likely the baby can get through the night.

chanee

Sat, Jan 25 2014, 8:55 pm

I think 6 months is a bit early to sleep through the night even though your baby is formula fed only. But can be that solids will fill your baby more so baby won't be too hungry at night. Hatzlucha, I know it's a stage where mother finally wants to get some sleep

amother

Sun, Jan 26 2014, 7:22 pm

OP here. Well, I don't have time to give him solids during the day so I guess I just need to work around the exhaustion. What a terrible myth, that formula baby's sleep thru the night before nursing baby's. I never felt like this with my nursing baby's.

wife2

Sun, Jan 26 2014, 7:30 pm

Formula in middle of the night is really tough. Instead of half asleep pulling your shirt up you need to get up, turn on light in kitchen, make bottle by measuring out formula, warm up water, and then feed bottle, wash bottle. You actually have to get out of bed and it is a real pain. Even though it only takes them 5 minutes to drink bottle instead of a long nursing session, you can nurse and still half-sleep.
You will get through this - it is hard always being so tired but hopefully your baby will sleep through the night soon.

You say you don't have time to give solids but once your baby gets used to it, you can give them a jar or some oatmeal in a few minutes. Eventually you will need to start anyway. It may help baby sleep longer at night.

Tova

Sun, Jan 26 2014, 7:34 pm

wife2 wrote:

That's not how we formula feed in the middle of the night. We have bottled water (room temperature) that we bring upstairs along with a can of powder. We have several bottles so don't need to wash in the middle of the night, it can all wait until morning. And yes, they can down a bottle pretty fast AND husband can do it also. So I don't think formula feeding is harder

My baby is 3 months now kn"h and has been sleeping 6 hours since she was 2-3 weeks old. I consider that a whole night. No, I don't think even a 6 month old baby can be expected to wait 10 hours between feedings, their stomachs are still quite small!

cfriedman2

Sun, Jan 26 2014, 9:44 pm

I formula feed and my baby was sleeping through the night at a month old. For the nighttime and first feeding of the morning I would have bottles prepped with water and formula in little plastic 3 divider containers and shake one in and feed. Left the bottle dirty till the morning when I washed them. And we never had to warm a bottle since we didn't do so from day one so my daughter didn't know the difference. We followed similacs feeding guide and it worked for my daughter but the key is staying on schedule we feed daytime every 4 hours. Start with solids before bedtime and u may get a longer stret of sleep also. Good luck!