3 day old bfed baby - wake to feed or feed on demand ?

[puffylovett]

Am demand feeding at the mo, and waking up if he goes 3-4 hours sleeping unless it's at night. He's done hour stretches at night so far, and had some good cluster feeds.

He's feeding well despite a slight tongue tie, I'm really engorged today so milk is coming in. However he's a very sicky baby, I'm struggling to get his wind up well so he's having awake time between feeds whilst we try to get burps up / keep milk down !

Am generally just going with the flow, am I doing the right thing ?

Plenty of wet nappies btw, still awaiting the first breast fed explosion as so far just meconium....

Sounds just like my ds2 (7 weeks)! Right down to the tongue tie and wind etc. I'd say you were doing the right thing, but I'm no expert of course.

I'm no expert either! Sounds fine, but just keep an eye on the breast engorgement. My DS slept for long periods from birth, and i ended up getting mastitis because I was so full.

argh tell me about it, with DS1 I very nearly developed mastitis on day 3 as well. Right breast is currently ready to explode

My gut is telling me just follow his needs, I know he's feeding well. I spent so long analyzing with DS1 and trying to develop a routine, and in the end realised I'd wasted a whole heap of time. Am determined not to make the same mistakes this time around..

My ds slept a lot to start with and I hand expressed a little when I got uncomfortable. the worst bit was when the milk came in ie where you are now and it got easier from then on.

I'm no expert either but one little word of warning: my little one stopped waking for feeds on day three and got jaundiced even though we did try and wake him every couple of hours - the worse the jaundice got the harder it was to keep him awake to feed. Luckily, he didn't need any hospital treatment in the end but it was a scary couple of days. Keep an eye out for lethargy and going a bit yellow. Sounds fine at the moment. Good luck!

Wake him to feed at first - when your midwife weighs him you can have a conversation with her about when you should start leaving him to wake. If he gains well she may well tell you you can let him wake up naturally, if he's losing weight you may need to persevere with waking him up...

I am not an expert but had 5lb12oz twins and didn't wake them up at first to feed them. They were born term and were healthy, but did lose too much weight in the first five days, a stress which could've been avoided had I fed them regularly and woken them up to do so.

From my experience and talking to other mums and medical professionals, it is worth waking them every 3 hours to feed them in the first month, as when they are first in the world they don't have the energy to feed and don't know that they are hungry.

If I could do it again, I would feed them every three hours, and definitely wake them up if they sleep for longer than this, day or night. When I did start doing this - five days in, they very quickly stablised their weight loss and started gaining, and, within about a week or so, started waking themselves up to demand feeds every three hours as they were aware of their hunger cycles. I have since fed them on demand and found they have naturally gone longer and longer at night (which is lush!), and are very clear about when they are hungry. Once they are able to ask, feeding on demand definitely seems to pay off!

www.theshockofthetwo.blogspot.com

I'm also no expert, but if it were me and I was getting sore I'd wake him and see of he can be persuaded to have a feed

once your boobs have settled a bit, as long as he's not losing weight then let him sleep

I used to wake both of mine to feed in the day 3 hourly as my boobs would be sore, also ds1 lost a lot of weight initially and was v. sleepy. I didnt at night though, just fed whenever they woke up themselves.

I thought the principle of lots of feeds in te day=longer sleeps at night was a good one and it did seem to work for mine.

I'd say definitely wake to feed as all babies are born with bit of jaundice and it might get worse if he's not feeding well.

I spent a week in a hospital with mine due to jaundice and learned that: not feeding well = low blood glucose = jaundice gets worse = increased lethargy due to jaundice = not feeding well etc. Vicious circle.

Thanks all, and wow - hats off Theshockoftwo, feeding twins ! Amazing.

He seems to have settled into a cycle of guzzle guzzle guzzle for a couple of hours, then sleep for 3-4 hours, then guzzle lots, then cluster feed all evening, then have a couple of feeds in the night. I'm sure it will all change rapidly

Midwife came today, she said what I've been doing is spot on which is a reassurance as well. He's only lost 2oz so he's doing really well and his colour is good.

So I think he's geting the relevant number and amount of feeds in a 24 hour period, so I'm feeling much more relaxed now. Thank you all for advice !