When can I stop waking my newborn up at night?

hopeful87-2 · September 2015

my baby is 12 days old and was 3 weeks early. She weighed 6.5 pounds at birth and is already past her birth weight now.

How long have people kept waking their newborns up at night? I have been waking her every 2 hours but she does not always seem hungry now when I wake her up and it just results in her fussing for an hour or so and then eating later. I have heard many different train of thoughts about waking new borns to eat.

What have you all done? When did you start not waking your newborn and just letting them tell you when they are hungry?

tlc11934 · September 2015

I did not wake my newborn up. She slept a solid 9 hours and then just ate more during the day.

BeachBabe22 · September 2015

I think the recommendation is to wake them up to eat until they pass their birth weight.

Taekarate1978 · September 2015

I was never told to wake mine up so besides checking for breathing every now and then, I let them sleep.

kheitic4 · September 2015

I woke myself up and pumped but never woke my baby up at night. Was so lucky she slept through the night at 2 weeks. Then we had my son. 18 months later I don't think he's ever slept through the the night

shelbydd · September 2015

I never wake mine up. He's 9 days old and for the first 5 or 6 days he would wake up on his own every 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Now it's about every 4 to 5 hours. I think the biggest thing with waking them is if you're breastfeeding because it will help establish supply but as far as baby goes.. if they're hungry, they'll wake up and let you know.

WDDCH · September 2015

Unless my doctor told me I needed to, because baby was underweight or needed it, I would not wake baby at night. Especially if baby wasn't interested!

maiatene · September 2015

I never woke my son up for any reason. I get angry when people wake me and he gets it honest from both me and his dad lol. I'm of the school of thought if your hungry (regardless of your age) you will eat and if your tired you will sleep. Plus I enjoy the quiet moments - why wake the sleeping dragon lol

nbuzard · September 2015

Per dr instructions, I only woke (didn't let him go longer than 4 hours at night) until he was past his birth weight. No alarms set now, he lets me know.

aprilmay92 · September 2015

I'll wake baby during the day to eat, but not at night.

amp61470 · September 2015

Little Man is still in the hospital and is 5 days old. He isn't being woken up to eat. He will go anywhere from 3-4 hours. He is almost at birth weight and eats like a pig.

squigles28 · September 2015

My baby is 5 pounds 14 oz, 7 oz above birth weight. My Dr said when she is bigger and showing that she can consistently wake herself when hungry. I'd assume baby's size and other factors play in. The ped did say that we can do one 4 hour stretch at night.
So I'd discuss with the ped.

meggipi5 · September 2015

I've read not to let them go past 5 hours until they are a little older (8 weeks maybe) so you don't have a dip in your supply. I don't wake up my baby, but she's regained her birthweight and never goes past 4-5 hours at night anyway.

I always wake her up if she gets to 3 hours between feedings in the day.

kkerner87 · September 2015

During the day I will wake her up if she goes to 3 hours without a feeding. During the night she usually wakes herself up around 4 or 5 hours without a feeding. I should have woken her up this morning to feed her, but I could not bring myself to do it. I was exhausted (we were up until 5am). I just needes the sleep. I actually Googled "Am I a bad mom for letting my newborn sleep through feedings" lol. I just really needed the extra sleep. But I did feel super guilty because when I did wake her up for her feeding, she sucked away like she had been starving

GeorgiaDottie · September 2015

They can sleep through the night at 12 lb

v1wwo · September 2015

This is not what I was thought in class. They said to wake the baby up every 3 hours at night for the first 4-6 weeks. And to be honest, that scared the BeeP out of me. I am glad to hear that is not the case. Phew!

lovesgummies · September 2015

I don't recall ever waking them up. They woke up in their own though...

musicmomma00 · September 2015

If you are blessed to have a baby who will keep sleeping, let them sleep!!!! (Unless there's some medical reason) If it were a really long stretch I would probably get up to pump until you see a pattern

hopeful87-2 · September 2015

Thank you ladies! I'm glad to hear this is not a regular common practice and must have just been recommended by my doctor in the beginning because she was a little jaundice. Now that that is not an issue I am looking forward to hopefully a better night tonight by just letting her sleep until she wakes up!.... I would be pretty crabby too if someone were waking me up every 2 hours!

Yiggle09 · September 2015

My pediatrician said today we can let him sleep as long as he wants. He's above birth weight and it's assumed his eating pattern is established. He is 11 days old. My husband will still wake him after 4 hours though :-(

puddinpop95 · September 2015

I literally just learned about this at the hospitals brass feeding class. Once they gain back their birthweight, u don't need to wake them so much at night to feed. She said every other night waking them is ok to start, as long as their weight keeps going up at the dr visits, and after that u can go less and less from there

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