And..do you wake NB to feed?

sherpa

I generally feed on demand which is about every 2-3 hours. Last night, however, OllieMaggs slept for 5 1/2 hours and so did I. I woke up engorged. I don't know if I should wake her to eat regularly or feed on demand. Just want to make sure were establishing good eating (and sleeping) habits now.

SRK128

Because she was on such a strict feeding schedule in the NICU we are following it to a T because she doesn't like change very much. We feed her every 2 hours around the clock. This may change once both girls are home but for right now that is what we are doing. 

BritanyV

Since mine was a preemie we had to wake him in the beginning when he got home.

I believe with term babies, as long as they are back up to their birth weight and gaining, you don't need to wake them.   We woke DS#1 and we regretted it because it caused him to be a horrible sleeper.   So I say let a sleeping baby sleep!

megaloo27

I am waking her up after 5-6 hours and give her a little extra on that feeding. She wakes up real hungry, but is super hard to wake up if I try earlier. 

Jess084

I was waking him every 3 hours until last week. He was slow to gain back his birth weight and once he finally did we went another couple weeks just to make sure he was still gaining, which he is!

We don't wake him anymore but he usually wakes at 4 hours or so.

DEBBIE33CASEY

once they hit their birthweight you don't have to wait to feed and can feed on demand if you want.

StephyMarie

My doctor said LO could go one 5-6  hour stretch during the night without waking him and 3-4 hour stretches during the day.

N&G 5_26_07

DEBBIE33CASEY:

once they hit their birthweight you don't have to wait to feed and can feed on demand if you want.

This. 

If LO is at birth weight enjoy the sleep!

FarmvilleLover

At our 2 week appt DS was above birthweight and the pedi said to just feed on demand and that even 5 or 6 hours of him sleeping was fine.  I am going by the motto of let sleeping babies lie.

JWSchwarz

It's no fun being engorged. I was setting an alarm the first couple of weeks and would wake my LO up if it had been over 4 hours. I would bet that she won't do this very often so you won't have to worry about it much. Hopefully once she starts sleeping for longer stretches it will become more predictable then you could always set an alarm and pump in between feedings. I have heard it's important to feed every 4-5 hours at first so you ensure you bring in a good supply, but an occasional deviation from that shouldn't hurt. 

 

 

SoonToBeMsP

Jess084:

I was waking him every 3 hours until last week. He was slow to gain back his birth weight and once he finally did we went another couple weeks just to make sure he was still gaining, which he is!

We don't wake him anymore but he usually wakes at 4 hours or so.

Ditto. We woke DD up every 3-4 hours overnight until she was steadily gaining. Now I let her wake me up when she is hungry, which is after 4-5 hours overnight.