Wake a newborn to feed?

[Holly dolly]

Originally Posted by luvsviola My kids were all less than 6 pounds when they came home and jaundiced. We woke to feed til weight gain was better. However, if weight gain is ok, I'd let it go. When DD was 4 days old she slept for 6 hours. I was thrilled. I mentioned it at the ped the following day, and my ped was mortified! We were told every 3 hours til she hit 8 pounds.

This exactly!!

[EuphoricDysphoria]

Thanks for the responses! It sounds like waiting until tomorrow to check her weight is an important first step to take.

I may try backing off on how much I give her to et during the day and see if that helps with the sluggish sucking.

[cmarsh31]

Never needed to wake my DS (he never, ever missed a feeding, and never slept more than 2 hours at a time - but STTN at 5 weeks). He had a rough first week but was back to birth weight and more at 10 days.

My DD was the complete opposite. That baby NEVER woke up. I did everything (my SIL still laughs at walking into my hospital room and finding that I had my Starbucks frap cup against her trying to wake her!). She was slightly jaundice and took her sweet time to get back to birth weight and really start gaining. For the first 2-3 weeks, I set my alarm all night long to make sure I woke her every 2-3 hours.

DS weighed 12lbs at a month (8-9 at birth, 7-6 at his lowest), DD wasn't 12lbs til she was 6 months old (6-11 at birth, 6-3 at her lowest). I'd probably back off a little today if you think she's doing ok and see what her weight is at the DR tomorrow (that's what I did with my DS because he was clearly gaining).

[ecomama90]

My daughter was born at 7lbs 14oz and was pretty badly jaundice. I had to wake her every 2 hours to eat and she was so sleepy. It was really hard to feed her and she wouldn't eat so her jaundice took a while to go away. When we brought her home though she was eating fine and gaining weight and she was sleeping through the night. I didn't wake her, I thought she would wake if she was hungry and that she did, and she would eat quite a bit then go back to sleep. I think if the baby is gaining weight then there is no need to worry. My ped said that a sleeping baby is a growing baby haha

[EmilytheStrange]

my baby was so tired as a newborn that I could NOT wake her up to eat. The nurses would come and try to help me, but she was not having it.

just some extra info, I guess

[shortcake2386]

dd was still "nursing" at 2 weeks(i use this term loosely since she actually wasnt sucking lol) since we started bottle feeding her pumped milk she has NEVER gone longer than 2 hours w/o eating during the day, but sleeps 4-6 hour stretches at night. she takes 3.5oz every 2 hours. before that she would go longer between feeds but it was bc she really was not getting enough to eat:/ ive always been told that under 4 weeks they need to eat every 2-3 hours. id let mine go to 3 hours if they were asleep. ive never woken mine up at "night" not even as newborns. but they all woke up to eat every 2-3 hours for the first 4 weeks or longer. dd is 3 months old now btw. so older. she is 9.5lbs.