Hunger cues- need advice

nickse44

Hi all -
FTM here seeking some advice on night time sleep and hunger cues. Our LO is 3 weeks old sleeping in her rock n play in our room and cannot go more than 2 hours between feedings. We don't let her cry but instead my hubby gets her and changes her when she really starts to grunt a lot/babble and then I nurse her and get her back yo sleep. My question is- are we wrong to get her up before she cries? Are we just encouraging a cycle of less than 2 hrs of sleep? It's the same during the day..

virginiaunicorn11

I do the same. I do not let my LO cry if I can help it. You will get a lot of different advice on here. The one thing most of us agree on is you need to use your instincts, so if a) it's working for you And LO, and b) it feels right, then the answer is You're Doing Right.

(Personally, if you know LO needs to eat every 2 hours, I don't see the point of letting her cry. It sounds like she can't go to sleep again without eating, so why make her cry for it?)

In the Nighttime Sucks thread, you will see a lot of different situations and good links for websites that discuss sleep. I'd encourage you to use and participate in that thread. Good luck! Sounds like you're doing just fine.

klkonwi

Once she is up to eating more oz she will sleep longer.

nickse44

Thank you i appreciate the advice and encouragement!

Sammy K

I try to do the same - feed when she's making noise but not crying. Sometimes when she's really worked up, it takes awhile to calm her to eat even though she's hungry. Hopefully all the LO'S start sleeping longer soon.

Natjune

For the first 2 weeks we would wake up our son to feed him. But we found he was getting cranky from being woken up. Now we wait till we hear him making his sounds, which normally means "I'm hungry". We prepare a 3 oz bottle and let him take his time and drink as he can get/keep down. (They say 1 oz food = 1 hour sleep).
So far so good,

addingon

I definitely agree with the other ladies that you know your baby and her noises best, but I will say that I have read how newborns have about a 2 hour sleep cycle (give or take a 1/2 hr here and there) where they stir at that time but don't necessarily wake fully. They can learn to go right back to sleep! We do not let our LO cry it out, but after reading this a few weeks ago (and she was good on weight so ok to sleep longer stretches) I waited a little longer before picking her up and she would often work through it and go back into a deep sleep! So it's completely up to your judgement and your individual baby but it worked for us and we're lucky enough to have an LO whose first sleep stretch is now 5-6 hours consistently. Happy happy mama, daddy and baby.

nickse44

Thanks what we tried last night (after I posted here at 1 am..lol) was putting her in her rock n play down the hall from us and used the baby monitor. It was awesome! I turned the volume just right so a typical grunt wouldn't wake me but if she got really grunting it would. We all slept great! She was out fr a little longer than normal between one of her feedings..not sure if that was just a fluke or if not hearing her every move helped us to not wake her too early! I don't mind getting up every 2 hours if I can just get some sleep in between ad this hopefully will be out answer! Thanks ladies!

HoosOnFirst

It's a tough one, to catch LO in early hunger cues! Hers are grunting and putting her fingers in her mouth. The line between asleep and hangry is a fine one, but as she has gotten older there's a little more time there and we've gotten better at catching it. Glad you had a good night!

rolson8947

I was waking my LO up every 3 hours, but once the pediatrician told me not to wake her during the night for a feeding then I stopped doing it. Now if it's the day time then I'll wake her because I want her to sleep at night and she won't if she sleeps all day. Her pediatrician told me she will let me know if she is hungry so not to wake her during the night. But, what works for my baby may not work for yours. Good luck