Wake a sleeping baby?

esrockwell · June 2014

I am new to breastfeeding. I have 2 older children who I did not breast feed. I decided to try with my third and things are going really good. My problem is the dr. said I should wake her every 3 hours at night to eat. She is a really good night sleeper. I still have to wake her but I am so tired it is about 5 hours. I always thought to never wake a sleeping baby and if they were hungry they would wake. My boys both would sleep through the night at a few weeks old. Thoughts??

apolloslanding · June 2014

I have friends who are sisters, and the older sister was told that as long as her baby is in the proper weight range, to not wake him to feed. The other sister was told that regardless of her baby's weight, she had to be awakened to be fed every TWO hours. I took all of this and created a convenient theory for me, which is that if my baby is underweight, I'll get up every couple hours to feed. If she isn't, then I'll go with the much more ideal version of feeding at night when the baby is hungry.

ETA: Of course, your pediatrician knows better than I.

Valancyy · June 2014

I would let the baby sleep at night. I only ever woke during the day, mostly to make sure they didn't get their nights and days confused and were eating enough during the day. As long as they are getting enough to eat, I don't see any reason to wake them at night. The NP at my pediatrician's office told us to wake after 3 hours, but I never did.

The only time I would wake them at night would be if they weren't gaining enough weight, or my milk supply was low.

BootsOrHearts · June 2014

theresat858 said:

You should be waking baby at least every 3 hours (start to start) until baby is back at birth weight.

How old is baby?

More than a 5-6 hour stretch is not usual or advisable until baby is older than 6 months old...BF babies really do need to eat at night.

It can be easier on you if baby is next to you in your room and you don't have to get out of bed to feed.

This. Check with your pediatrician but this is likely what they will say. Unless baby was preemie and then you might have to extend the 3 hour schedule longer.

My LO started sleeping 8 hours at a time at night at 3 months and sleeping all night (10-11 hours) at 4 months and he is EBF but maybe it's different because he only gets a bottle, who knows. He's been a good sleeper for sure. I don't question it!

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