2 week old - to wake or not to wake at night

[lilysmommie]

Hi All,

My sister-in-law has a 2 week old baby and needs some advice. Her DS is a big boy (9olb13oz at birth) and now weighs close to 10 lbs. He is on formula and is a very good eater. He will consistently eat 3 oz at a feed every 3 hours (yes!).  Her question is whether or not to keep waking him up every 3 hours at night to feed him. He takes a while to settle back to sleep after feeding in the night and consequently, gets about 1 hour of sleep and then needs to be awakened again to eat!  The whole household is getting very little sleep.

My thinking is that she should tank him up in the evening, do a dream-feed and then let him sleep. Maybe set her alarm for 5 hours past his last feed just in case he doesn't wake up. He is a big boy and a good eater so I think he will be fine to let him sleep. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

lilysmommie

[Lana]

Bram was 8 pounds when he was born and I NEVER woke him to feed.

[Cohensmom]

I agree with everyone, don't wake him.  She should enjoy the sleep cause he is only a couple weeks old and his sleep patterns could change quickly. 

I stopped waking my son after the first week since he gained his birth weight back in less than a week.  If she gets him in a routine now, does the dream feed, I would let him sleep until whenever he wakes up, even if that means him sleeping longer than 5 hours.  I wouldn't set the alarm and wake him up.  I think the more you wake him up to feed, the more it could create a habit of him waking and will need to be fixed later on.

Good Luck!

[lilysmommie]

Thanks so much to all of you!!  My DD is 10 months now....it's amazing how quickly you forget how it was when they were so little!!!  (Sleep deprivation will do that to you).  I'll pass along your tips to her.

lilysmommie