Wake baby to breastfeed?

[startingagainafter14years]

Hi. I have a 1 week old baby boy. I breastfeed on demand and at night I worry terribly as the nurse at the hospital (i'm from Spain) said not to let him go without a feed for more than 2 hours. However, there's been a few nights where it's been almost 4 hours after his last feed and he STILL hasn't woken to eat. At that point i have woken him gently - which has taken me another 30mins- to give him a feed.

What should I do? Should I wake him for the feed before the 2 hours or should i just let him sleep?

Will the long breaks between feeds cause my milk supply to dissapear?

Help please.....

The answer depends ...

How is his health? Was the birth ok? Are there any other health concerns?

Is he producing lots of wet and dirty nappies? How many poos per day?

How is his weight gain?

If it's night time then I think 4 hours is fine. You want him to learn about day and night Day time every couple of hours is good.

How much does he weigh, roughly?

Better answer from NQC

i would say no to waking him unless he was ill Perhaps even at one week old,your son is a particularly efficient feeder. Does he cluster feed a lot in the evening?

If you feel your breasts are getting particularly full you could try expressing and if you're not using it just now, you can freeze it. It may come in useful.
Your breasts will adapt to your sons feeding habits, so I wouldn't worry.
Enjoy your sleep while you can and come back and re-visit this thread in 3 months time!

I think it sounds great. My 3 week old boy sleeps ALL day and parties at night. Between him and 2.8 DD I got 1.5 hours sleep last night (yawn). I think my kids can smell me sleeping and draw lots on who gets to wake me up!

On a more practical note is he otherwise alert and producing lots of wet/dirty nappies? His weight may well drop at this stage, but he should start regaining very soon, they will keep an eye on this.

My DD (also BF) has always gone 4 hours at night... when she lost weight straight after the birth the midwife said to wake her after 3 hours, but once she was gaining properly again I was told it was fine to leave her until she woke.

Hi again.

Birth was great - didnt feel contractions and pushing took all of 30 mins from start to finish! No meds, baby weighed 3080 kgs (roughly 6.790 lbs).
Have weighed him today and he is now 3.200 kgs. (7.054 lbs)
Yes, the 4 hours is mainly at night. He feeds regularly during the day and has short naps between.

Ok, he's a week old, he's put on not that much, but he's up a bit from birth, which is great.

How many poos and wees per day?

If he's pooing and weeing lots, then the four-hour gap may be fine. Is he sleeping near you at night, so you can boob him if he stirs?

oh yes, sleeps right next to me in crib. Sometimes in bed with me too. Everytime he does make a sound, I put him straight on. Has a few sucks and goes straight back to sleep! At least 4 or 5 poos a day so I think he's ok in that department.

Will be visiting pedriatrician this week so will let you know!
Thanx for advice!

It sounds like you are doing really well. Babies all fall into their own patterns, and it's not uncommon to have one time of day (and even better if at night!) when a baby sleeps for 4hrs or even slightly longer. Is it just one stretch of this length? Often then at other times of day they will feed much more frequently. A rough guide is 8-12+ feeds per 24rs and not necessarily evenly spaced.

As he has gained weight and is doing lots of poos (yellow? bigger than a £2?) and wees (?) then this slightly longer stretch at night doesn't sound a big worry. Sleepy babies are more of a worry when the signs covered above are not all good, and particularly if labour/birth has been long/traumatic or they have been exposed to pethidine/morphine/epidural/oxytocin drip or are jaundiced or having any other problems.

Congratulations on your lovely new baby .

He sounds lovely and healthy

My personal credo is never wake a sleeping baby

FWIW they often "wake up" when they are a few weeks old, so you might not be getting quite so much sleep then! Make the most of it

To keep up your supply, you might consider giving him a feed somewhere between midnight and 1 am, then letting him sleep, if he continues to gain enough weight.