waking to feed at 4 hours?

[AnnaHughes]

Reuben is now 5 days old, and often sleeps for 5 hours ( only in the day!) - should I be waking him after 4 for a feed? - At the moment, he can do a couple of these long sleeps in the day - but is very restless at night.

We tried stimulating him as much as possible in the day yesterday, and he was content to be awake for an hour or so, being talked to, walked round etc.

I am not sure if letting him sleep so long between feeds in the day is causing him to be restless at night. I also dont want to wake him, just for the sake of it.

No matter how long between feeds, he is a little guzzler! - and will take around 50ml in 20 mins - do you think this is too quick? as then he seems to fall flat asleep, and it is difficult to do the last winding?

All comments greatfully received!

 

[Happy]

Phoebe has always been a guzzler as well, its almost as though she has never been fed! We never worried about it and the HV wasn't concerned just make sure you give him a good burp afterwards. If he falls asleep I wouldn't worry too much about it, if it is bothering him he will let you know!

We have also never woken Phoebe for a feed, some people do but we feed on demand and when she wants it she will let us know.

 

[Fossey]

We woke 4 hourly when she was that young, and did so for a long time (not at night though, let her wake for that)
Then she started to tell us when it was food time and we let her dictate.
She now sleeps through the night and only used to wake once or twice in the early weeks.

 

[mommyof3co]

I never woke the boys, I feel that if they are hungry they will wake on their own, they know when they are hungry. But when they did wake up we would try and keep them up during the day if they would and then at night when they woke we would keep everything very calm and quiet and dark so they would figure out nights are for sleeping and days for playing

 

[AnnaHughes]

Thanks for the advice ladies, He woke at 8:30am, and was really alert, so fed, and kept awake for a couple of hours, he then slept, and i woke him after 4 hours for change and feed. Had loads of visitors then, so he was awake and stimulated for another couple of hours off and on. Fingers crossed that he now sleeps a bit better through the night now!

I have no expectations for sleeping through the night, nor a routine at this early stage, but everything seems to be very topsey turvey at the moment, and quite sparadic, so hopefully, if we dont let him go for too long without a feed, it may mean that he doesnt just guzzle the first 50ml as though he has never been fed before!

 

[sam*~*louize]

I woke Layla every 4 in day. she now has a routine of 9am, 1pm, 5pm and 5pm. wakes once in night, but has slept through three times lately! hoping this sticks!