Not to wake the baby

[thegirlwhouk]

I have a gorgeous newborn DS. He's almost a week old. He's EBF and so far it seems to be going well. He didn't loose much weight (3.5%) and he produces many wye and dirty nappies.

His last 'long' feed was at 9.30pm when he fed for 19 minutes. He had a shorter 7 minute feed at 12:00 and another one at 12:30pm as I was worried he hadn't enough to keep him going for 3 hours.

He settled nicely in his basket and I set an alarm for 3am. He woke up naturally about 2:50 and so I got him out to give him his feed. He fed well for about 6 minutes and then came off. He settled straight back to sleep and is peaceful in his basket again.

In many ways this is GREAT! One feed at 3am and lots of sleep = one v happy mummy. Obviously though instead of being happy and just sleeping, I'm now up worrying that a 6 minute feed just isn't enough to sustain him for a 6 hour period. (Assuming he sleeps through till around 6am!)

I feel I have a good milk supply. I have to change breast pads a few times a day as I leak so much! It's always over eager and often spurts him in the face. Is it possible that I'm just super efficient with my supply and he's super efficient with his feeding? Can he really get enough in just over 5 minutes?

I've heard you should never wake a sleeping baby to feed - they'll wake you if they need feed. Equally though I've heard some babies loose weight because they don't feed at night.

Should I wake him and encourage him to eat more, or just leave him be? I'd love the sleep, that's for sure!!

[AuditAngel]

I went with the mantra "never wake a sleeping baby" unfortunately, after DD1 lost 15% of her birthweight I was ordered to wake her every 3 hours. A few times I turned off the alarm without waking.

If he is feeding well in the day /evening, he hasn't gone down much, I would make the most of it.

After DD1's shaky start, she slept through 12-6 from 4 weeks and 7-7 from 2 months.

[Nel1975]

I would just let him sleep. I'm sure if he gets hungry you will know about it soon enough. I'm currently up feeding and enjoying snuggles from my 7 week old.

[Bulbasaur]

As long as he's a healthy weight, he's fine. Babies are very good about letting you know what they need. If he was hungry or needing food, he wouldn't be sleeping.

[Ohwhatsoccuring]

I would also leave him, I'm sure he will let you know if he is hungry. I'm currently feeding my wk old little girl and sort of wish she would manage to be done in 6 mins. She usually takes anywhere from between 30mins to an hour, yawn.
Good luck , and go back to sleep.

[HappyAsASandboy]

With the information you have given, I'd leave him. Especially as you have no idea whether he'll wake in half an hour and feed again anyway!

If you'd said he lost a lot of weight post-birth (10% plus) or that a 'normal' long feed is an hour and he's only had 10 min feeds since yesterday afternoon, then I probably would have said wake him if you think you can pursuade him to feed more. But with a minimal weight loss, a history of relatively short feeds (don't read too much into my use of short - I simply mean that 19 mins is a quick long feed, but it's obviously enough as weight/wet and dirties is fine), and fairly regular feeds over the last 12 hours, I would enjoy the sleep :)

Congratulations on the arrival of your little baby :) Through the fog of tiredness during these early night feeds, take a moment to lose yourself entirely in that sleeping/feeding baby, and take another smell of his soft fuzzy head. Those days are so tiring but so so special :)

[Momagain1]

I wouldnt expect 6 hours, but it might well be enough to take him another 2 or 3.

Sleep you.

[Aherdofmims]

I would let him sleep and get some sleep yourself!

[munchkinmaster]

Agree, sleep!

[TheLostWinchesterWife]

Sleep tonight. It might be different tomorrow! feeling a bit jealous of teeny baby cuddles

[thegirlwhouk]

Thanks ladies :-)

I slept! He's just woken up now so we got a good 2.5hrs out of it and even better, we got almost 6 hours unbroken sleep! Fingers crossed this is his 'routine' from now on!

And the little teeny baby cuddles, they are awesome indeed. He's such a happy little chappie!

[ScottishInSwitzerland]

Re the length of feeds, my dd1 often fed for an incredibly short period of time. Eg 2-3 min. I had a fast flow and she would just latch on, take what she wanted quickly and then refuse to latch on again.

I did worry a bit at the time as many friends children were doing eg 10-15 min each side. But my dd took one side per feed and only for a short time.

I can't say too much positive about her sleeping unfortunately (4.5 and still has me up in the night). But feeding was completely fine. No weight gain issues and because she didn't take well to solids she was pretty much ebf until 9-10 months.

[Momagain1]

Evidently, you 2 are gonna be a good BF team! Congrats.

[FloraPost]

If he's at all jaundiced I'd definitely wake him as it could make him more sleepy than he should be, and this in turn makes it more difficult to shake the jaundice. One of mine needed 4 days of continual UV therapy because he was feeding so little due to jaundice. He'd lost 20% of his birthweight though.

If there's no jaundice I'd definitely leave him to it.

[thegirlwhouk]

Yes I think I have a fast flow. I've had what feels like an abundance of milk and it really does just go everywhere. I certainly don't think he has to fight too hard to get at it!

After a short feed I've tried a few times to give him a little rest and then offered him milk again but he's never once taken me up on it! I assume that's a good sign as he's got what he wanted one way or another .

He gets weighed tomorrow so we shall see how he's doing!

[Stripylikeatiger]

My ds was an incredibly efficient feeder, he'd feed for a couple of minutes and then be done, he got really huge on just breastmilk so he must have been getting enough!

[followTheyellowbrickRoad]

Ds2 was the same. A quick feeder. The midwife wasn't happy with the amount of time he spent at the breast. Then she weighed him and discovered he had put on almost 1lb in a week.
Enjoy your newborn

[YorkieDorkie]

I panicked for weeks (maybe even months!) that my DD was only feeding for 5 minutes and only from one side. She always put on weight and was so settled. I just came to the conclusion that I had tonnes of milk. So I began expressing and became a milk donor! Now I have a very happy 9mo who still only feeds for 5 minutes twice a day and gets gallons of milk. Everyone is different and some babies don't do these marathon feeds that others do. Just keep monitoring the weight gain and you'll know if he's on the right track.

[Strawberrybonbons16]

I have 5mo DD who is ebf. She was quite small born and the midwives said to never let her go more than 4 hours day or night. I soon realised that she will wake when she's hungry, and she does! She piled on the weight every time she was weighed so I just left her to sleep and wish I hadn't worried so much in the early days. They'll take what they need and let you know when it's time for more

[FleurThomas]

Has he been tested for jaundice? Sleeping loads can be an early symptom. Nephew used to sleep through the night at 1 week old & when the midwife heard about it she immediately got him tested. His jaundice was so bad he needed light therapy for weeks!

[LiviaDrusillaAugusta]

ZOMBIE THREAD

I'm sure OP has moved on now, given the thread is over two years old...