Time Between Feeds

[Gagesb1]

Hi all. We're first time parents and Freya, our daughter is 4 days old. She won't settle at night until a really big feed and then doesn't want a feed for over 6 hours. Is this usual?

Hi, Gages - is the midwife coming today? Or can you call her?

4 days is very early, and things can change within the hour :)

A one-off six hour gap can be fine with a newborn - you don't say what's happening at other times.

You'd expect a four-day-old baby to start feeding frequently, whether by breast or bottle, and breastfed babies may feed anything from 10 or more times in 24 hours, though the interval between feeds is likely to vary a lot.

The other signs a baby of this age is feeding well are the contents of the nappies (often wet, with the start of yellow poos two or three times a day) and his weight - should likely have stopped losing weight by now, though will prob not be near birthweight.

Hope this helps. Any of the bf helplines will be good to give you more info and support.

Sorry.....her weight not 'his' weight :)

Thanks Tiktok. The midwife came yesterday and showed us how to breastfeed as she wasn't latching on properly. The midwife was happy with the weightloss since birth as it was 6.0%.
My wife gave a lot of good feeds later yesterday. We tried to settle Freya last night but she just wanted to feed and feed. This lasted to 2.30 this morning with lots crying (which she doesn't do in the day) before she finally went to sleep.
So far this morning she is still sleepy and isn't asking for a feed. We want to establish a good routine but it looks like she is going to be awake until the early mid hours every night.
I'm worried she'll lose3 weight if we can't get a pattern of feeding every two hours or so.

Please don't worry about a routine yet :)

If Freya won't settle without a feed.....then she needs a feed :)

Feeding is not just a way of gaining nourishment, but also a way of connecting and loving, and babies are hard wired to ask for this, by refusing to 'settle' away from the food source.

If Freya cries when you put her down to sleep, she is not ready for that separation.

Her weight sounds fine.

Also - believe me, you cannot say what a 5 day old baby is likely to be doing 'every night' based on the past couple of nights.....she will change day by day. You can be pretty certain that there will be times when you long for her to sleep and she won't/can't though. This is part of life.

You cannot avoid this by insisting on a routine, not at this v. early stage.

My DS is 7 days old and he can sleep up to five hours during the day but then feeds every 1,5 hours at night. He is putting on weight, has loads of wet nappies and seems happy so I just go with the flow.

Many thanks, Tiktok. We've bathed her and she breastfeeded for about 15 minutes this morning. It's a massive learning curve for us and tiredness makes reasoning harder. Being first time parents is tricky.

It's never easy.....but it is lovely :)

Thanks Booboostoo. I think it just seems that she'll have longer feed times in the day then closer at night. I think we're going to put her on the Wii fit to monitor her weight closer.

Not sure if you're seriously wondering about her weight, Gages, but you really don't need to, from what you have written here.

Have you read or heard anything that makes you concerned about this?

You don't need to worry about monitoring her weight in between midwife visits. Just watch for the signs that she's ready for milk (rooting around etc) and offer every 3 hours or so if she hasn't asked beforehand.

She's also quite likely to be a little sleepy still but will wake up and get used to having to ask for food soon. She's learning too.

With regards to the routine, theres not much to do yet. Just eating and sleeping and trying to get some rest when she's asleep. When she's wanting to be fed every two to three hours then you can work on encouraging this to happen in the adult awake hours rather than at night but she won't have any idea of daytime for another 6-12 weeks.

Congratulations! My dd is 12 days old and my midwife recommended every 3 hrs. The day after she was born, we got home and she slept through for 6 hrs. When she woke, she was glued to my boob for the rest of the night so I tend to wake her if the 3 hr mark is coming up. She seems in a rough routine for the time being which works well if I need to pop out and get some shopping or collecting her db and ds from school.

Nothing to add but as a soon to be ftm, marking my place as v useful advice.

I have a book which explains they sleep loads the first night/day home after going through labour then little and often henceforth. Is that about right?

Maybe because I'm a guy I get focused on weight. I never realised that it was normal for dd to lose weight after birth.
We're still having the odd latching problem but I think it's practice.
I can't thank you all enough for your kind words and advice.
Being a parent is amazing. The labour was 16 hours and a C Section in the end.
I don't mind being up late (as I've got two weeks off anyway) as long as I know that's going to be the way.

I think, but correct me if I am wrong, that it is common for babies to feed more at night than during the day. This was the case with my DD and seems to be the case with DS as well so far. With DD I found that between cluster feeding, growth spurts and teething looking for a routine was madness. I got a sling fed her in there and got on with life as and when it was possible.

We were told by the midwife that the mum produces a certain chemical in the mum's breasts during the night. So the dd/ds want to feed more then. Wish I could remember what it was (tiredness is playing tricks on my brain).

Prolactin it's the milk making hormone and yes in the early days it is higher at night.

Crying and being unsettled has started earlier tonight. We tried to sleep this afternoon but we timed it slightly too late.