Do you wake your baby for a 'last feed' at night

[k8y]

Hello ladies,

Been having some trouble with my MIL the last couple of days,

James has two good sleeps during the day, morning and afternoon, but they are very light sleeps, he breastfeeds roughly 3 hourly but on demand so sometimes less thats all going geat,

Around tea time 5.30 - 6 James gets really grumpy and more or less feeds on and off till around 7 which is very handy as hubby has to cook, he goes down to sleep at about 7.30, a real deep sleep, I then wake him at around 9.30 for a feed then he goes straight back down to sleep for about 5 - 6 hours. Then feeds, then back down for a couple more hours.

We had a few bad nights because its been so hot and he had his injections
Anyway, MIL decides I shouldn't wake him for the feed and should let him sleep through because he wont be hungry enough for that feed and wont feed properly at 9. The last few nights he hasnt gone down till 8 / 8.30 so I have just left him and last night he did 8 hours, fed then back down till about 6.30 woop woop. (she now thinks this is beacause she told me not to wake him, but just didnt see the point as he'd only just gone down) We saw MIL today and she asked straight away, are you still waking that boy, and told everyone I wont leave him alone and wake him up all the time, and kept saying to him, isn't your mummy horrible waking you up, she just went on and on and made me feel really bad. And said it was cruel aparently someone has to stick up for her grandchild ! She had 5 children and so thinks that her way is the best way !! She's normally so nice. This is really strange.

I think obviously what I'm doing must be ok as he is sleeping ok now and were both happy. Just had a few bad nights after his injections which confused things a bit. Who wakes their baby for the last feed? Should I? Or should I leave him till he's really hungry like she says? Argggg ! She really upset me, like I was a bad mum or something.

P.S. She said, I'll ring you in the morning to make sure that you didnt wake him and see how he did ! BUGGER OFF !!

Sorry for the long rant. - Katie. xx

 

[Twinkles]

My health visitor wanted me to keep waking my son up for feeds because he had lost alot of his birth weight. I wasnt sure what to do because he just wanted to sleep. Loads of my friends were saying, oh just leave him he will wake up if he is hungry, but i couldnt do it, my instincts were telling me that i needed to carry on waking him so i did and in the end i stopped waking him at about 8 weeks when was happy with his consistent weight gain. Now I feed my son his last feed before bed at 8pm and he then sleeps till about 3pm

Is there a reason why you are waking him? Unless its been advsed by your HV ts probably not necessary to wake him anymore, however James seems to be perfectly happy with your routine and at the end of the day thats all that matters.

stay strong!

 

[JayleighAnn]

I haven't been waking Halen up for a last feed and I don't plan to.

I'm going with, if he's hungry he'll wake up.

But saying that if it's what works for u carry on with it. As for MIL tell her to keep out of ur business, you feed ur son as u see best

 

[k8y]

My health visitor wanted me to keep waking my son up for feeds because he had lost alot of his birth weight. I wasnt sure what to do because he just wanted to sleep. Loads of my friends were saying, oh just leave him he will wake up if he is hungry, but i couldnt do it, my instincts were telling me that i needed to carry on waking him so i did and in the end i stopped waking him at about 8 weeks when was happy with his consistent weight gain. Now I feed my son his last feed before bed at 8pm and he then sleeps till about 3pm

Is there a reason why you are waking him? Unless its been advsed by your HV ts probably not necessary to wake him anymore, however James seems to be perfectly happy with your routine and at the end of the day thats all that matters.

stay strong!

No reason , just thought it might help him go longer as he was going to sleep at 7 / 7.30 but now he staying up longer I dont mind leaving him. Lat night he went from 8pm - 5.30am good boy James !!!! .

 

[mommyof3co]

Don't let her get to you, you made the decision based on what you felt was best at the time...he slept great so go you! (and him!) and the other times when he was going down earlier he was still sleeping great for you even if you woke him.

I personally never woke the boys for feeds, it was only on demand from day 1. But whatever works best for you..sounds like he's doing great.

 

[Jkelmum]

Lily has a feed at 8 so is due at 11 i was waking her then and she wasnt having much so the last few nights ive left her to feed when she wants ...the 1st night she slept until 4am the second night she woke at 10 cryin hungry so i fed her and she ate loads and slept until 5 and last night she woke at 1am and is still asleep now ....I get more sleep and she feeds better if i dont wake her for her last feed ...but its your baby and you should do want you want and not listen to MIL x

 

[Jkelmum]

BTW My HV does advise i wake Lily every 4 hrs including the night due to her low birth wieght but she as put on 19oz in 15 days so I am not worried about what she is gaining x

 

[Mervs Mum]

It sounds like you have things working for you. Tell your MIL that she can mess around with his routine when she's prepared to come over at 3am in the morning and deal with the fall out.

I'm lucky my MIL wouldnt dare......she might imply something but wouldnt say it directly for fear of a flying head butt.

Your baby - your way.

 

[Lu28]

You're doing great hon, just ignore your MIL! It's all trial and error until you find what works for you guys and it may well not be what works for everyone else. I had tried waking Aisling for a feed at 10pm thinking it'd make her sleep longer after but she point blank refused to wake up 3 nights in a row so I gave up! Now she goes from about 8.30pm to anywhere between 3am and 7am depending on what mood she's in so I'm going with that. You know what's best for you and your baby

 

[Twinkles]

My health visitor wanted me to keep waking my son up for feeds because he had lost alot of his birth weight. I wasnt sure what to do because he just wanted to sleep. Loads of my friends were saying, oh just leave him he will wake up if he is hungry, but i couldnt do it, my instincts were telling me that i needed to carry on waking him so i did and in the end i stopped waking him at about 8 weeks when was happy with his consistent weight gain. Now I feed my son his last feed before bed at 8pm and he then sleeps till about 3pm

Is there a reason why you are waking him? Unless its been advsed by your HV ts probably not necessary to wake him anymore, however James seems to be perfectly happy with your routine and at the end of the day thats all that matters.

stay strong!

No reason , just thought it might help him go longer as he was going to sleep at 7 / 7.30 but now he staying up longer I dont mind leaving him. Lat night he went from 8pm - 5.30am good boy James !!!! .

See!! you are doing a great job, its all sloting into place

 

[Shifter]

Jack goes to bed between 8.30 and 9pm. We tried an earlier bed time but he wasn't having any of it. I do a dream feed at about 11pm and then he sleeps until about 4am then again until 7. The nights I skip the dream feed (if I'm exhausted by 9pm then I got to bed and damn the consequences!) then he wakes twice, around 1am and again around 4am!

The dream feed is great, but it doesn't work for all babies. I get him up and latch him on but he doesn't actually wake up properly, he feeds in a light sleep and feeds well.

You do what works for you, ignore your MIL. If Jack could be relied upon to sleep from 9pm to about 4am then I don't think I would bother with the dream feed, but atm that just isn't realistic for us.