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How often to feed

voirin1980voirin1980
in Babies: 0 - 3 Months

Hi this is my first baby and its a week old. we feed every 2 to 3 hours, how long does this last for. is it the first week( my husband thinks so) or the first couple months? also how do you get the baby to go back to sleep after night feedings. sometime i will be up until the next feeding? any suggestion

 

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Re: How often to feed

  • Joey-RooJoey-Roo

    Your best bet is to speak to your pediatrician.  Most recommend that you feed baby every 2 to 3 hours even at night until they are back up to their birth weight.  Once they hit that weight again, most babies will still eat every 2 to 3 hours during the day and sleep a little longer at night.  Of course every baby is different.  Do you BF or FF?   

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  • julieb00liejulieb00lie member

    My baby fed every two hours for about 3 weeks.  She goes longer at night, but during the day it's every two hours still.

    A trick I learned about putting the baby to sleep - 

    You have to get the baby past the REM sleep cycle FIRST before laying him/her down.  What I do is once she's done feeding and is very relaxed with eyes closed (asleep looking), I put her over my shoulder to burp her.   (I usually don't get a burp out during the night, but I try.)  Then I gradually reduce the strength of my back patting to a light pat.  I pat her while she continues to fall asleep.  She goes through her REM cycle (you can tell b/c her eyes move around and she makes facial expressions and noises.  Her breathing will be inconsistent.)  Then her breathing levels out, her face is motionless, and her limbs are limp.  This is when you lay them down!

    The whole feeding/burping/soothing ritual can take up to an hour.  The soothing part usually takes a good 30-40 minutes itself.

    Also - keep the midnight sessions very calm.  Keep lights out or very dim for diaper changes and don't try to talk or wake her up further.

    And one more thing that works...Respond to your baby's cues quickly.  If you wait for him/her to really get stirred up, then that's more you'll have to work to get him/her back to being relaxed.

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  • mariannerulesmariannerules
    DD feed every 2-3 hours for awhile, she was 5lb4oz at birth and the pedi wanted her to catch up, so we even had to wake her for the first few weeks.  She eventually started to go longer during night feedings, then longer between day feedings too.  I feed on demand, but now I can predict when she'll get hungry.  With the night feedings, do the diaper change first!  Then keep the lights dim no other distractions, I barely would even talk to her.  By the end of the feeding she would get pretty drowsy, but if I laid her down she would wake.  So I found that I once she would get drowsy, I would stand up and walk and rock her until I could put her down without waking. Sometimes it takes a few rounds.  It gets easier, hang in there.  hth
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  • voirin1980voirin1980
    thanks i am breast feeding and doing formula. i will talk with the doctor next week, but thanks for the advice, i need to get a lamp in the nursery so i dont wake them up
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