Hi Ladies
I said I wasn't going to start EASY with our newborn but here I am
LO is 9 days old and was born at 36 weeks at 5lb9. However had gone up to 5lb10 at 4days old. He was fed with expressed breast milk for 2/3 days.
Now during the day he happily wants to go 3-4 hours but at night he goes 2hours so for the past 2 days I have been waking him at 2.5hours in the day which might have helped last night as he did go a slightly longer stretch. Where do I go from here? I can't handle 2 hourly feeds as he is very slow and sleepy and takes 45mins to drink his 2-3oz and then another 45mins to bring his wind up (and I can't put him down with wind) so I get 25-30mins between his feeds and I have a toddler to get up with in the morning and sleep deprivation is literally KILLING me!
Anyway yesterday -
Feeds at 7am, 9.30am, 12pm, 2.30pm, 5pm, 8pm. I had to wake him for every one of these feeds. He is taking 2.5oz at daytime feeds but it's quite a struggle although at night he will guzzle 3oz! He generally stays awake for 1hour after his 7am feed and 1.5hours after the 5pm feed, for the other feeds he is asleep but still sucking. He self settles day and night with a dummy and white noise.
Last night -
Feed at 11.15 (back to bed for 12.45) then woke again at 1.15am. He wasn't crying just sucking his fist and very restless so I popped his dummy in and gave him a few cuddles until 2.15am when he was getting a bit frantic. He drank his full 3oz quickly and easily and we started gripe water so he was much more settled and back to bed by 3.15am.
He then didn't wake until 5.15am so a really good stretch (this was the only sleep I managed all night!) , again not crying but clearly getting hungry. I held him off until he got frantic at 6.10am, he was really fussy with this feed and didn't finish his 2.5oz until near 7.30am. I think half the time when he wakes he isn't fully hungry but is just unfamiliar and unsettled with the feeling of an emptier tummy!
So, my questions are -
Is it okay to keep stretching the time between feeds at night using the dummy or a cuddle? As long as he isn't crying or upset of course?
And should I wait until he cries before picking him up? I try not to let him cry as I don't want DD wakened.
Should I carry on with the 2.5hourly daytime feeds to max out his daytime oz's or should I encourage him to go longer during the day?
Should I squeeze in a cluster feed if he will take it?
And should I start a dreamfeed at 11pm (rather than letting him go that little bit longer) or is he too young for that :-S
Thank you for any tips and suggestions.
