Does below birth weight @2wks mean I should wake to feed at night?

[FootprintsInTheSnow]

.... Or is that just a route to unnecessary stress and burnout?

Baby lost 9oz in her first week from a birthweight of 8 pounds 8 oz (which is fine) - and regained 1.5oz in her second week (which the MW said was fine - but which strikes me as less than super).

She's doing all good things daytime - frequent feeds, poo and wee in abundance, alert and committed to feeding, good latch. At night, she's slept at least 4hours every time. Last night she slept 6 hours. To be fair - she cluster fed or hourrrs before going down - and then fed for nearly 2 hours on waking (give or take winding and nappies) - but I'm losing my nerve & wondering if I need to be setting an alarm.

Dh points out that all of our babies have been (very) slow gainers - without the heroic sleeping through. I interpret that as anticipating trouble - whereas DHs view is that this is our 'normal'. Midwife says she looks bright and perky - so not to worry and not to wake - reweigh in a week.

Wibble Wibble Wibble

Weight gain is low, I'd wake after 4hours. Better to wake and baby to gain more then to leave her and possible run into further problems.

When she's regained her birth weight and gaining well then you can go back to leaving her to sleep.

I'd also see if you can get someone to observe a whole feed just to make sure she is transfering milk effectively even a little tweek with latch can help sometimes.

yes, feed in the night.

i'm a bit that she sleeps 6 hours, though.
but yes, while she's still this young, wake her to feed.
:)

(and don't panic!)

sigh

Baby is still not very fat - although in all other respects seems great.

What would I be aiming for at night? After the few freakish 6th nights mentioned in the OP, she seems to naturally want to do 4/4.5 hours longest sleep stretch. I woke her earlier a few times - but tbh I didn't feel that it was increasing the amount of feeds. E.g. If she wanted to be awake at 3a.m., she'd then feed effectively for 90 minutes and then sleep 2hrs to 6.30 a.m. . When I woke her at 2a.m., it'd take a little while to get her awake enough to feed without going sleep - and in total the feed would take 2/2.5hrs with messing about getting the latch right etc. Then she was actually sleeping on a bit longer in the morning.

I'm feeding 3 hourly in the day (90 minutes per feed) - but if I didn't push it, I think she'd sometimes prefer to feed 4 hourly. We've done several long afternoons of skin to skin (and obviously we're spending most of our days holed up on the sofa together). BFC checked latch.

She's put on 100g between day 13 and day 20 - which still leaves her 100g off her birthweight. At what point does the sh*t hit the fan with regaining birthweight? On one hand she's gaining weight and is showing all good signs. On the other hand.....

3 days until next weigh-in.

Mmmmm, it's a tricky that one Footprints.

So she's gained 3.5oz in a week which is fairly low when compared with the average. You say the feeds are taking 90 minutes? To me that does seems on the long side if that's every feed. Has any one actually properly looked in her mouth for a tongue tie?

On the other hand... she could just be a slow grower as per your family history. I get the feeling from you that she is happy most of the time and alert. Does she come off the breast of her own accord and seem fairly contented between feeds?

It sounds like she'd taking what she needs and 3 hours during the day and 4 hours at night id quite a common pattern. She should regain her birth weight by next week, then there should be no reason to worry of she's healthy and hitting all the milestones even of she carries on putting on weight slowly. Until then I would wake her after 4/4.5 hours at night.:-

badger The long feeds are familiar from previous DC, yes! I push her to 'finish feeding' - so I'll typically offer 4 boobs & nappy change or change position if she threatens to dose off. It makes me wary of directly applying 'feed every 2hours' type of advice to my situation!

She's alert and chilled after a feed for about quarter of an hour, at which point she'll start yawning ( when I cuddle/rock to sleep. Sometimes I'll let her suck my finger briefly to relax her if she cries and seems stressed).

She sticks her Tongue out happily - which bfc took as a sign that no Tongue tie.

DH shares your view olimpia. He thinks birth weight is a single reading, and may reflect her being 2 weeks overdue so maybe 'fatter' than she means to be. He thinks we should take our cue from the baby.

Realistically - the only other thing I can offer is 2 hourly night alarms. Has it come to that?

Being able to stick the tongue out doesn't always rule out tongue tie tbh.

If he was two weeks late, then yes your DH is probably right in thinking that she is finding her natural curve on the graph. It is 'expected' that babies will get back to birthweight by two weeks, but doesn't always indicate a problem if they take a bit longer.

From what you say, she would be hard to feed two hourly in the night so I'm not sure that would acheive anything by doing that.

You say the mw is unconcerned, so why not just watch and wait until the next weight in and then see where you are?

Thanks for the support (everyone).

She is just such a lovely baby and such good company, I really hope things pan out for us smoothly.