Do we leave our newborn to sleep through the night?

[Emfrancesca]

My little girl is now 1 week old and at night we have to wake her to be fed but then she really struggles to settle back down!
We usually change her nappy and then give her a bottle before bed. She settles down beautifully and has been falling asleep in her cot. We then have to set an alarm for every 4hrs to feed her as the midwives told us to not let her go any more than 4hrs without a feed. So we wake her but then she really struggles to settle back down and it can be hours before she gets back to sleep.
My question is, if she is peaceful and settled, do we just leave her to sleep and let her wake us up when she wants feeding?
We don't want to do the wrong thing and end up starving her. She feeds really well during the day and surely she would wake up at night if she was hungry, as this is what she does during the day.

I think even 4hrs is a long time tbh, we fed at least every 3.
It is absolutely not desirable for a newborn to sleep that long, I wouldn’t want to worry you @Emfrancesca but it’s not a good thing. At that age and especially with jaundice they need waking.

Yes advice is to wake a newborn to feed every 3 hours if they have jaundice, 4 hours max. They can also get dehydrated easily and get unwell very quickly, I personally wouldn't want to do anything different to what I've been told by the mw at such a young age. It won't be for long op, but yes at this very early stage I'd worry about the jaundice and possible dehydration and stick to

Follow yr midwife’s instructions, she is the expert, not random people on the internet.

Agree with waking her to feed at a week old and with jaundice.
It's annoying she struggles to settle again but she needs the frequent nutrition to clear the jaundice. My dc1 was similar. In a few weeks you will be able to stop - though don't be surprised if she changes to waking more frequently and you'll wish you had this problem again!

My DD slept through from day 1. I never woke her in the night to feed her. She fed loads during the day and was fine. My HV had no issue with this. I didn't want to train her to wake every 4 hours!

Please listen to your midwife rather than random people on the Internet. Yes there does come a time when it's fine to leave them to sleep overnight, that time is not a 1 week old jaundice baby.

My first only woke up once through the night until 8 weeks when she started sleeping through from about 10-7. I have 4 DC and I was never once told to wake them up through the night. New rules I guess but remember that before the rule, hundreds of babies managed doing it a different way.

Take the advice on here, friends, family, your midwife and then do what you feel comfortable with.

You were very fortunate then, a 1 day old baby literally does not have the stomach capacity to take on the milk and therefore the nutrition needed overnight- they need regular feeds. This kind of advice shows how clueless many HVs are.

My first baby never cried for a feed, but she had a VSD (hole in her heart), which made her weak. It was impressed on us that we HAD to wake to feed regularly, as she could only take small feeds before she became exhausted. Not saying OP's baby is I'll, but always worth another check with doctor

Please listen to your midwife rather than random people on the Internet. Yes there does come a time when it's fine to leave them to sleep overnight, that time is not a 1 week old jaundice baby.

This. Wake her up.

Never woke any of mine through the night.

Definitely talk to midwife again but perhaps suggest waking her after 4.5 hours for a few days, then 5 hours and so on. As long as she's gaining weight and the jaundice clears then sleeping through the night is great!

Dream feed, no need to change nappy at every wake in night, i only change if absolutely necessary and appy is full to the brim

This isn't meant to worry or anything but my little one was jaundice and would be so sleepy; very quickly her jaundice worsened. Is she waking fine in the day? Once the jaundice settles you're probably fine to let her sleep but definitely stick with advice of midwives!

People will now be replying not having read your update mentioning jaundice, which is very relevant here. You need to feed regularly including waking if needs be until that is resolved

If she has jaundice then yes wake her but I wouldn't otherwise.

I had two jaundiced babies, fed both every 3 hours during the day, last feed at 11pm. This feed was in the dark. I didn’t wake them between 11 and 7, just fed them if and when they woke. They always had a 7am feed. By 11 weeks both were sleeping 7-7. Realise every baby is different but not actively waking worked for them.

At one week,old I would also be concerned about her drop in blood sugar, so I'd wake every 4 hours.

@Tarantullah she never lost weight and was absolutely fine. I was very lucky to have a baby that slept so well. This was many years ago so maybe things have changed but it made sense not to train a baby to wake up every 4 hours.