Wake to Feed?

Wake to feed in the day time, let him wake on his own at night! Do your best to keep a schedule, for example: wake, change diaper, feed, play with,talk to your child etc., then sleep again. At night don't play with the infant to help him return to sleep quickly. Unless he has a weight or other mediacl issue, he will adapt quickly to your routine. Relax and enjoy your infant, they grow so fast!
Best of luck!

I am a mother of 4 children. They all did very well with sleeping thru the night and were very happy babies. Wake him during the day every 3 hrs. while he's still this young. It is normal for him only to wake for brief periods. I would "not" wake him in the night. Try to make his last feeding between 10 and 12 and make sure "you" go to sleep right after too. If he wakes in 4 hrs...fine. But if he sleeps longer, that's fine too. I wouldn't go more than 5 or 6 hrs. just yet. You don't want him to get his days and nights mixed up and sleep more in the day.

Sue

Hi there J.,

I'm a trained Newborn Care Professional. It's quite an adjustment for a baby to determine the day/night routine. Make sure he is getting lots of daylight during the daytime hours and be in a darkened room for the night time hours with only a night light for yourself. He should be fed every three hours by day and settle in to a 3-4 hour regiment by night. Say 10-2-6. I hope this helps....

NEVER wake a sleeping baby....when they're hungry...they'll wake themselves. Same goes for diaper changes...let it wait until they wake.

Your life will be easier...trust me :)

http://www.daniellewrites.webs.com

I am a firm believer in never waking a sleeping baby at night. Aside from babies with special feeding concerns, or children who are underweight. But in general, I see no reason to wake a baby at night. I always woke my babies during the day and made sure they ate every three hours. But at night, I would let them go as long as they would sleep. I wasn't going to sleep deprive myself if they were sleeping soundly!
My first slept 9 hours at night by the time he was 2 weeks old, and I never woke him. Like I said, I made sure he nursed every 3 hours during the day. He never had any problem and I never lost my milk supply. My body adjusted to going all night.
Good luck!

I breastfed, so I don't exactly have an answer, but I would imagine that this rule applies at least until they are past the "Newborn" phase - which is 8-12 weeks (?) Better rule of thumb would probably be until they are more active and awake themselves. They grow out of that sleep all day phase and figure out their nights and days - remember? Their bellies are so little!
Here is a resource that I always find helpful:

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/0/T000100.asp#T031009

Hope it helps!

Hi J.,
You didn't say whether or not you were nursing, but if you are it makes sense to either wake baby or pump to keep up your supply. All of my 7 children were very difficult to wake during the day for the first month. I would try to get in at least 5 feedings during the day, just so maybe they wouldn't wake as often at night. I never woke to pump at night even if they slept for 5 hours at night, and I never had a problem with milk supply. Everyone is different when it comes to that. In my opinion, particularly if you are not nursing, I don't think there's any reason to wake a baby of this age to feed, unless he's not eating enough or is severely underweight. My babies never had any problem communicating when they were hungry. Babies will not starve themselves unless there's some sort of medical condition or severe neglect, so i wouldn't worry about that. At two weeks, it's normal for your baby to have days and nights mixed up, but as long as you don't stimulate him at night feedings and do stimulate him at day feedings, he will get regulated before long. I always nursed in the dark at night, and changed the babies by the light of a nightlight. Worked out great. Congratulations. to you.

My pedi told me the same thing, and I also read it in books....but after the first couple weeks of being a new mom I decided to just let the baby girl sleep! She woke when she was hungry. I was breast feeding, so if she slept too long then I would pump to keep up my supply and save it. My daughter grew very healthy without me waking her every couple hours; she has consistently been in the 95% for both height and weight.

Unless there is a medical reason that your pedi thinks you should feed on a schedule I would let you son make his own schedule...he'll know when he's hungry.

I don't know why your pediatrician would tell you to wake a sleeping baby to feed them, unless there is some kind of special health concern?

Not to be a jerk, but I think they are told to tell you this through their relationship with the formula companies? Seriously, a baby WILL NOT allow itself to starve. If baby is hungry, baby will let you know it!

Also, babies at 2 weeks are still recovering from being born! They need their sleep, just like you do! I wouldn't tell you not to follow your doctors advice...but I'd never wake a sleeping baby to feed them. It just seems weird to me.

bottle fed? i am surprised that the MD wants to wake him. Both of mine were peanuts, and I let them call the shots as far as when they wanted to eat. My daughter was a little jaundiced, so I didn't let her skip meals or go longer than 4-5 hours without eating. Both did well :)

Absolutely wake to feed during the day!! The reason you do this is to get the longest sleep stretches during the night. I actually woke my baby every 2 hrs during the day, and then not ever at night. They will wake up on their own. You didn't say whether you were breast feeding or not. Some of the moms who did say you have to keep up the supply at night, but what i did was pump in the morning after she fed on one side because thats when my breasts were the fullest. If you're not BFing, I would say not to worry about timing at all during the night. Baby will tell you if he's hungry. Even this early, we are trying to teach them that night is for sleeping. Good Luck, trust your judgement!

My little one who is almost a full two weeks has his own schedule. He doesn't sleep long enough for me to wake him at all. Sometimes it seems like I only get a 15 minute break before he is back on and that can last for three hours. I have been told not to let him do that then told I should let him do it because it helps build up my milk. I figure if he really wants to eat and shows me his few little signs then I let him on for as long as needed as he is really young and needs to put on weight and grow. We can chat and/or complain together if you want.

Absolutely. Wake your baby every 3 hours during the day to feed. Your need to nurse that often to keep up your supply and if he sleeps all day he will be up all night. They get the same amount of food either way, its just that you want him to learn the difference between night and day. Your goal is to consolidate his night sleeps so he gets his longest stretch at night. Like by the time two more months have passed you can put him down at night and have him sleep 4 or 5 hours before he wakes you and then maybe only once during the night until the early morning. Try not to go more than 5 hours at night without nursing or pumping if you are breast feeding. I never woke my babies at night for feeding, they seemed to wake up ok on there on but the day was different.

good luck!

E.

We never woke the baby up to eat! Ive never heard of this unless your son has a weight problem. If my baby was sleeping, its because he needed to sleep! The first week maybe I woke him up if he went more than 5 hours but this barely ever happened.

I was told to feed as requested by baby. I never put my son on a regimented 3 hour feeding routine and have a very healty 14 month old that sleeps great too! He knew when he was hungry and never went past 5 hours without eating. As soon as he woke up - I would feed him - play and sleep again.

Yep, sounds right. I breastfed so I had to do it every 3 hours all day and all night until my daughter was about 5 weeks old. Then it was 3 hours all day, and at night only when she woke. It did not change to every 4 hours during the day until about 4 months.
Their little bellies are so small and can only hold so much at once so they need to be fed often.
Oh - and it is 3 hours from the START of the feed, not from when they finish.
Their biological clocks do not kick in until about 8 weeks, so he will not know the difference between night and day for a while yet. Waking hm during the day to feed is important - especially as time goes on so he will wake less at night. Right now, at 2 weeks of age, he is on a 24 hour schedule.

Good luck and congrats on your new little one!

Since my baby's blood glucose levels tested low in the hospital I was told to do this just until my milk came in. By my visit with the pediatrician when my son was 4 days old my milk had come in and my pediatrician told me I no longer needed to wake my child. If he wanted to sleep for 5 hours let him. However, my son didn't sleep for 5 hours until 3 weeks later anyway. But it was such a relief not to have to watch the clock!

If your pediatrician told you to do this there is probably a good reason, but I was told that usually healthy babies will wake themselves and there is no reason to keep tabs on the clock.

I nursed my kids so I don't have the answer for you during the day because they were up to nurse during the day quite often but our ped told us we didn't have to wake them at night let them wake on their own. I would imagine if your ped insists you wake him for a bottle there must be a reason behind it. Ask him why he wants you to wake him.

When my daughter was born, I had been told by the younger doctors that she should go no more than 3-4 hours without eating. But she was so sleepy, it was almost impossible to do. Then an older doctor said to me that she could sleep as many hours as she is in pounds (she was 7lbs, so theoretically I could let her sleep for 7 hours without worrying). That advice was a godsend. She only went 7 hours once or twice right at the beginning, and then once she recovered from being born, she was eating way more frequently than that! I think it also matters how much they are eating at each feeding. Both of my kids could power down 4+ oz pretty much right from birth (I was nursing, but often pumped and had an oversupply of breastmilk anyway), so they needed to eat less often than little ones would would only take an ounce or two eat each feeding. If you're bottle feeding especially, you have a better sense of how much he's eating during the day. I would worry more about overall food consumption and less about how often it's happening.

As for the day/night thing, I think you've gotten good advice, but I just wanted to add that he'll be up a ton during the day soon enough, so if you have a preschooler to take care of, I would just let him sleep while you can! At this point, it's probably not impacting his nighttime sleep any. Good luck!