To wake newborn for feeding or not?

[dreamerkr]

Hey guys, I had my first DC a week ago at 38 weeks and I’ve been breastfeeding and also formula feeding him. My milk just came in 2 days ago, and it’s taken a while to get baby to latch on. He’s been feeding regularly although sometimes he does drink less milk like he will sometimes drink 1.5oz only. Should we be waking him up for feeding, or letting him sleep? Sometimes he will sleep for 3-4 hours and we have to wake him. He would stay asleep for longer if we didn’t wake him up.

Has he regained his birthweight?

If he hasn’t then you should wake him to feed every 3 hours, but once he has you can let him sleep as long as he likes.

Yes. You wake him up. At the least untill birthweight has been reached again.

Congratulations!

Depends on his weight and weight gain since birth. You really need to ring your midwives on this, they're responsible to you until 10 days after birth.

If gain is OK I think they say 5hrs... but completely depends on size of baby.

Let him sleep! I remember those days, can't believe in retrospect that I set an alarm for 2 hour feeding. Honestly, if you can sleep, do. Small one will soon let you know when he's hungry. Congratulations on your baby.

If he is sleeping normally (not too hot, not feverish etc) then I would let him sleep. Keep offering the boob when he's awake. At only a week old he will still be sleeping alot (it doesn't last!). Congratulations by the way!

Wake every 3 hours max to feed.

The general rule for a newborn is 1oz per hour although if you're formula feeding be maybe waiting for an easier feed... is he gaining weight and pooing regularly?

You can't measure the amount of breastmilk a baby gets, and so it follows that it's also not possible to work out how much formula is the 'right' amount

If your baby is happily sleeping, and is producing wet nappies at typical intervals, I don't think you have anything to worry about, and yes I'd leave DS to sleep.

And congratulations on your new arrival. Try to sleep when he does

I was told to wake baby to feed every 3 hours until she was over birth weight and gaining well. Unfortunately a hungry baby can be a sleepy baby at this age.

I would definitely not let such a young baby go much more than 3 hours, especially as you don’t know how much milk he is actually getting.

Thanks guys! He is pooing regularly, and we’ve only had one appointment yet 2 days ago on day 5 and he lost only 50g of his birthweight. He was 7lb 5oz which I’d say is a good weight for baby born at 38 weeks. So I should wake him every 3 hours?

I've mentioned this before but someone advised me to let my sleeping baby sleep but she didn't gain enough weight and my milk didn't come in properly. A lactation consultant made me set alarms at night, among other things, and baby started gaining weight and my milk came in fully. Babies can be too weak to wake up so just make sure your baby's weight gain is adequate before decoding not to wake them.

Personally, I would in the early days, just to get your supply up and give his weight gain a good early push. It does make a difference.

Yes - as PP says, a hungry baby can be a sleepy baby at this age.

No judgement but better let bf get established before adding formula surely?

I understand the theory but if I'd tried to wake my very very newborns to feed when they were fast asleep, it would've resulted in some frantic rooting and nursing for less than 5 minutes and they'd carry on sleeping until they woke up when they were properly hungry. So personally I'd let them tell me when they were hungry but you have to ge guided by your own baby's habits.

Thanks guys

Trying to mainly breastfeed now but at the same time I keep getting stressed about whether or not he’s getting enough milk. I thought I’d stop stressing as soon as he’s here but no. It was super stressful in the first few days when trying to breastfeed and he just wouldn’t latch on at all

If he's having wet and dirty nappies and is back to more or less birth weight already, you don't need the formula and it's not going to help if you want to establish BF.

It's only been a week, you're both still learning

How are you getting on now @dreamerkr?

Try to stop stressing. It sounds like bf is going well (I've ebf 3dc) and weight gain is good (yes I know you said 50g down but that's good going for a bf baby especially on day 5 when you'd expect weight loss to be near its peak).

Unless I was actively concerned about weight gain there is no way I would wake a baby to feed them. All 3 of mine would sleep for 4hrs from newborn and they gained weight fine.

Ebf babies can feed almost constantly so don't be worried if they want feeding 5mins after the last feed, are headbutting your boobs/grisling etc - it helps with milk production even if it is disconcerting.