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Sleep

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Original poster

Who wakes their baby for a feed?

15 replies

Beabea · 02/11/2006 14:46

DS will sleep for between 10mins but usually anything up to 6/7 hours. Now I don't usually wake him at night but I have after about 4 hours during the day time. Due to the clocks changing he is now waking at less convenient times. After DH has gone to bed resulting in me waking to do 2 night feeds (DH stays awake rather late) and also when I need to pick up DD from nursery.

DD used to feed every 2 hours in the daytime so this is new to me.

DS has currently gone nearly 5 hours without a feed. Would you wake him? Im pretty sure he will wake soon anyway.

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fifiandtheflowertots · 02/11/2006 15:13

if he's hungry he will wake himself tbh. ive only ever woke ds once and thats when he first slept through the night.
He was 5 weeks old and had gone to sleep at 9pm and was still asleep at 7am, i didnt know what to do so i woke him up for a feed as i thought he'd been left too long.
I dont let ds sleep too much during the day but he always wakes himself if he's hungry anyway.
How old is your ds?

Twiglett · 02/11/2006 15:19

NEVER wake a sleeping baby

... good rule of thumb IMO

why would you?

harpsichordsgoingBANGandWHOOSH · 02/11/2006 15:20

hahahahaha
NO never.
my mother said the same as Twiglet - and she has had five children and thirteen grandchildren.
listen to the wise women

2labs · 02/11/2006 16:10

I used to wake ds to feed for the first few weeks as he was losing weight when I just left him to it - he was so sleepy. Luckily didn't have to do it for long, though, and now (13 weeks) I wouldn't dream of waking him!

PinkTulips · 02/11/2006 16:12

never ever ever ever EVER wake a sleeping baby. if he's hungry he'll wake himself. be so incredibly glad you've got a baby that sleeps that long!

lulumama · 02/11/2006 16:14

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

no..honestly...if they are hungry..they will not stay asleep!!

he will find his own way and if you wake him because you think he ought to be hungry..you might end up with an overtired crotchety baby who won't feed!!

ComeOVeneer · 02/11/2006 16:16

Have to say thatI used to wake dd to feed her. She would feed at 7pm then go to bed and sleep until 3am then wake for a fed. I found if I woke her at 11pm fed her she would then go through until 7am. That way I could get an undisturbed night's sleep.

compo · 02/11/2006 16:20

Ooh this is interesting. My hv said to wake them if they've slept for longer than 3 hours in the day as the night will be a nightmare

bakedplotato · 02/11/2006 16:25

Absolutely yes I used to wake mine for feeds... mainly because I was concerned about them having too much sleep at the wrong time rather than too little food. I wanted to maximise chances of us ALL getting a good slug of sleep at the same time, during the night.
I did dream feeds too for the same reason.

firststeps · 02/11/2006 19:24

I used to wake my lo during the day to feed, I found if I fitted in 5 feeds during the day (roughly 7, 11, 3, 7, 11) then he would wake up (usually ) once at night between 3-5am. It also helps them to realise over time that day is for feeding and night is for sleeping (hopefully)

newmum36 · 02/11/2006 22:37

I have always woken my lo for feeding... he quickly then settled into a good 3 and and half to four hour routine and that was mostly feeding during the day - during growth spurts, he might need a few top up feeds. I always do a dream feed and we have had sleeping through the night from around 9 weeks. I really wanted to get a good nights sleep from as early as possible. That's not to say though that the method worked - could just be that that's the baby I have! But if it ain't broke don't fix it... I know lots of people who let their babies sleep on and feed them when they wake and we have all seemed to have reached the same conclusion in the end..you really need to find what suits you and your baby really - this way suited me and my lo is a very happy little thing (not today - had last set of jabs ).

jambot · 03/11/2006 04:59

I would wake DD during the day if she was still sleeping near to her feeding times and also never let her sleep later than 5:15 for her third 'cat nap'. Did this until about 7 months. This allowed me to almost always time her feeds to 7am, 11am, 3pm and 6:30pm. Never woke her for a dream feed and she slept straight through from 6:30 to 6:30 at 12 weeks.

Y1 · 03/11/2006 05:13

God no. Enjoy the break

ghosty · 03/11/2006 05:51

When DD was a newborn I never let her go 3 hours without a feed (and fed her more often if she wanted to) ... yes, I did wake her sometimes but I didn't wake her at specific times just 3 hours after last feed if she wasn't already awake ...
It worked for me (and her obviously) ... from 11pm I didn't wake her and so from the first week she would only wake once between 11pm and 7am ... that got later and later so by 8 weeks she went from 11pm to 7am without waking. By 12 weeks she had sorted out her own routine. She dropped the late feed at around 6 months.

She was fully breastfed.

LadyTophamHatt · 03/11/2006 07:07

during the day, yes.
At night, no.

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