Wake to feed or not?

[Eva's Mummy]

DD2 weights 5lbs 5oz our first midwife said we should let her go up to 4 hours to feed the next one that came out said I should wake her every 3 hours. She takes between 50-60ml at a time and it can vary between 3-4 hours occasionally she will sleep a bit longer than the 4 hours. But should I wake her to feed her every 3 hours or not?

[Lolly]

DD2 weights 5lbs 5oz our first midwife said we should let her go up to 4 hours to feed the next one that came out said I should wake her every 3 hours. She takes between 50-60ml at a time and it can vary between 3-4 hours occasionally she will sleep a bit longer than the 4 hours. But should I wake her to feed her every 3 hours or not?

I would ask the next midwife you see and take a consensus if it's a different one. She is a dinky thing so I think I would probably stick to 3 hours for the next few weeks until her weight starts increasing, I definitely wouldn't let her go past 4 hours

Laura

[*Liz*]

I agree - DS was 5lb 7 and I was told to wake at 3hrs and certainly not longer than 4hrs. Once the weight is coming up you can let them go longer, but they need those feeds at this stage.

These small ones are a teeny bit different to 'usual', and can also be very sleepy as well.

[Eva's Mummy]

Thanks ladies, she has actually started to wake herself every 3 hours to feed so i'll stick with that. The health visitor came out yesterday and she is now 5lbs 10oz so that's 5oz she has put on already 

[Lolly]

That's good! Sounds like she's doing great!

Laura

[nanavel]

no need to wake her up ... if you are breast-feeding her just pick up her slowly and give your boobie to her and she will suck it itself without wake-up...at least it is the case for my son ... which helps in making him sleep for 6 consecutive hours without waking up..

[Lolly]

Eva's Mummy is bottle feeding her baby . That's great that your LO will feed in his sleep, not all babies will though, neither of my two would so we never managed to do the dreamfeed.

Laura

[*Liz*]

Neither of my 2 ever managed to feed sleeping and they were BF until 6 mths +. This dream feeding thing really is a funny thing!!

If a LO would at night then that is great, but not a great thing during the day else you will face day/night confusion anyway  .

[Lolly]

I would only ever do it for the DF between 10pm and 11pm anyway or you could be feeding them when they don't need it! Better to let them wake for a feed naturally unless you have a reason to wake like a low birth weight baby or under medical guidance. You could be teaching them to need nightfeeds by feeding when they are asleep!

Laura

[*Liz*]

^^^^ good point!!