Is it true that you should never let a newborn sleep more than 3 hours?

ericamanuela

I'm sure this never happens but what if a newborn sleeps for over 3 hours? I was told in my breastfeeding class that you have to wake him up after 3 hours to feed him and that you cannot allow him to sleep any longer than that. Is this true? Like I said, I'm sure newborns never sleep that long in the beginning but say he does for some reason, do I really need to wake him?

MrsC17

I'm pretty sure it's only for the first couple of weeks, but yes, I was told to wake my baby every 2-3 hours to eat, especially if you're BFing (to build supply).  With DD I didn't have to because, well, she never slept that long LOL.

mylittlesunshine

With DD1 the first 2 weeks the hospital (and her pedi) stressed that she needed to be back up to her birth weight by the time she was 2 weeks old. DH and I would wake her every 3 hours to feed her. After she hit her birth weight and started gaining (this was a day or so before 2 weeks) we would let her sleep as long as she wanted and did more "demand" feeds. I was EBF'ing BTW.

Stefaniepr

You'll hear that a lot.  Personally, the only time I would do this is if I had a baby who was under 7lbs and was having problems gaining weight.  IMO though, I lived by the rule with DS to "never wake a sleeping baby".  I got really lucky with DS.  Right away, he started sleeping in 4 hour chunks at night.  He'd wake up to feed and then head right back to sleep again.  I never woke him to feed, but then again, he was 9lb, 1oz when he was born and was back up to his birth weight within a few days.

courtfsu

My pedi told me "Feed every 2-3 hours until baby has regained their birth weight (full term babies only I assume), then DO NOT wake them between Letterman and Lauer."  If they are hungry, they will wake up and feed.  Good luck!

kerrbear72

courtfsu:

My pedi told me "Feed every 2-3 hours until baby has regained their birth weight (full term babies only I assume), then DO NOT wake them between Letterman and Lauer."  If they are hungry, they will wake up and feed.  Good luck!

 

Ha! I love that concept.  

trojas

I had never heard of this til now, but good to know. 

I'm taking a breast feeding class this Thursday, I wonder if they'll mention it. 

irer

I think once they've regained to their birthweight (you probably have already heard that they tend to lose a little weight in the first few days) you do not need to wake them to feed.  DS never slept long enough for me to have to worry about this, as most babies are pretty good at letting you know when they need to feed again! 

megperk72

My pedi said to wake them during the day every 3 hours, so that way they would sleep longer at night. I'm not really sure if this worked or not, we had a helluva time with night sleeping until DD was about 6 months old. I guess it just depends on the baby, not sure what we'll do this time around!

But they only time you really HAVE to wake them up to eat is the first week or so, and only until they're back up to their birth weight.

HappyMama2011

It is just in the beginning, like others have said.  The night before I took DD to her 1 month appointment, she slept 6 hours.  My H was freaked out and had me ask them at what point should we wake her.  The nurse and doctor looked at me like I was crazy when I asked!  We all laughed at my H.  I should mention that we had no issues with weight gain and she was eating enough during the day.  

I didn't BF but there may be different rules in order to keep your supply up. 

Hkaye

No! They will tell you that but with dd she would sleep for 4 hours at a time so no way would I wake her up. Believe me they will wake up if they are hungry. Now if your baby is under weight than I can see a purpose in this but I highly doubt they will be sleeping longer than that anyway. My dd was 7lbs 14 oz and I had her sleeping through the night at 7 weeks and she gained weight just fine too.

wheelsonthebus

Here is some advice coming straight from a second timer. Unless your baby is premature or has other healthy problem, DO NOT wake that baby up. My son was almost ten pounds and I was told by the nurses to be SURE to wake him up every TWO HOURS once we got home to nurse. What.a.nightmare. He doesn't sleep well to this day. No need to wake your baby to nurse, IMO. They'll let you know when they are hungry.

ericamanuela

Thanks everyone. It seemed kind of strange to me. My baby has been consistently measuring much larger than he should so I don't think being under 7 pounds will be an issue but who knows. I'm thinking that as long as he's back to his birthweight and is gaining weight appropriately that I won't wake him. On the other hand, I doubt I'll be lucky enough for him to sleep over 3 hours straight ;-)

AmberMH08

I plan on Feeding on demand not a scedule so if this baby decides she wants to sleep longer than 3hrs than so be it... my son slept alot but who knows what this lil girl will do  she will prolly never sleep  knowing my luck ... some people like schedules but myself im more of a go with the flow type and try to adapt to what the baby wants at that time.

beachybride1

I was just talking to DH about this last night, we did this with our first, but as long as birth weight of #2 is not too low, I'm not doing it this time around!

wheelsonthebus

kerrbear72:

courtfsu:

My pedi told me "Feed every 2-3 hours until baby has regained their birth weight (full term babies only I assume), then DO NOT wake them between Letterman and Lauer."  If they are hungry, they will wake up and feed.  Good luck!

 

Ha! I love that concept.  

This is EXCELLENT advice!! love it!

af2004rn

It mostly depends on the weight of the baby. I let my baby sleep as long as she wanted at night, but during the day woke her up to eat. You need AT LEAST 8-10 feedings/pumpings in a 24 hour period to maintain your milk supply.

MrsMandaK

courtfsu:

My pedi told me "Feed every 2-3 hours until baby has regained their birth weight (full term babies only I assume), then DO NOT wake them between Letterman and Lauer."  If they are hungry, they will wake up and feed.  Good luck!

Ha! This is good advice.

RedRose87

I don't know exactly, as I am a FTM, but I can tell you that if my darling baby boy is sleeping for 3 hours, isn't fussy, or squirming, or anything, I'm gonna let him sleep. As long as he maintains a healthy weight and isn't hungry, I don't feel like I need to set an alarm to wake me up every two hours, just to wake up little one who was trying to sleep too.

My mother had told me once that as a newborn I used to sleep through the night, waking up may once to eat on my own. She said she kept waking me up every two hours and I'd be very fussy and it took more time to get me to actually eat since I was trying to go back to sleep. She said when she asked the doctor about it he told her to quit waking me up and let me sleep. I am going to go by that. 

beachbum28

I think so but I didn't with DS...he slept 5 hrs strait....but he was 12lbs at his 2 week check up!!!

flyer23

DD's pedi told us to let her sleep once she had surpassed her discharge weight. So she was born at 9lbs 7oz, discharged at 9lbs 0oz, and was back up to 9lbs 4oz at 4 days old. That's when we got the go-ahead to let her sleep as long as she wanted at night. She did 6 hours straight that night, and was sleeping 12 hours straight by 6 weeks old. She never had weight gain issues, and my supply was fine.

DS was waking every 3 hours for the first few weeks anyway, so it was a non-issue. By the time he was doing longer stretches, he was well past his birth weight.

BuckeyeWife07

It's just about getting them back to their birth weight. Dd only lost a few ounces at the hospital, sonwe never woke her. She was generally waking to eat every 3-4 hours on her own, so we didn't stress about it. BUT she was gaining just fine so that was the difference. 

cathycoyle28

Hkaye:

No! They will tell you that but with dd she would sleep for 4 hours at a time so no way would I wake her up. Believe me they will wake up if they are hungry. Now if your baby is under weight than I can see a purpose in this but I highly doubt they will be sleeping longer than that anyway. My dd was 7lbs 14 oz and I had her sleeping through the night at 7 weeks and she gained weight just fine too.

This

My son was also sleeping through the night at 7weeks. He fed every 4hours...10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm etc.... He was a great sleeper, I never woke him and let him wake by himself when he was hungry, which you are gauranteed to do! I didnt BF so maybe different rules apply.

OctoberBabyH

To get her back to her birth weight, I BFed her every 2 hours until our weight check. (I still kept at it for 3 weeks though, as advised by my lactation consultant. She was born on 10/3 and I was home 10/5 and the weight check was at the LC's on 10/7, to give you an idea or an example.)

You start and count from the latch. Once she is latched, then in two hours (form the time she started BFing) you start feeding her (or him) again.

I know it seems tedious and tiring. It definitely is. But it's worth it!

 

 

jc0n15

ericamanuela:

I'm sure this never happens but what if a newborn sleeps for over 3 hours? I was told in my breastfeeding class that you have to wake him up after 3 hours to feed him and that you cannot allow him to sleep any longer than that. Is this true? Like I said, I'm sure newborns never sleep that long in the beginning but say he does for some reason, do I really need to wake him?

Were we in the same class cause they said the same thing in mine last night. I thought it was weird, what do I set an alarm??

OctoberBabyH

jc0n15:

ericamanuela:

I'm sure this never happens but what if a newborn sleeps for over 3 hours? I was told in my breastfeeding class that you have to wake him up after 3 hours to feed him and that you cannot allow him to sleep any longer than that. Is this true? Like I said, I'm sure newborns never sleep that long in the beginning but say he does for some reason, do I really need to wake him?

Were we in the same class cause they said the same thing in mine last night. I thought it was weird, what do I set an alarm??

You can if you want to. I just wrote down the times on a note pad and was pretty much confined to my living room couch or bed for the first week or so anyway. (Being in pain, shock and complete exhaustion, but my husband was pretty on it. "It's time to feed her again.")  

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acbfreire

ericamanuela:

I'm sure this never happens but what if a newborn sleeps for over 3 hours? I was told in my breastfeeding class that you have to wake him up after 3 hours to feed him and that you cannot allow him to sleep any longer than that. Is this true? Like I said, I'm sure newborns never sleep that long in the beginning but say he does for some reason, do I really need to wake him?

 

It actually does happen. When my friend had her son, he would sleep for long stretches, then would wake up VERY hungry and fussy and was not able to BF because he couldn't calm down. During the day, it is fine to wake them every 3-4 hrs to feed them until they regain birth weight, but I will not wake LO at night for feeding.

BaldwinMartin

My midwife told us that unless the baby is not gaining weight then let it sleep, they will wake up when they get hungry. With breastfeeding you could always pump if your worried about supply.

ericamanuela

jc0n15:

ericamanuela:

I'm sure this never happens but what if a newborn sleeps for over 3 hours? I was told in my breastfeeding class that you have to wake him up after 3 hours to feed him and that you cannot allow him to sleep any longer than that. Is this true? Like I said, I'm sure newborns never sleep that long in the beginning but say he does for some reason, do I really need to wake him?

Were we in the same class cause they said the same thing in mine last night. I thought it was weird, what do I set an alarm??

Haha, that's exactly what I said to my husband on my way home. I said what did people do before alarm clocks existed?

bobbs420

Unless baby is a preemie and needs to eat more often, or there are other medical issues, I say let them sleep. My pedi also told me this when my first was born. He was 9 lbs. 4 oz. and he said "he will wake when he's hungry, let him sleep. He's a big boy." It is good to not let them sleep too terribly long during the day though if you are breastfeeding, just as far as building a supply goes. I was more inclined to let him sleep as long as he would at night. He was sleeping 8+ hours on a consistent basis by the time he was 8-10 weeks old.

anneimal98

Based on my experience with my first, my plan for the second is to feed every 2 hours for a total of 8 feedings during the "day" and feed on demand at "night" until birthweight is regained then move to feed on demand all the time.  Problems you might have if you choose not to wake to feed are an over-hungry child who's frustrated and has trouble nursing as a result and/or increased lethargy due to hunger.

kadokatie30

Supposedly I slept at least 5-7 hours through the night at 2 weeks. My parents were a little freaked out but the doctor said it was fine. I was gaining weight and ate a ton when I was awake so I guess it was o.k. I'm still a good sleeper. :-)

Daisy22

It depends on what you follow parenting wise. Most pedis will say to wake up every 3 hours the first week or two until baby is back up to birth weight. After that it's up to you. I feed every 3 hours during the day and let the baby go at night.

SweetHurricane

We had to wake DD to eat until she got back to her birth weight. After that, we let her sleep as long as she wanted.

pixieprincss

As evidenced by the many posts, opinions on this vary.

At LLL meetings I frequently hear that the answer is NO unless baby has a special helath concern. Babies bodies are smart and as long as you are feeing baby on cue around-the-clock then you can continue to let their wee natures dictate feeding times day or night. That will naturally meet baby's needs and will naturally establish your BM supply through supply and demand.