How long do I keep waking her up for?

[babybouncer]

DD is just over 2 weeks old and is back up past her birthweight of 6lb 9oz. Bfing has been going well, but at the start the midwife said we really needed to make sure she fed every 3 hours, even if this meant waking her up - which it often did. The past couple of nights she's been sleeping really well (having cluster fed all evening) and I've had to work quite hard to wake her up to feed after about 4 hours, and she didn't seem to want to eat much. Should I still be waking her up? Is 4 hours too long?

I wouldn't wake her. I never woke mine and both were exclusively breast fed past 6 months. They started to go 6 hours through the night from about 6-8 weeks. My midwife did advise me that I should probably wake DS if he went any longer than that (but he never did).

Your baby will tell you when she's hungry. Sounds like you're getting on great. Rely on her cues and your instincts and you won't go wrong.

MWs seem very divided on this. One told us to even though ds never lost any weight and actually gained in the first 10 days. Another said "Why on earth are you waking him up? Just let him sleep."

I probably wouldn't let a young baby go more than 5 or 6 hours but would be tempted to just let them do what they like if nappies etc all seem fine.

Im in a kind of similar situation. Our difference is that DD was born prematurely. She has been home for three and a half weeks, but is not due till Tuesday. She gets weighed weekly and at last weigh in was 6lb 6, so a bit smaller than your LO. She has been consistently putting on weight.

Anyway, I wake her every three hours during the day. Obviously feed her sooner if she seems interested in a feed. I let her go up to a maximum of five hours overnight. This is what her paediatrician told us to do. They said to continue to wake her for feeds until she is consistently waking up herself during the day and looking for a feed.

Hope that makes sense. If I were you I would give myself at least one four or five hour stretch of sleep overnight.

It depends on their weight gain. If they are gaining well, then no big deal, if they are only just gaining, then you need to wake them up.

I guess it also depends on what your milk supply is doing. I had low milk supply with ds1, so unless I kept feeding at night my milk dried up.

I think it depends on the baby. My DD slept a 6hr stretch per day from birth. Midwives in hospital told me off for letting her because of jaundice (which she never got) but on day 2 I asked her paedatrician and she said because she was on the breast for 3hrs at a time when awake (she would do 45mins per side) it was fine. She weighed 8lb 12.5oz at birth. She started doing 8hr stretches at night from 4.5wks as well. Friends told me not to tell my HV as they'd tell me to wake but her weight gain was fine and HV agreed waking her was not necessary. She just feeds a lot more frequently during the day as she is BF on demand.

My dc2 is 7 weeks old. In hospital, the midwives told me to go no longer than 3 hours without a feed during the day, and 6 hours at night. Of course, the reality is that she feeds more frequently than that!

My HV said that if I didn't wake my DS after 3 hours he would become lethargic and unresponsive. What a load of tosh! I have never woken him up to feed, I ebf, and I have told them this. They have never known a more alert baby. He has put on weight consistently and is now rolling about and getting into trouble. He is 6 months old. He wakes up when he's hungry and he let's me know it too . Your lo will let you know. My aunty is a HV too with three kids, she agrees with me. Do what YOU feel comfortable with. You will get to know yr child.