when did you stop waking them up?

besu-chan · January 2012

My girls are going to be 4 weeks old soon and were born at 37w3d, no NICU time, no health problems or anything. The first 3 weeks we were waking them up every 3 hours around the clock to eat. The last few days we started letting them go 3.5 hours occasionally, especially at night. Now that they have gotten a little bigger (each close to 6.5lbs) we are starting to let them sleep as long as they want to for at least one stretch at night. Last night they went 5 hours between feedings. I am thinking I should still wake them up during the day at least every 3 or 3.5 hours to eat, and maybe let them sleep until they wake up at night? Obviously we are still keeping them on the same schedule, waking one up when one wakes up. I am just wondering when you stopped waking them up to eat so frequently and let them sleep. We are EBF now and they still take a long time to nurse (often around 60 minutes) and often are fussy when we're trying to get them to go to sleep, so I feel like it would be nice to let them sleep a little longer but I also don't want to slow down their weight gain or anything.

So what did you do in terms of scheduling? TIA for your advice and experience

kthappy76 · January 2012

Once they were gaining strongly, we stopped waking them up to feed. They can go anywhere between 2 1/2 to 5 between feeds if they are sleeping. We adjust the amt. we feed them accordingly, since we are EP. I would ask your pedi if they are ready. Ours (Dr. Weissbluth) says there is no need to wake a healthy sleeping baby. The only reason would be if you are trying to control the schedule... GL!

cookiemonster03 · January 2012

We stopped waking them to eat at about a month (around their due date) at the pedi's ok, but we kept waking the second baby when the first got up to eat for about 2 more months. It was too annoying not to. After that we stopped since they only eat 1-2x overnight now.

jenn_darrin1515 · January 2012

we never woke them to eat...but until 6 weeks they always woke on their own overnite to eat every 3 hours....we did wake them to feed every 3 hours during the day (but usually didn't have to - they were up wanting to eat like clockwork)...I'd say let them sleep as long as they like at nite, whether its 3.5 or 5 hours at this point....just make sure they are eating every 3 hours during the day...

ashes1010 · January 2012

Mine were born at 38w with no NICU time as well. I believe that it was around the 3-4 week mark that we stopped waking them at night. Once our midwives were happy with their weight gain, we let them sleep until one woke and then we would wake the other.

Ruby_Tuesday · January 2012

cookiemonster03:
We stopped waking them to eat at about a month (around their due date) at the pedi's ok, but we kept waking the second baby when the first got up to eat for about 2 more months. It was too annoying not to. After that we stopped since they only eat 1-2x overnight now.

This exactly. We waited for the pedi to give us the okay. I think that happened at the one month appointment...around their due date. Then we continued the one up all up to eat until about three months.

allisonmarie22 · January 2012

Maybe I'm an ignorant FTM, but why would you wake a perfectly healthy sleeping baby to eat? Don't they cry when they're hungry?

I don't ask to be rude. I'm genuinely curious.

ColleenS629 · January 2012

I think it was around 3 weeks the pedi said we could stop waking them to eat at night. That was based on their weight gain, not on their age. At that point, they were past the sleep-all-the-time stage and woke up on their own all night anyway. They never slept long enough to go more than 3 hours between feedings during the day or at night but I would have woken them up during the day.

ColleenS629 · January 2012

allisonmarie22:
Maybe I'm an ignorant FTM, but why would you wake a perfectly healthy sleeping baby to eat? Don't they cry when they're hungry?
I don't ask to be rude. I'm genuinely curious.

In the beginning, many babies will not wake to eat, especially if they are preterm.

besu-chan · February 2012

Thanks everyone! Glad to hear that my girls seem to be relatively on track with so many others

kiwi443 · February 2012

We got the okay from the pedi yesterday to stop waking at night because both girls are slightly above birthweight. They went 4 hours between feedings, which meant I was able to sleep for 3. Heavenly. I'll continue to wake every 3 hours during the day.

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