Waking baby up for feed?

[Nadines1987]

Hi all, I'm a first time mum and just looking for some advice regarding feeding my daughter. She is 5 weeks old tomorrow and is feeding well and gaining the correct amount of weight. Throughout the day she is having 3.5-5oz every 3 to 4 hours, however in the night we at waking her every 4/5 hours for a feed! Spoken to HV and Midwife and they said to let her sleep but I don't feel comfortable letting her go so long without a bottle! Is anyone in a similar situation or been in the same situation?xx

If she is healthy and feeding well she should be fine to leave for say a 7-8 hour stretch at night.

My babies all slept for at least an 8 hour stretch from 5/6 weeks it's quite common. Feed her last thing before you go to bed then first thing in the morning unless she wakes earlier.

I would let her sleep. Her sleep pattern will chop and change regularly so allow her to lead you. Congratulations.

Is it common randomness? i am assuming this is the case for bottlefed babies, rather than breastfed!

But yes, its only in the first two weeks youre supposed to wake them i believe.

One bottle fed, 3 breast fed!!!

One of the breastfed ones wouldn't wake for a dreamfeed she was 7pm until 4/6am from a couple of weeks, another was 8-6 from a few weeks old. Bottlefed baby finally slept through at 7.5 weeks ie 9ish until 6ish.

If she's regained her birth weight then there's no need to wake in the night.

It is common for them to do an 6-8 hour stretch at that age. Both my breastfed babies did. With my first it didn't last and he still wakes once or twice a night at 6 years.

My second went stretched it and started sleeping 8-7 at eight weeks and is a brilliant sleeper.

Bloody hell!

Lucky you

Our baby was sleeping through the night (about 7 hours) from 4 weeks. At first we were also waking her every 3 or 4 hours. After a couple of weeks we just let her wake up on her own. Not affected her weight gain at all and we all felt better for a bit more sleep!! If she's hungry she'll let you know :)

rubyroot - my baby is breastfed. Although I've heard it is more common with formula fed babies.

Fab! Thank you all for your replies! Going to try and not wake her up for a feed! We are very lucky she is a very chilled out content baby! Last night, She slept from around 10.30 last night until 3am and then from around 4ish until 8am!xx

My 5 week old goes 6 hrs at night between feeds. Just be ready to feed asap when they do wake up as they realise they are hungry but then i find she feeds really efficiently and goes straight back to sleep

How did it go last night OP? Following with interest x

Sorry for late reply only just seen this! It's been going really well the first night she slept from 11.30 to 5am! And each night now she's going around 4 and a half hours to 5 hours without a bottle and only waking up once for a bottle. Feeling very lucky with amount of sleep we are having x

That's great, I'd keep up with the waking baby during the day every 3-4 hours for a feed. I always did with mine and I think it did help with sleeping through earlier. At night they got fed, nappy change if needed all in as dark as I could then dumped back into their cot - I am not good in the night

One of mine wouldn't wake for a dream feed in the evening so she was the one who woke around 4 am for quite some time!

Yeah that's what I'm doing every 3-4 hours during the day which I think is helping as she is stocking up during the day! She slept last night from 7pm through to 12 and then woke up at 4.30 this morning then which I can deal with so getting a good few hours sleep!xx