Do you wake your newborn to eat?

Ms.MKBT · November 2010

I know she won't have a schedule yet since she is only 5 days old, but I wondered if I should wake her at night to eat? We did the first night we brought her home, but I am not sure if that set her up for a bad habit- the past two nights she has been up for 2-3 hour stretches a few times and just cries

and I can't figure out how to soothe her. She sleeps great during the day- sleeps for about 2-3 hours, eats, then stays awake for about an hour then repeats. I just wanted to know what others did and what your experiences were with feedings and crying/staying up at night.

LCB34 · November 2010

You need to wake her every 2-3 hours until she is back to her birth weight. If she is gaining appropriately, and once she hits her birth weight, I personally wouldn't let a baby under 3-4 weeks go more than 4 or 5 hours between feeds.

We had to wake for a while because we had weight issues.

kcl22 · November 2010

LCB34:

You need to wake her every 2-3 hours until she is back to her birth weight. If she is gaining appropriately, and once she hits her birth weight, I personally wouldn't let a baby under 3-4 weeks go more than 4 or 5 hours between feeds.

We had to wake for a while because we had weight issues.

This exactly. We woke DS up every 3 hours for the first 2 weeks, once he hit birth weight I set my alarm for 4 hours but he's woken us up before that every night anyways. Alot of newborns have a fussy period at night too; it takes time for them to get day/night straight

preglicious · November 2010

Yes, you should. I was told by the nurses to wake him and feed him every two hours! I had a really sleepy baby due to jaundice so he would fall asleep after 2 min of nursing cuz he was so tired! So together with pumping and nursing he was able to gain his birth weight back in 4 days! HTH!

Ms.MKBT · November 2010

Thanks for the advice! When I took her to the doctor for her first checkup yesterday, she was still right at her birth weight. Should I still wake her for the first two weeks? The longest she has slept straight is 5 hours.

PunkyBooster · November 2010

I do.

He doesn't stay up though, he nurses himself right back to sleep. So it's the opposite pattern that you have for me. We wake, nurse, wake, nurse, wake nurse...

We are on a 2 hour schedule (or more if he wants it). He's still below birth weight and we're dealing with jaundice so my entire life revolves around making him eat.

JoannaJes · November 2010

No, I don't wake her to eat. I never did with DS either. Neither have had weight issues, and they reliably woke up every 3-4 hours to eat anyway.

Don't worry about setting bad habits, your baby is too young for that to occur.

xoashleigh4ox · November 2010

we do not wake him up to feed him.. he is one week old and has gained back his birth weight.. he sleeps for about 3-4.. and we are feeding him 2 1/2 oz each feeding..

bellybaby · November 2010

I never woke my daughter. She would get up every three hours on her own. If she had a rough, restless day definately let her sleep! Its better for her.

Anonymi · November 2010

I tried waking my little girl up to eat a few times and it never worked. I always ran into the problem that if I woke her up to eat, right after I put her on the breast instead of eating she would just fall asleep with my breast in her mouth. But she also had periods in her first week (and a few since then) where she just really wants to do nothing but eat for several hours. I find these times very annoying but it usually only lasts about 3 hours and then she sleeps pretty well. And just a note is at her 2 week appointment she had gained 3.7 ounces more than her birth weight and she reliably eats every 2-4 hours.

Arielle27 · November 2010

Never had to. I'm lucky if he goes more than two hours without waking to eat!

longingtoholdher2010 · November 2010

I dont wake to feed. She will wake when shes hungry.

Pool_Chick · November 2010

At the beginning we did because of jaundice, but after that went away (about a week) we did not. DH and I figured that she isn't going to let herself starve and will let us know when she is hungry.

HairStylinWifey · November 2010

Sure do. We feed her every 3 hours during the day, if not earlier. We don't wake her at night, but she will wake on her own. Somewhere between every 3-4 hours.

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