Shld I wake baby up for a feed?

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pinklotus

New member
hello everyone

I am a first time mom with a 2.5 mth old baby girl. My dilemma is that my baby goes to bed between 7ish-8pm. However, her last feed for the evening is usually around 6 -7ish. She then does not wake up ( naturally) till abt 4ish - 5isham for a feed. She then goes back to bed and then wakes up at 730am.

Question is should I wake her up before 12am for the night feed? the reason being is that between the last feed at 6pm and the next one say at 4am.. it is too long stretch of hours before she gets a feed. Is that ok ie normal?

At present she is taking abt 5-6 feeds ( 4 feeds of expressed breast milk and sometimes 1-2 feeds of formula) which roughly amounts to 600 - 700mls per day. Is that sufficient for baby that age?

Some friends said that if she is hungry- she will let me know one way or another! and that i should just let her sleep thru the early morning. However - some other friends said that they usually wake up their babies for the midnite feed and then the baby will sleep thru the night till morning.

i am curious to know what other moms will do in this situation?

any comments will be most helpful! thanks!
 
Hi,
I never woke up my baby on purpose to feed him, if he was hungry, he would wake up naturally, and the sleeping schedule just came naturally to a full night (he sleeps from 7.30 pm to 7 am since he is 5 months). I think it's important that they learn what the hungry feeling is, and the pleasure of being fed.
Your baby already has a great night schedule... no need to worry about the night feed if she does not ask for it.... personal point of view ;)
 
There is no way I would wake your baby. Between 7pm and 7am, you should let your baby determine when they are hungry for a feed, and eventually hope that they stretch the 7 till 7 sleep without disturbing. You are doing well if bubs is only waking once at around 4.00 am.
Have you considered doing a dream feed (some call it a rollover feed). Basically there is a technique where you can feed baby in their sleep. My daughter was sleeping from 7pm to 7am from around 6 weeks old, with a dream feed around 10.30pm upto around 6 months old. If I didn't do the dream feed, she would wake through the night. Admittedly it took we a few goes to work out how to not wake her, but it was something I did religiously, and she guzzled heaps at this feed (around 20 minutes when breast fed, and over 200mils when bottle fed). I would recommend doing this.
 
completely agree with aussiemum and frenchy....no need to disturb her sleep....in fact u r one of thoe lucky moms who can get a full night's rest so early!
 
i agree with not waking the baby to feed! I am also not really a fan of dream feeding, although i know it does work for some babies. When i started feeding my youngest a rollover / dreamfeed it actually made him start to wake more in the night. it must have interrupted his sleep patterns somehow. He has slept brilliantly since I stopped doing it. At first he would wake between 4 and 5am.. then it gradually became longer and longer. By 3 months (or slightly before) he was sleeping from 7pm-7am - his last feed at 6.15pm and the next feed at 7.15am the following day. I consider myself lucky and follow his lead!!
 
I think you have a great sleep schedule, i wouldn't change it. I was never one to wake the baby up to feed though.
 
You don't give the one piece of information needed to make any recommendations - what is the baby's growth like?

If your baby is growing well then everything is fine. Although we usually expect a baby of this age to be having between 8 and 12 feeds a day, less is OK if the baby is growing well. (Some mothers also find that they need more feeds to maintain their milk supply, especially in the early months of feeding.)

If your baby is having problems with weight gain then I'd suggest adding extra meals in. This could be during the day, however, if you didn't want to disturb the night time routine. The only reason to wake a baby at night is to help with weight gain when extra daytime feeds aren't enough.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
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I've done this for both my babies, and for us it has worked.
My 2nd son is 4.5 months and at 10.30pm I take him out of his sleeping bag, and breast feed him.
I don't try to keep him asleep, or try too hard to wake him up.

He doesn't really wake up, and sometimes I can also get away with a nappy change.

He goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up at about 7.30-8am.

Having said that I know friends who have tried it and it is a complete disaster.
Give it a try. It's certainly nicer than getting up for a 4am feed.
 
hello everyone

thanks for the replies! its comforting to know that i am able to obtain advice from other more experienced moms out there! I think the general consensus is that i should not wake baby up unless she wakes up naturally due to hunger pangs. So..i will just let her sleep thru until nature makes its call.

As for her growth line, according to the paed.. she is gaining the "right" amount of weight between 20-30mgs per day. I am not sure which percentile she falls into though.I may try the dreamfeed technique but only if her growth rate does not seem to be in line.

thanks!
 
I woke my daughter in the early days because she was not gaining weight. Once she started putting weight on, I let her sleep for as long as she wanted (meant I could too!!)
 
no need to wake up baby for feeding unless she is not gaining weight. sleeping will help her to grow - it's actually good for her! as for percentiles - don't worry too much about where she falls as long as she is moving up from whereever she is! Good luck!
 
Hi my girl goes to bed from 8 til 7am since 3 months old so dun need to worry.when they're hungry they'll wake up naturally

And it means that her day feed is sufficient too :)

i;m sure alot of mommies are envy of u :)
 
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