How do you wake baby to bf?

plumpous · October 2015

FTM, baby is 5 days old. I'm told to wake her every 2 hours to bf, or 3 hours at most. But she is so peaceful and I don't really know how to wake her. What are some good techniques to wake her up and how bad is it to let her sleep? Won't she nurse longer to make up for it?

hakettler · October 2015

I change her diaper to wake her up. She usually wakes up pretty well from that. I know it's hard to wake up those sleeping angels, but as soon as your LO regains their birth weight I was told to wake them up! Mine is 3 weeks now and regained her weight by week 1, and I feed her on demand now. She usually gives me two 3 hour stretches at night, but she doesn't sleep longer than that!

tracij12 · October 2015

Diaper change usually works for me too. I break the rules and don't wake baby to feed. She doesn't go much longer than 4 hours and always had lots of pee and poop diapers so I didn't feel bad about it. She had her 2 week appt today and has well surpassed her birth weight so didn't cause issues for us.

klirwin82 · October 2015

Yeah you need to keep waking LO to feed her at least until your ped gives to OK to let her sleep which for us happened at the 2 week appt when she saw he had regained his birth weight.

Diaper changes worked for us to wake him, and stripping him down so he was a little less warm & comfy. Granted, that was in July in Arizona...so maybe just remove a layer if you're somewhere where it's colder!

ETA They'll do the making-up-for-missed-feeds at a later age, like right now my 3 month old sleeps 10-6 finally and eats like a monster during the day to compensate. But at 5 days old they're still really sleepy and you have to wake them, they may not wake to hunger cues when they need to. It sucks but we weren't good about waking our LO in the hospital and he ended up losing 12% of birthweight and they had us supplement with formula because his blood sugar was out of whack and he wasn't great at nursing at first. It was a little scary knowing he could be sleeping and have sugars drop like that and have no way of knowing. Everything regulated once we made sure to wake him every 2 hours.

randa923 · October 2015

We lost 15% of birth weight. Honestly though it's my first kid and I thought he would just let me know when he was hungry. I didn't think it was too weird that he was sleeping 3-4 hours at a time. It took until he was 3 weeks old to get him back to birth weight. We did 48 hours of straight every 2 hour feedings plus 1 oz of formula after each one. Then we still did a 2 weeks of wvery 2 hours during the day and 4 hours at night. I agree until the baby has at least reached birth weight again they need to be woken up every 2 hours during the day. At most I'd go 4 at night. My LO was terrible about waking up to eat. I cried so much! I've found opening their hand and playing with their palm helps, tickling their ear (almost sticking your finger in there), stripping him down, tickling his feet, and as bad as it sounds lightly playing with his nipple. (My husband said the doc did it right after he was born in the nursey-probably to check some reflex I guess). Also I've seen where some people will keep a wet wash cloth close and run it a room baby's belly to wake them.

mirandabyrum · October 2015

My LO is 1 week old today. I always start his feeding with a diaper change to get him good and awake. Once he's been nursing a little while and starts to doze off I switch sides and positions to wake him up. Taking of his clothes and rubbing his cheeks help sometimes too but the best method for me is to lay him down next to me (I usually nurse in bed). If he's not being cuddled he wakes up almost immediately and starts looking for more.

ameares721 · October 2015

A diaper change and skin to skin worked for us.

acciocoffee · October 2015

Nothing ever worked to get my daughter to wake up to eat. I tried everything. We did diaper changes, stripping her down to her diaper, skin to skin, using a damp wash cloth, talking to her, turning the lights on, moving her arms and legs around, etc. I even tried to just feed her while she was sleeping because I was told that they are supposed to be able to eat while they are still asleep. She would just purse her lips together and keep sleeping. So I stopped trying to wake her to eat after a couple days. She still got back to birth weight in less than 2 weeks, but she is probably the exception rather than the rule.

That being said, she started waking more often for feedings when we didn't have visitors passing her around all day. Our pediatrician told me they tend to go into defense mode which means they just sleep to avoid the stress of it all. I actually cut out visitors during the days when she was a few days old and it made a huge difference! I kept her in my arms almost all day and she would wake up a lot more often to eat. I have no idea if you have had a lot of visitors, but we were getting 5 or 6 family members coming over all at once and immediately taking LO and not giving her back for hours. It was bad for her and for me.

caityrose · October 2015

My daughter was really hard to wake up during the first week too. I'd say diaper change and strip her to the diaper for feeding. Sometimes I still have trouble at 1 month. I move her around. Run my fingers around her body. Sit her up. Etc

cambam7 · October 2015

What worked for me: Diaper change, gently stroke along her jawline, nudge the corner of her mouth with your knuckle. It will trigger baby's rooting reflex. Tickle her toes helped her to continue nursing bc she would fall asleep on my breast as soon as she latched. They sleep alot when newborn. Mine ate every 30-45 mins for 5-7 mins at a time. Cluster feeding too. Some skin to skin while bf helps too.