STM and Moms with outside babies: nighttime feedings

LitalovesKay · October 2013

When did you stop waking your baby up for nighttime feedings and start feeding them on their own schedule during the night. I was waking LO up every 3 hours to eat because of the jaundice but now that he is better and above his birth weight I'm wondering if I should just let him sleep until he wakes up to eat.

Mae208 · October 2013

Jaundice gone and weight is good = no need to wake!

Mae208 · October 2013

My LO is 3 weeks tomorrow and she slept 7 hours one night... That was heaven for me! But I'm also formula feeding so maybe we play by different rules.

LitalovesKay · October 2013

Mae208 said:

My LO is 3 weeks tomorrow and she slept 7 hours one night... That was heaven for me! But I'm also formula feeding so maybe we play by different rules.

I'm trying to get my son back nursing. I pump and feed him in a bottle but until I start producing more milk or he starts nursing again I formula feed at night. So even let him sleep gives me more time to pump at night without missing out on sleep.

amber0529 · October 2013

Mae208 said:
My LO is 3 weeks tomorrow and she slept 7 hours one night... That was heaven for me! But I'm also formula feeding so maybe we play by different rules.

Wow! I pray that he let's me sleep at least 2 hours at a time at night. I would be in heaven with 7 hours. Even if we give him formula instead of breastfeed he's still up within 2 hours.

Mae208 · October 2013

amber0529 said:

Mae208 said:
My LO is 3 weeks tomorrow and she slept 7 hours one night... That was heaven for me! But I'm also formula feeding so maybe we play by different rules.
Wow! I pray that he let's me sleep at least 2 hours at a time at night. I would be in heaven with 7 hours. Even if we give him formula instead of breastfeed he's still up within 2 hours.

Yes we are really counting our blessings! This LO is very mild tempered and a super content little thing. Of course this can change at any time, but since 5 days old she has been eating at about 10:30 or 11 at night, and then sleeping until 3 or 4. But at 10 days she ate at 10 pm and slept till 5! It was amazing to say the least.

Welshgirl12 · October 2013

My almost six week old will often go about fir hours through the night, but I am talking start of feeding to start of feeding, so it is more like 2&3/4 maybe 3 hours sleep for me. The Dr says we can leave her up to 5 hours but it is rare she does that. The five hours was recommended so as not to harm my milk production.

bkeane619 · October 2013

With my son he would sleep like that. Ped said if he wants to sleep let him sleep.

JenMatt2010 · October 2013

We're still doing every 3 hrs since DD is only 4 days old. After her weight check next week we will push back to 4 hrs, and if she's still gaining, we'll just let her sleep til she wakes.

Painterlady · October 2013

I woke my first up to feed every two hours and it messed her up sooo badly. She didn't start sleeping through the night until she was five. With my second and this one, I let them wake themselves up and they sleep like champs. Even my three week old only wakes up twice a night ..."night" meaning 8pm until 5am. I would wake them up if they slept really long stretches in the very beginning, but my pediatrician says as long as they're eating great and gaining weight, there's no reason to wake them at night.

reederah · October 2013

They say once baby gets back to his/her birth weight, you don't wake a sleeping baby. I'm not sure if there is a time limit on it though. Call the pedi if you're worried though, that what thy are there for, and enjoy your rest!

ibs11 · October 2013

I haven't been waking mine up from the beginning and even in the hospital he slept 5 hrs one night. The longest he's slept is 6 hours but for a couple nights he woke up about every hour so I think he was going through a growth spurt but at our last dr appt. he had gained 1.5lbs in just 2 weeks so I don't think him sleeping is affecting his growing lol the doctor told me he could easily only be waking up 1 time through the night now and that would be great (that was about 2 weeks old) :-)

MrsMommyQ · October 2013

Mae208 said:

Jaundice gone and weight is good = no need to wake!

This!

During the day we woke DD every 3 hours to eat. At night we just let her sleep. She was doing 5 hour stretches pretty early on, which was awesome. 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep is heaven when they're that young.

bnikiz · October 2013

Our pediatrician said if he is back at his birth weight at his 2 week appointment we can switch to on demand feeding. Until then im making sure he eats every 2 to 3hrs during the day and 3 to 4 at night.

ClaireOtoms · October 2013

If you are struggling with your supply, you should keep waking baby to nurse until your supply gets back on track. Otherwise, a baby with no jaundice who is gaining well can sleep until they wake up hungry.

LitalovesKay · October 2013

crunchymama11 said:

ClaireOtoms said:

If you are struggling with your supply, you should keep waking baby to nurse until your supply gets back on track. Otherwise, a baby with no jaundice who is gaining well can sleep until they wake up hungry.

Yes this.

Also, If you want to BF, then you really need to see a IBCLC to help you properly supplement so you don't completely ruin your supply. You giving formula at night is not going to help your supply. Baby is way more efficient than the pump, so if possible you should be working on getting baby back on the breast instead of pumping and giving formula.

I put him yo breast during the day because at night he's too sleepy and fussy to even try. So I just usually let him be.

kimbo1216 · October 2013

If jaundice is clear, definitely let him sleep! That's what we did when DD1's jaundice finally cleared up.

Eta (because I didn't read replies before responding)...if you are having supply issues and BF is important to you, definitely keep waking. I know it's easier to ff than bf a "lazy baby", but this will not help your supply (even if you are pumping when baby gets a bottle. Remember baby is more efficient than the pump). When I had to wake DD1 to feed her due to her jaundice, I would strip her down if I had to. I would use a wet wipe to tickle her feet. Whatever I had to do to keep her stimulated enough to eat. Again. If BF is important to you, I'd highly recommend offering a bottle as little as possible. It will only make things harder for longer doing this if you care committed to bf.

LitalovesKay · October 2013

If you've seen any of my other post about breast feeding since I've been at the hospital LO would latch but wouldn't suck so he gets nothing from the breast. I'm working on BF but until he starts nursing I pump.i just don't wont to try to force the breast on him so that's why I stopped doing it during the night because he started to push away as soon as I put him near the breast. Now he's latching again and sucking a few times. He developed jaundice because I wasn't supplementing at first and the only supplementing a little and he became really dehydrated and fussy. Trust me I not ff because I want to it's because I don't want to starve my child.

CarolinaGirl411 · October 2013

As long as the weight isn't an issue, I'd let them sleep until my schedule needed me to wake them. He eats every 3 hours during the day and his nights can go maybe 4 hours without waking. Lucky ladies who are getting more than that!

MrsShankly1012 · October 2013

Yeah, my pedi chastised me for waking my 1 month old to eat (this was after 3 weeks of struggling with weight gain & jaundice). He's on track now, so she said to let him go, day and night, so he'll sleep through the night. Seeing as my first didn't STTN until he was weaned at a year, and is still a crappy sleeper, this didn't even occur to me as a goal this early...
Old habits die hard tho- if this kid farts after two hours I jump out of bed to feed him.

BlessUrHeart29 · October 2013

The nurse practitioner that we met with before we left the NICU told us to wake him to eat after 4 hours, and I hadn't really thought about when that rule would not apply anymore, haha! I guess I'll ask the pedi on Monday, but what some of you said about gaining weight is probably the answer. He was consistently losing weight until last night and even then he only gained slightly.

jennlin · October 2013

dd was jaundice, and i woke her up to eat maybe a good two to three weeks after....just in case.

mrsblueeyes · October 2013

Once we reached birthweight we were able to switch to on demand feeding at night, prior to that and given jaundice issues we wouldn't go more than 3 hours overnight and 2 hours during the day

STM and Moms with outside babies: nighttime feedings

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