Did you/do you wake your newborns for feedings?

[biblionerd]

I'm still giggling a little that the peds resident politely chastised us for not waking Ruby to eat every 3-4 hours. Since she was born, she will regularly give us one 5 or 6 hr stretch at night. Not all the time, but often. She was 10 lbs and is almost freaking 11 lbs. I'm not waking her to drink a bottle. Our pedi even chuckled when I asked her at the one week appt if I should wake her since she did drop a little bit of weight after birth. She said we could wake her more often to eat if we wanted, but she drinks way more than a normal baby her age, so she said either way it all evens out (i.e. we could feed her 2-3 oz every 2 hours or let her drink her normal 5-7 oz every 4-6 hours.) Yes, this child will seriously put away 7oz at a time. Just curious what you did with your healthy, full term babies. 

[redmonkeystomper]

I did not wake Ruby for feedings. Especially if she was giving me a 5 hour chance of sleep!!

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[teamhayes]

We woke kellen. But mh worked nights and I would have to pick. Him up at 1am so it just worked out that way.

Now we wake the boys at 5am to drop me off so they eat and go back to bed at 7

If ruby is big and u don't need to go anywhere I would let her sleep

[Deleted]

I woke every 3hrs with both babies for roughly a month. But, both babies were preemies and the fear of returning to the NICU with jaundace made it ok. If gladly wake every 3 hrs & have my babe home with me.

[flyhigh37]

Nope but that was because she woke enough on her own and has always been a grazer. I can count on one hand the times she drank 4 oz or more in her life.

I wouldn't wake an 11lb baby who was sleeping 5-6 hour stretches. She just has it figured out already.

[kdrake8]

We woke both for about a month. Then we stopped and just let the stretches get longer.

[whodey]

Hell no, i didn't and Liam was a little baby (came home at 4lb 10oz), my pedi recommended that I wake him to eat every 2-3 hrs, but I figured 1missed feeding a day wouldn't be the end of the world and I REALLY needed the sleep to power through the day

If she's already almost 11lb, it sounds like you're doing great and she's not missing that motn feeding

[Dorothy Zbornak]

I had to with Butters because he had an infection as a newborn.

[mala]

I did for two nights or so, then said fuck this. It just made us both tired and cranky.

[sandj82110]

I did with Daniel for about a month (although he rarely gave us long stretches anyway) but by 9 days old he had gone from 8.2 to 7.3 and we spent two nights in the hospital working on his nursing (and supplementing). Hw was a month old before he made it back to birth weight. Hardly the same, I'd let her sleep!

[devonpow]

No way (of course, neither have me the chance to have that be an issue, lol). I would have woken if there were weight gaining/medical issues of some kind. Otherwise no.

(I would wake E to eat during the day sometimes purely for scheduling purposes)

[Deleted]

Yes because he was so bitty. I probably won't next time.

[bebeetmoi]

Feb 8, 2014 6:52:40 GMT -5 mala said:

I did for two nights or so, then said fuck this. It just made us both tired and cranky.

This exactly.
She was also a decently sized baby (8.6lbs) who gained weight like a champ, so I didn't worry myself. My mother and grandmother stayed with me for the first week or so, and were aghast at me waking her to eat. It was one of their old school things I had to agree with and it helped make me feel better about not waking her. 

[kkfeb04]

Yep, because they had jaundice. My 10 lber nursed every 1-2 hours until 8 months but that wasn't due to me waking him, he demanded that so he got it. My kids are slow gainers and dropped from the 99% to the 5% for weight. My 9+ lb preemie was woken because of jaundice.

I also nursed both and I hated waking up to leaking milk.

[muppetinma]

I didn't wake Andrew. He was a big kid and had no problem with weight gain, so I just let him sleep.

[ruby412]

They told us to wake her every 3 hours to eat. She came home at 5 lb 15 oz and had jaundice. I don't know if I'd do that again next time if the baby was bigger. I was SO sleep deprived in the beginning + recovering from labor and the emergency c. It sucked!

[imimahoney]

Nope but because he ate every 2.5 hours round the clock during the day and every 4 hours at night. He was his own little alarm clock.

[Deleted]

I did for a month since it took her that long to get back to her birth weight. She was a slow gainer. She never ate well when I woke her so not sure if I will so that again for as long.

[sunshineluv]

We planned on waking him up until he was back at his birthweight, but he would wake himself up. He was back at his birthweight at 2 weeks, so we went with the saying never wake a sleeping baby.

[charmediamsure]

Feb 8, 2014 7:13:56 GMT -5 @thadsrad said:

Yes because he was so bitty. I probably won't next time.

This for us, too.  Jack was so slow to put on weight and he had jaundice so he was always so sleepy.

[Beener]

Unless there's a medical reason to do so (infection, jaundice, preemie) there's no way I will. We didn't with Emmy either.

[katie]

No but she never gave us a chance to since she loved to be awake crying. I would only wake if there was a medical reason. Enjoy those stretches!

[laurack]

No I don't think I did. Maybe once or twice at first because the doctor was freaking me out saying she was taking too Long to regain birthweight (still 4oz short at 2 weeks) but I really couldn't bring myself to do it much. She was a healthy baby 8# at birth and ate all day then would sleep a 4-5hour stretch some nights.

I don't think I will wake the next one or get so worried if it takes him over 2 weeks to get back to birthweight.

[artgal84]

We did because she took 5 weeks to get back to her birth weight. Then we didn't anymore but she woke up a few times anyway, still does.

[breezy8407]

Yes but because we wanted them on the same schedule. We were on an every 3 hour schedule for the first 8 weeks I think.

[carawestt]

I never woke them up, they always woke every 2-3 hours on their own.

[browneyedhunni85]

Nope. He always let us know when he was hungry.

[alicia45]

We woke her every 3 hours, day and night. Ugh. I'm pretty sure we won't do that again. She was born at 37 weeks and the pedi insisted that we wake to feed for three months! I mean yes she was small for her age and had jaundice but three months, that was crazy! Barring any extreme weight issues, I will not do that again.

[rainbowchip]

I'm in shock that she is drinking 7oz! I never woke my kids to feed and Dylan had lost quite a bit by the time we left the hospital. It worked out ok.

[mscatra]

We did for the first two weeks. We were right on the edge for jaundice, had a blood type mismatch (I'm O-, she's a+), and big birth weight drop.