Wake bf baby when she doesn't want to feed

[TangfasticMrsfox]

My girl is 2 weeks old, and has been a good feeder until the last day.
The mw said make sure I feed her every 3 hours, but the last two feeds she's been flat out and not interested. It's just taken me 2 hours to get a feed into her, and now we're both exhausted

Before this she'd had a few feeds of lots of wind and sick, don't know if that's related...

Wwyd, leave her to wake and decide when she's hungry?

It depends on why your midwife told you to feed her every three hours in the first place. Could you contact your midwife and ask for further advice ?

at 2 weeks old i would want her to be feeding at least every 3 hours yes. the problem is that babies who don't tkae enough milk can get sleepy, and if they're sleepy they take less milk, then they get sleepier... and so on!

i wouldn't get overly worried right now, if it's just a one off, but i would def wake her after maybe 4-5 hours and try and get her to feed

Mw just said in general she should be woken, No specific reason.

If I wait for her she feeds really well and in less than half the time...

is she breast or bottle fed?

how often does she wake naturally for a feed? or, to put it another way, how many times does she feed in a 24hr period?

Honestly - I'd wait until she's ready. They are often still sleepy most of the time at that age. Unless she is really underweight don't wake her up. I never woke my (sleepy) little girl and she's a healthy 5 month old (and still BF).

You are going to get so much conflicting advice though - go with your instinct, if you think she's okay and she feeds well when she wakes up then let her sleep.

Good luck!

Thanks Nokia that's good advice she's already more than regained her birth weight, and my instinct says leave her

I'm bf, she probably has about 8 feeds a day

*Novia
Damn autocorrect!

No worries Tang - you'll be fine. You'll remember these long hours of sleep very fondly in the next few weeks and wonder what happened!

Honestly though - this is the first thing that worries you (how often to feed). Next comes thinking they have colic! They generally don't, you'll just want a label for the 5pm witching hour when they cry, draw their knees up and seem uncomfortable. Then her gut will mature and you'll forget about that issue and find the next thing to worry about (generally poo-related by then!)

I've gone to pure demand feeding and have had some spectacular 4 hour gaps, and some not so good 2 hour ones

I have a 17 day old and haven't a clue how many feeds she has a day, I don't keep count. I just offer regularly and let her take the lead. She has more than regained her birth weight so I trust she knows what's she's doing! Anyway this is what works for me but perhaps it's not the same with all babies though?