tiny 3mo - 7lb 9oz - should I start waking to feed?

[titferbrains]

DS is demand fed. he feeds like this:

5am ish - we cosleep he feeds from one boob, sometimes 2
7or 8 am ish - feed for about 30min
then DD has bfast then I feed him again
nursery at 9am
nap till about 1130
1130 feed about 1hr, he might be quite sleepy and need some jiggling and a nappy change

1230-130 awake
130-330 nap can be a bit less
330 feed approx one hr

430 bit of awake time,
then feed on and off till about 11, he will catnap for 20-45 min at a time. I usually feed again around 7 or 730, and am often feeding around 530 also.

He is only gaining about 100 g a week.

Should I wake him after 11/2 hrs of a nap?? In order to get more feeds in?

i would be trying to get more feeds in yes.

i also feed to sleep, around 10 min or so.

do u think he's having too much awake time? i put him down when he starts to grumble. he's v alert and smiley when wake. has started to play with toys. should i treat him more like a newborn because of his weight? ie minimal activity time, mostly just good feed then nap again?

Are you eating well and looking after yourself?

He doesn't feed between 11.30 and 3.30? I know babies are all different, but I think 4 hours (counting from beginning of feed) is a very long time to go between feeds at that age.

am prob not eating quite as much as i could in terms of proper meals, am finding that i just want to eat a lot of sweet stuff.

i don't think it's the awake time that's the issue. he just isn't feeding as often as you might expect him to in 24 hours,
of course all babies are different, and some breastfed babies will get themselves into a nice 4 hour routine and still pile on the pounds!
but given your concern about his weight I would definitely be looking to just feed more frequently.
so i might add in a feed at 1.30ish for example.
and maybe one at night... he may not even wake for this, you may be able to do a kind of dreamfeed.

i can only really base it on my own experience but certainly at 3 months my 2 fully breastfed babies were feeding at least every 2 hours still... so 12 times in any 24hr period.

he does feed at night, we co sleep so last boob at 11, then again around 3, then 5 then when we wake . he definitely has 3 0r 4 boobs from 5am onwards

There is no harm in offering more often. Do you also offer the next breast (even if he has already had it first)? And feeds do not need to be evenly spaced so you can offer whenever you have time.

Agree with thisis, 4 hours is a long time to go if you are worried about his weight, I would try to introduce a feed at around 1.30 ish as thisis suggests. If he can manage 4 hours ideally you want to alter it so he is doing that stretch at night, not in the afternoon, but thats something to think about later.

It might be worth speaking to a BFC so she can talk through your concerns with you and also check your latch. It might also be worth talking about breast compression with her. Are there any BFCs in your area or do you have the numbers for the helplines? Do you go to any Bfing support groups? It may be worth going along to one if you don't already, there are some groups listed here.

Personally I think the awake time is a bit of a red herring, think you should treat him like any other 3 month old. In fact you may find that if he's had an activity like playgroup, singing, baby massage or swimming he may want to feed more.

There is some info here to see if he is getting enough milk and some info on feeding sleepy babies here.

i always offer both breasts, essentially do switch feeding to make sure he is actively sucking, so 3-4 breasts, sometimes more, per feed. He can show a preference for one boob at times. Also do breast compression towards end of feed.
have fed today at 7, 8, about 15 min at 1015, 12 and then had to feed him for about 20 min to get him off to sleep. He's just woken so I'll have to feed him again now.