Waking 2 week old for feeds

[harleysmammy]

My 2 week old son was 9 lb 3 oz at birth, was back to birth weight at 10 days so he's always needed more milk and more often. I breastfed for the first week, got blisters that still haven't gone so haven't breastfed since he was about a week old but I will be going back to breast. He's on formula for now and because he's a very sleepy baby, I wake him up every 3 hours (4 at a push) as advised by my midwife and doctor. He has at least 3 oz every 3 hours but normally he'll have 4 oz and we sometimes have to make up another bottle after the 4 oz because he's still hungry. I will still wake him up during the day, but I was just wondering if I should wake him up every 3 hours at night? Last night I didn't wake him up and he didn't wake up twice but I'm afraid he won't wake up every 3 hours and he'll get dehydrated. Do I let him sleep a bit longer or continue waking him up?

I don't mind at all waking him up by the way, I would rather him feed and me loose 10 minutes sleep than him not feed right. X

There's no need to wake the baby to feed him, let him (and you!) sleep!!

Unless you're very keen to follow a strict schedule like Gina Ford for example, just feed 'on demand' - basically whenever he cries! This will often work out to every three or four hours during the day - especially if you make sure to give him a full feed from the bottle or both breasts - but there's absolutely no need to wake them to feed on a schedule.

I would wake every 3 hours during the day (between approximately 7am and 7pm) and then feed on demand when he wants it during the night. He won't get dehydrated overnight.

I woke mine up for the first few days, but realised that he never let me go too long anyway!

At 2 weeks, his chances of dehydration are low. How about every time you're up, set an alarm for 4 or 5 hours time? And then when he wakes up before then (which he almost certainly will) you cancel and reset it.

No 2 week old will get dehydrated in 4/5/even 6 hours, especially if it rarely happens, but it will stop you worrying about you oversleeping. If he does sleep for longer then be happy for the extra sleep :) and make sure he's fed more on schedule for the rest of the day to keep his calories/water up.

It just means you can make the most of getting all the sleep you can!

If your baby is otherwise healthy though, amd tends to wake up every few hours anyway, I personally wouldn't bother setting alarms at all. But mine woke up to be fed every 90 minutes for the first few months so maybe I'm a bit biased.

If your baby is having plenty of wet/dirty nappies I honestly wouldn't wake them ... they will wake when hungry x

going against the grain and would say at 2 weeks you should wake after 4 hours to feed esp if he is particularly sleepy and of this is what midwife has advised. this is what I did