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.
Re: And..do you wake NB to feed?
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!
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.
Jess and Michael Married 10/2006
This.
If LO is at birth weight enjoy the sleep!
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.
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.