Waking baby for feeds?

[Bobbielee91]

Hi,

My LO is now 2 weeks old and for 2 nights last week he slept for 4 and 6 hours before waking for a feed.

Most people have advised us that he will wake us up when he is hungry and told us to ‘never wake a sleeping baby’ however, our HV and Midwife have told us that we need to be waking him every 2 hours for a feed!?!

What do people think to this? Would you wake your baby every 2 hours through the day to feed? Most people I have asked think this is terrible advice..

TIA

I was always told (by the midwife/hv) not to let them go for more than 4 hours without a feed x

I would wake if you are NOT getting 4/5 wet nappies plus 2/3 soiled nappies in 24 hrs AND baby is not yet back to birth weight. Otherwise enjoy the sleep 😁

How is his weight gain? If he is gaining weight and feeds well when he does wake up I would leave him to sleep.

Ps don't let baby sleep beyond 6 hours!

I woke both of mine.
In the first two weeks, they get sleepier and sleepier the less food they get, so you can’t tell whether they are asleep because they are full or asleep because they didn’t get enough. Or at least that’s what they told me in the hospital.

He is now over his birth weight and we are getting plenty of wet and dirty nappies.

He has been awake quite a lot today .

We are contemplating increasing the time between feeds to 3 hours now but definitely won’t be going 6 hours again. As this is our first baby we just didn’t know what was the right thing to do in that instance x

Would you wake your baby every 2 hours through the day to feed? Most people I have asked think this is terrible advice..

It depends on whether we are talking about wakings during the day or the night.

If the baby has regained its birth weight, I would not worry about waking up the baby at night (even if they sleep for 6 hours). I would try to feed them at least every 3 hours during the day and I would wake them up for that (unless they want to feed even more frequently - which is absolutely fine and happens often).

This is based on recommendation from the hospital where I gave birth.

@wintertravel1980 thank you for your advice. We were advised to wake him through the day and the night. Ofcourse I agree that he should be woken to be fed in the day but thought every 2 hours at night was a bit excessive.

We have the HV coming on the 15th and seeing the midwife on the 16th so I will ask them again then what they recommend. I just thought it was strange that they wanted us to wake him so often x

NCT advice states that a breastfed newborn should "initially have 8 to 12 feeds a day" and some midwives and HVs interpret it as "feeding every 2 hours". The rationale is to encourage breastfeeding but the reality is it is going way overboard.

Generally by 2-3 weeks many newborns start slowly but surely consolidating their feeds. I wouldn't interfere with this process unless there are concerns about baby weight or general ability to thrive.

He has started to feed every 3 hours now but it’s taking so long to wind him

He previously would take a few minutes to wind and be a happy baby, now we are winding him for over an hour! He does lots of burps and trumps during this time but still doesn’t settle

We’re getting very tired now x

Funnily enough, I'm sitting in bed with my 11 day old wondering the same thing. During the day he is happily having 3-4oz every 2-3 hours but at night will go up to 5 hours without. I'm trying to wake him for a feed now and he's not having any of it! He's above birth weight and having plenty of wet and soiled nappies so I'm pleased to hear that I can leave him for now.

Regained birth weight and plenty of wet & a couple of soiled nappies...no way on gods green earth I’d be waking them.

I had a little boy 2.5 years ago and twins 6 months ago and I’ve never heard of being advised to feed every 2 hours. My twins were premature and extremely
Sleepy babies. In the daytime they’d sleep all day if I let them but they’d happily feed all night. I was advised by every consultant and midwife I saw for many days whilst in hospital to stick to 3 hours until babies were back to birth weight and then every 4 hours after that. Every midwife and HV I saw once discharged was happy with this schedule

Also every 2 hours will be extremely exhausting for you as there’s not even a small block of sleep. I hope you can express or if bottle feeding have someone else helping you - take care op xxx