Night feedings? Should I wake or feed while lo is asleep?

[Lels]

Hi everyone.  I am happy to say that lo is finally getting the hang of bedtime! 

She does wakes for 1 to 2 feedings during the night.  Around 1am and 5 am.  She is always swaddled and I have white noise going for all sleeps. During these feedings should I get her up or just pick her up and feed her.  She is usually very sleepy, so essentially if I don't wake her I feel like it's a dream feed?

Thank you in advance. 

[Erin M]

Is she waking at night for the feed or are you just feeding her at set times? 

Does she take a good feed?  As long as she's feeding enough, don't worry about waking her up too much.  When my LOs were tiny, I used to have to wake them up a bit so they would take a decent enough feed. 

[Lels]

She wakes for the feed, but will fall asleep while feeding. She seems to take in a good amount still. Should I let her doze while feeding?  Will this become a prop?

[Erin M]

I'd just let her fall asleep again as long as she's getting a decent amount.  If she's waking because she's hungry and you're feeding her, it's ok -- it only becomes a prop if she wakes only to nurse to sleep again.  (Does that make sense, sounds confusing the way I wrote it...)

[Lels]

Makes total sense!  Thanks!  She will nurse for 20 minutes which is shorter than her usual feed of 30 or so minutes.  Would that stil, be a decent feed?  I don't think she wakes up to nurse to sleep...but I could be wrong.  It just kinda feels like I do lots if dream feeds as she so sleepy during them. I am scared of introducing more props!!  We have enough already!  Haha

[Erin M]

Tha sounds fine, she could just be more focused because it's nighttime and there are no distractions!  Usually when babies have a nursing to sleep prop, they wake up frequently and only take enough to get back to sleep -- when they're littler, a lot of babies still need to eat a few times a night -- eventually she may need some help stretching out the feeds at night, but it's also possible she'll do it on her own. 

Forgot to ask earlier - how old is she?

[Lels]

She is 15 weeks, adjusted age 11 weeks.  Yes..she only wakes twice a night about 3 to 4 hours apart.  I think it's hunger.  She is very small, almost ten pounds.

[Erin M]

2 night wakings for hunger are totally fine at that age, just wanted to check. 

[Lels]

Thanks Erin. Do I count the dream feed as a night feed?

[Erin M]

Sort of -- it counts in your total number of feeds per day (of course!) and I would count it when people asked how many times my babies were nursing overnight.  But it's a little different as you're controlling it, so it's not your LO waking for a feed, you're taking charge to try to get some more calories in -- does that answer your question?

And if it helps, my ds was feeding on the exact same schedule at that age -- took him awhile to not need those nfs anymore but he eventually got there.