Night feeds!

[WaterSkier]

My newborn is just 3 weeks old and DH and I are trying out different things fit night feeds. He is exclusively express fed so we both do feeds as DH is currently at home, and I pump.

We are currently setting alarms for night feeds but I am finding that at the moment baby is often contently fast asleep when alarm goes for feed, as well as DH and I being absolutely knackered. At one stage last night I was waking baby and waking myself up thinking why are we doing this, everyone is shattered! Baby does wake us up anyway when hungry sometimes in between our set times, or sometimes a few minutes early so I know we would never sleep through, but would it be ok to just set one alarm half way through the night as a sort of insurance policy? How do people do this at this young age? Is it too young to try this?

Also I'm aware I'll have to pump but for some reason I'm not yielding any milk during the two night feeds and only during waking hours / before bed when I seem to get enough!

I breastfed and then formula fed pretty quickly due to bad mastitis. I personally would wait for the baby to wake for a feed. If you're worried and your baby isn't putting on weight I would wake but otherwise let the baby sleep. If you want to put an alarm on for reassurance do so.

Congratulations on your new baby! Has your baby regained their birthweight? If so, I wouldn’t bother waking baby at night. Trust me, they will let you know if they’re hungry! I would only set alarms to pump if you have a routine for pumping in place. If you need to boost (or even maintain, at this early stage) your supply, expressing at night is important. I would delete those alarms and enjoy a little more sleep!

I thought by 3 weeks that it was ok just to let them go as long as they want at night? My baby fed every 2 hours at that age so I never thought too much about it but I’d say if your baby feeds before you go to bed then the very most I’d set an alarm for is 3am to pump. I never managed to pump much at night but was told it was still important to as it releases a hormone to help with overall milk production

Personally I'd wait for it to wake before feeding as 1) you need sleep too and 2) some will doubtless disagree, but I'd be nervous about it getting used to frequent wakings up in the night!

It's a total minefield with baby no1! Second time around we found we had more of an innate 'gut' sense of what to do at times like this which made it all a lot less stressful!