On demand feeding?

[amieeb]

So I am a first time mum and just looking for some advice about when to feed my baby. She is now 5 days old and is always extremely sleepy. She seems to just sleep constantly. I keep being told that I should feed on demand and you can definitely tell when she wants feeding with all the cues.

My problem is when she is asleep at night she then will not wake herself up for feeds and I am having to wake her which then makes for a not too successful feed. I guess my question is should I Truly just feed on demand and let her sleep as long as she likes through the night or is it best to continue to wake her up and try to stick to a schedule?

She is happily having around 90mls/3 ounces around every 3-4 hours through the day but just isn't interested when I wake her up at night

I'm being told so many clashing things by lots of different midwives and doctors so I will not bother asking them.

Hi op.

I had to wake my boy every 3 hours for a feed as he had jaundice and was very sleepy however I’ve heard so many people say that a sleep is as good as a feed and that baby will let you know if their hungry.

I’m no expert though and appreciate she is only 5 days old but maybe she is taking enough through the day to keep her going.

How long is she sleeping for before you wake her?

I was told to wake my baby up every three hours for a feed during the day but to do on demand during the night until he reached birth weight. He had jaundice and was so sleepy.

I was always told to wake the baby every 3-4 hours. Strip them completely naked to wake them fully, change bum, dress again, then hopefully they'll feed better

You have to wake her as you will need to do nappy changes as size 0/size 1 nappies leak after a few hours. If she then doesn't want a proper feed don't worry as in about a week she will have a growth spurt so you will probably be up feeding and changing constantly.

My LO was similar to yours when she was born and her refusal to feed overnight for the first day was why we weren't discharged quicker. Then by two weeks she needed lots of feeds in the night. By 8 weeks she could sleep 5-6 hours so would cluster feed from 5pm-11pm.

As long as your baby's weight gain is ok, I would not wake her at night to feed.

At only 5 days old I would continue to wake her up. Once she is a few weeks, assuming she is putting on weight etc. Then I would probably let her sleep and just feed if she wakes for it.

At 5 days I would wake, particularly if my baby fed 3-4 hourly in the day.

At 5 weeks I probably wouldn't wake assuming everything was going well, I.e nappy output/weight gain

Congratulations

Hi, we had to wake every 3 hours, with one 4 hour stretch in the night if we wanted. This was the case till she had regained her birthweight (which took us 28days) and she was waking independently for feeds.

But, she has always been a sleepy baby - YAY!! When I was able to stop waking her she started doing 6-9hr nights which was AMAZING! She's now 7mo and sleeps beautifully at night and I'm sure it was in her nature from the start so I hope it's the same for you ❤️

Hungry babies don't sleep, sleepy babies don't eat 💁🏻‍♀️

Hi.

Congrats on baby

Yeah I echo what everyone is saying. Wake her up.

Our 5 week old had jaundice during the first 2 weeks so we had to wake her every 4 hours to help it to clear. Also, you dont want her to become dehydrated if she isnt waking herself up.

X

My DC1 was similar. He was really sleepy and waking him up enough to feed at night was a mission. DH had to strip him, blow in his face, even gently sprinkle water on his face. But at his 5 day midwife visit he was only 5% under his birthweight and she said to stop waking him. But he stopped being so sleepy then anyway and I was being woken by him!

Thank you to everyone for your replies ☺️ I have now stopped setting alarms as she will usually wake herself every 3 hours and sometimes 4 at a push. (Except last night when she slept through for just over 5 hours which tbh felt amazing). She had also only lost just under 1% of her birth weight at her 5 day check so I'm not really concerned about her weight too much.

Sounds like you are doing a great job, well done x