When did your twins stop eating every three hours?

My girls are 3mo/1 week (7 weeks adjusted) and 10.5 and 12.d5 lbs and they are still eating every 3-3.5 hours. Is this normal? My relatives have been criticizing me for waking the second twin to eat when one demands food after three hours. Am I doing something wrong? When should I start to try to stretch out their feeds? Anyone have any advice?
Faith

 

My babies are largely breast fed, so it may not parallel your situation, but they're 9 months old and are just now eating every 3-4 hours! I still wake the second twin to eat when the other does, as well - every once in a while I let one sleep to see if they're ready to go clear through the night, and they inevitably wake up an hour later, making for an exhausted mommy.

Don't worry too much about what your relatives say. They aren't a mom of twins who has to do what she needs to do (including waking baby #2 to eat!) to make it through the first year. You'll know when it's time to stretch things out (and if you don't, you can come here to ask other parents of multiples!).

Hang in there - sounds like your little ones are doing just fine. They're young to be considering stretch feeds out even farther, IMO.

 

mine still do.

 

Mine ate every 3 hours day and night until about 4 months old...then night feedings spread to about every 4 hours but still 3 hours during the day. Moved to 4 hours during the day around 6 months old.

 

Mine did until 4 months, then back again at 5 months, then moved to 4 hours when we introduced solids.

 

I'm in the same boat...mine want to nurse every 3 hours all day, sometimes more, and then they stretch it once at night to 5-6 (7 for DD last night - hooray!). I keep them eating together all day, but at night I'm more worried about letting them sleep as long as they can so I just feed whoever gets hungry and let the other one rest. Last night DS had a rough night and woke twice, where DD slept right through til morning. I don't want to mess with that just to keep a schedule! They get right back on track once I feed them together again in the morning. I don't think you're doing anything wrong as long as you're ok feeding them that much. I know someone who scheduled her single baby b/c she needed to do that for her sanity...so she had someone walk with the baby (screaming, no less) to distract her until she learned to eat every 4 hours, but to me, it's not worth it. I figure they'll space it out when their bellies are ready. Do what feels right to you. I find with nursing a lot of people, especially family, think it' ok to voice their opinions, but to me, it's a relationship between me and the babies...I feed them when they're hungry and I try not to listen to the comments. GL!

 

Mine still eat every three hours (sometimes less) around the clock. Much to my (personal) shame, they are both now bottle fed, but I treat them like bf babies. I feed on demand 24 hours a day, we are not night weaned and I have no plans to do so. We are not pushing solids (we have some health problems), but do offer them once a day for practice. My twins are 7 months, 5 adjusted and both weigh in at over 20 lbs!!! (they are tall too, not fat ).

I have two other children and I have always practiced "self weaning", with huge success. I'll continue that with these two. When they are ready, they will change.

JMO - HTH

Donna

 

mine still eat every 3 hours. ds even eats every 3 hours at night right now!

 

QUOTE(blythe1 @ Oct 30 2008, 06:28 PM) [snapback]1048854[/snapback]
My girls are 3mo/1 week (7 weeks adjusted) and 10.5 and 12.d5 lbs and they are still eating every 3-3.5 hours. Is this normal? My relatives have been criticizing me for waking the second twin to eat when one demands food after three hours. Am I doing something wrong? When should I start to try to stretch out their feeds? Anyone have any advice?
Faith


Mine switched to every 4 hours when they were about a month old. It just happened one day and they are still on that routine, it seems to suit them. Mine are formula fed.

I would leave them on a 3-hour routine until they are ready to make the switch and try and make the change around 4 months if they show signs of going longer stretches. The best way to do it is to increase the time each day by 10-15 mins. They wont be able to cope with an hour´s wait but if you gradually increase the time then it may work. GL!

As for your relatives, I´d ignore them. I often find that family have a lot of so-called "suggestions" but you are their mother and you know what´s best. Stick to your guns, Im sure your babies are very happy and content the way they are :winking:

 

My guys are formula fed and eat solids and they still eat every 3 hrs.

 

:welcome: to TS and the First Year. Congrats on your babies!!

At 7 weeks I would say 3-3.5 hours is awesome!! Mine came home from the NICU on an every 3 hour schedule and that went downhill as soon as we brought them home and then we went to on demand. We didnt stretch past the 3 hour mark until we started solids and even then it wasnt until about 9 months that we went to every 4 hours.

 

We had a similar situation to yours, where we were waking the second twin up to eat when the first twin ate. Mine were 2 and a half months at the time. My sleeping twin weighed just over 13 lbs (she is still a big baby), and I had a feeling that she'd just sleep through if we let her. Talked to the pediatrician, and she basically said to cluster feed at night before bed, do a dream feed, and see how they went. Sure enough, after a week, my little girl was sleeping through the night. She was at the weight limit (which I think is 12lbs) where babies no longer need to be fed all night, which is why we got the go ahead to let her sleep. Our boy continued to wake up, but it decreased from every 2.5-3 hours, to 6-8 hours, and now he normally doesn't get fed at night at all, and we dropped the dream feed some time ago (in the day though, they both get fed every 3 hours at exactly the same time).

Yours may well be a different story though, because of the adjusted age vs the actual age. Have a talk to your pediatrician and see what he/she thinks.

 

Never. They were 2-2.5 hours while exclusively breastfeeding and then stretched to 3 when they started eating more solids. If they eat a HUGE meal, they might go 4 but that's not the norm around here.

 

My twins still eat at 7 months (5 months adjusted) every 3 hours during the day at night they can go 4-6 hours...only once have they slept threw the night......sometimes during the day I may feed them before 3 hours cause they are screaming like they are hungry....How in the world do you stretch feedings to 4 hours (mine normally dont finish bottles during the day ) when your by yourself during the day...

 

Mine are now eating three meals of solids and 4-5 bottles of formula a day. They still never go more than three hours between feedings during the day. We always woke the second baby when the first woke to be fed.

 

Thank you all for the responses. It is reassuring to know that not most babies eat every three hours like mine.

 

Do you mean through the night? Mine still eat almost every 3 hours, but sometimes we will go 3 1/2. They ate every 3-4 hours through the night until 4 months. They have been BFd. I did wake the second twin to eat during the night until about 4 months when they were down to one feeding in the night. Otherwise, after the first two months, they were generally both awake for feeding time and I tried not to wake them.

 

QUOTE(blythe1 @ Oct 30 2008, 12:28 PM) [snapback]1048854[/snapback]
My girls are 3mo/1 week (7 weeks adjusted) and 10.5 and 12.d5 lbs and they are still eating every 3-3.5 hours. Is this normal? My relatives have been criticizing me for waking the second twin to eat when one demands food after three hours. Am I doing something wrong? When should I start to try to stretch out their feeds? Anyone have any advice?
Faith

Totally normal - you come to realise that the range of 'normal' is so huge that you can consider everything normal! None of mine went to 4 hours until solids. I just always thought if they are hungry - feed them. It will happaen. If I always got negative advice I always used to say and how old are your twins now?

 

My girls were 6 months old last week. One still wakes up every 2 to 3 hours. I would just love to get a full nights sleep!! Hopefully, yours start sooner than mine have.

 

Mine started going 4 hours during the day at 3 months when I switched the nipple to faster flow and they started eating more.

 

The boys will be 8 months on the 9th...still every 3 hours.

Dianna

 

My girls are almost 4 months old (8 weeks adjusted) and weigh about 11 1/2 lbs. each. They eat 4oz. every 3 hours during the day and started sleeping 9-11 hours through the night 2 weeks ago. I ALWAYS wake the second twin up or I'd never get any sleep. You're doing great!!