Waking to feed

[caz_hills]

Hi,

im after some advice please.

We have been waking our three week old three hourly in the day for feeds and four hourly at night. She has lots of dirty and wet nappies and is feeding well (I'm expressing and topping up with formula and she is taking 750-800 ml a day.
We are always waking her (50% of the time) for feeds and the other half of he time she wakes for feeds. When she is awake she is up for say 90 minutes to two hours and is really alert.

She is so young hence we wake her but sometimes when we wake her she has a tiny feed and goes right back to sleep. So sometimes she isn't even hungry.

Should we keep waking her?

 

[jessmke]

So long as she is gaining weight appropriately and is having wet and dirty diapers then I would not wake to feed. I never woke my daughter for feeds day or night, I always just followed her lead and she woke herself when she was hungry, and she has followed her growth curve perfectly since birth. My doctor said the only time you need to wake a baby to feed is if weight gain is an issue.

 

[purplesparkle]

im having the same sort of problem with my new born sometimes i have to wake to feed him after 3 or 4 hours other times he just cluster feeds on demand. not sure whats right going to check with midwife tommorow.

 

[caz_hills]

The health visitor told me to keep waking her as I'm doing - 3 hours in the day, 4 at night until she is 6-8 weeks. But every HV says something different!

So I'm keeping on this for the time being but will get her weighted again in ten days time and then re assess.

 

[lilmisscaviar]

I'd say since she is so young to keep waking her. The first month they really should be waking regularly for feeds and cluster feeding rather than going long chunks of time at once. When she is about 6-8 weeks I would stop waking her. This age is a good time to start sleep training by allowing them to sleep during the night as long as possible. Until then, slowly increase her feeds so she'll be fuller for longer.