The final word on night feeds!

[Worrywort98]

Hi all,

I'm 37 weeks pregnant with my first baby, and I need clarification on whether or not babies ought to be woken up every 3 hours during the night for a feed as I've heard so many conflicting arguments for/against it.

Having heard that is is an absolute must, I asked my health visitor when she was round and she said no, and that I should just follow their pattern, ie. feed them when they waken by themselves, it's not necessary to wake them up if they're happily sleeping.

Curious as to what everyone thinks!

Asking as I am prone to horrific migraines (aggravated mostly by lack of sleep!) and if my baby decides to be a nice wee sleeper, I'm wondering if I should leave him to sleep during the night so we can all rest.

I was always told that once baby is back above birth weight, you don't have to wake them to feed.
Good luck! X

It depends if the baby is gaining weight ok as to whether you'd need to wake them. My 2 never slept more than a few hours at a time until they were quite a few weeks old so I never had to worry about waking them to feed.

General advice is to wake them for night feeds until they've regained their birth weight, which is usually by 2 weeks. If they're thriving and gaining weight well after this point then it's not necessary to wake them, they'll usually let you know when they're hungry. Just feed every 3ish hours during the day. Now personally my DS loves his sleep so I had a limit on how long I left him as if I didn't wake him I think he'd go too long. I only felt that way until 6 weeks when I knew for sure he was gaining weight well and no issues feeding. Again, that part was personal preference.

Thank you everyone!! These are helpful comments 😊 x

My second DS slept 6 hours straight the day after he was born, we were still in hospital and the midwives made me wake him.

They tend to lose a bit of weight in the first few days so you need to feed regularly until they're above their birth weight, but after that you can let them find their own pattern as long as they gain weight well.

I think a lot depends on birth weight and whether you BF or FF. Both mine were absolutely bloody enormous (over 10lbs) and FF after a few days because they had very severe tongue tie and I just couldn’t manage to BF. I’ve never woken either of them to feed but they were both pretty good feeders and no concerns at all about dropping weight as they never did anything apart from gain! So I think it really depends on your baby. If I’d had a smaller baby who fed less well I think I would have adjusted to feed more often even if that meant waking them.

We were told to wake ours every 3/4 hours - we had a reluctant feeder who was a very sleepy newborn. I think once she regained her birth weight it stretched out but can't quite remember.

How have your migraines been during pregnancy? I normally have regular bad ones (about five a month, but it used to be worse without medication) and like you they are aggravated by lack of sleep. In pregnancy they stopped after about 14 weeks, then I had two or three in the weeks after the birth. They then almost stopped (and were less severe) until I had to give up breastfeeding at 5 months and they returned. If I have another I would want to breastfeed for a long time - best migraine prophylaxis I have had!

Same here. With all 3 of my children I did set alarms initially but only for the first few days I think, as after that they were all waking regularly anyway and gaining weight well so I knew they'd wake so didn't need to.

Re: migraines, unfortunately I haven't been as lucky as you! I didn't have any from about 20 weeks onwards in my pregnancies either, although I stayed on amitriptyline in my third pregnancy until about 30 weeks. However they came back within a month or two of all my births. I think I'm going to have to go back on amitriptyline shortly as I'm 3 months PP and have gone back to having about 2-3 a week the last few weeks. The sleep deprivation and interruptions is definitely a main trigger for mine sadly. Amitriptyline helps me sleep a bit better though too so works really well for me.

Thanks for your reply!
My migraines have actually gotten worse and more frequent since getting pregnant! I had a bad patch of them around 25 weeks, there was a week there where I had 3 migraines in a row 😅😭
Awh that's good to know! - I'm hoping to breast feed as well, hopefully that'll help 😊 x

I will not be walking my baby to feed it through the night.
If it's hungry, it will awaken

The midwife and HV will guide you on this. Usually it's a yes for the first fortnight but after that you're fine to let them sleep.

(Also adjust your expectations: neither of mine slept three hours in a row by themselves until almost a year old)

That's not true.

Which is why midwives are very clear about those babies that need to be woken and the timeline they should be woken on. One of mine needed feeding every 2 hours at first.

This isn't always true. If your baby isn't gaining weight and isn't waking for regular feeds then you would need to waken them so they get enough calories for energy.

This isn't strictly true for very young babies. They can have trouble regulating their blood sugars and if blood sugar drops then they are very sleepy and unlikely to wake. This is one of the reasons for the suggestion of waking every 3 hours.

No think it's unlikely to be a problem. Most babies wake up much more than that during the night at first. One of mine slept four hours at a time from birth. I never set an alarm or anything - big lump of a baby that fed constantly during the day. The others woke up every 2 hours until they were 6 weeks old,