7 week old - to wake for feed?

[Emjm9]

Hi! I have a 7 week old baby boy. He is fed every 3 hours during the day. Then at night Usually I feed him at 7pm, put him to bed, and then he will wake for a feed at 11pm. If he doesn't wake up then I get him up and he usually wakes easily for the feed. Pretty much like clockwork since week 2. However tonight I got him up at 11pm and he just refused to wake up for the first time... I tried for about 20 mins to rouse him but he point blank refused! So in the end I've just put him back to bed.

Should I have persisted with waking him a bit more? Or is it ok to let him sleep through it and skip the feed?

I'm a FTM and clearly a bit clueless and just after a bit of experience!

Thank you :)

I let my babies feed when they're ready to. DD is currently asleep, and will probably not wake for a feed for another 3 hours or so. She's currently 12 weeks.

I found it's very hard to make a young baby feed when they're asleep.

Just skip it. If he's hungry, he'll wake up. Xx

My DS is 11 month now and I had conflicting advice from midwives and HVs, some said I must wake them every 4 hour, some said 4-6, and others said don’t wake them, if they’re hungry they will wake themselves. I went with my DMs advice in the end and what she did, I didn’t wake him and (touch wood) he’s slept through 12 hours since 6 week old. If I learnt anything as a FTM it was, I know my baby the best and to go with my gut/what I think is right :)

At 7 weeks he is probably taking larger amounts of milk and so needs fewer night feeds. If he’s gaining weight nicely then I’d wait for him to wake you, he’ll let you know when he’s hungry. I never woke mine for a feed and he gradually stopped waking so frequently.

DS started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks.
I never woke him for a feed from wound 7 weeks he would sleep 8/9 hours at night.

If he's not under weight leave him as he will wake up when he's hungry.

I would do atleast one feed in the night.
After about 6 hours or so i guess

But each to their own

By 7 weeks as long as there are no health problems or weight issues I would be letting them wake to feed at night.

Thanks everyone. He woke about an hour after I posted and has just been up for his usual 4am.
Just found it strange as it was the first time I'd struggled to wake him - maybe I'll be guided by him now and see if I can get him to sleep through. Thanks again 😊

@Emjm9 the only time you need to wake a baby through the night is if they are not gaining enough weight! X

Since my dd was 3 weeks old she has slept 11pm until 10am without waking, this scared the life out of me the first time but she is absolutely fine. I just breastfeed on demand. She is now nearly 6 months old and still does the same

I asked the HV this a few weeks ago (not that DD2 shows any sign of sleeping more than 3 hours between feeds, but never mind).
Response was if baby is gaining weight steadily, and plenty of dirty/wet nappies across 24 hours etc, then no need to wake to feed them. Seems sensible to me.

Why are you waking him at all? Has he had slow weight gain?

If he's a healthy full term baby, then leave him be and enjoy the sleep.

Feed on demand. Its BS that babies will over feed. If he's hungry he'll wake. In my experience with my 2 if their sleep is not as it usually is I'll check their temperature to rule out a high temp and then I just keep checking on them. It's winter and lots of bugs going round so just keep an eye but I'm sure he will be fine and just having a nice snooze with a full tummy. Congratulations BTW x

I was advised to wake every 4 hours to feed until they regained the birthweight. I was a paranoid FTM so set an alarm on my phone, it never went off as DS never went that long without wanting more milk!!