Losing weight - should I wake her for a feed???

[sadiescooby]

So Lucy is now 2 weeks old and I am blessed that she has slept through the night since birth, usually for anything between 5 - 8 hours. She is BF like a pro and I'm sure I have enough milk to start my own milk round!!

So the midwife weighed her today and she's losing weight. At birth she was 6lb 13oz then 6lb 7oz at 1 week and now to 6lb 6oz at 2 weeks. Sooo my MW reckons she's not gaining because she sleeps through the night and would like me to wake her at around 4am to feed! Obviously I'm not too chuffed about the thought and don't really want to disturb her when she's so settled. I am thinking of instead trying to shovel more down her through the day rather than waking her at night for a feed, just for a couple of days and see if there's any progress when she goes back for weighing on Thursday.

Should we really be fretting about weight? She's doing perfectly well and making plenty of wet & dirty nappies and she's getting longer so she is growing, but getting skinnier.

Has anyone else had this advice?? What do ya think girls??

 

[Mervs Mum]

It's nice when they sleep for that long and under any other circumstances if someone suggested waking a sleeping baby I'd .....

BUT as she's not I'd say yes to feeding more BUT I think I'd be tempted to try it during the day first too. I'd try to feed her every 3/4 hours during the day and hopefully it wont mess with her body clock at night too much.

Give it a go and let us know how you get on xx

 

[sadiescooby]

Lol, my MIL woke her up yesterday just to cuddle her and I nearly cracked her over the head with the puschair! I should have done!!!

 

[babymama]

I saw a thread on here once about dreamfeeding and decided to give it a go and let me tell you it's brilliant. If my Lo sleeps during the day or night longer than 4 hours, I feed him while he's still sleeping, then I change his diaper. He doesn't wake up (usually) and I know he's nice and full and can continue to sleep however much longer he needs.

 

[laura3103]

This happened to me as well my midwife even said that my baby was cause for concern as she lost 8oz then another 1/2 oz!!

She advised me to wake her during the night and feed her more often also after each feed i should top her up with 1oz of formula!!

My LO gain 12oz in 3 days doing this and then the cheeky midwife said what have you been feeding her she shouldn't be gaining so much weight so quickly!!

I felt really angry and like i couldn't win either way.

But now is a 5 weeks old i mainly formula feed her now she has boobie milk on a morning and before bed as a comfort thing.

Also since i had to wake her up to feed her she now wakes each night around 4am!!!

 

[AC81]

You don't necessarily have to wake her for a feed at night, you can dream feed and they don't always wake up. my mw always said to never let your newborn go more than 6 hours without a feed at night because they need all the nourishment they can get.

 

[sadiescooby]

Also since i had to wake her up to feed her she now wakes each night around 4am!!!

That's what I'm afraid of!

 

[sadiescooby]

Well I decided against setting my alarm clock to wake her, but she has been waking herself after 6 hours for a feed. She's also been offered top ups of EBM on an evening, if required. And I've been letting her go 4 hours through the day but no more. So all in all around 6-8 good long feeds in 24 hours.

Anyway she's gained an impressive 5.5oz in 3 days! The midwife was well chuffed and has signed us off. She's now 6lb 11.5oz, yippee.

I think she's just taken longer than the textbook says to settle into a feeding pattern and get a taste for the creamy. Also it doesn't help in the early days when you have sore boobies!