Hi All,

Well Alyssia is my first baby and still finding my feet a little and wondering if you ladies can help with some questions. She was born at 37 weeks and is 6.5 and just gone down to 6 Ive been told my midwife to make sure she feeds every 4 hours. During the night esepcially I have to wake her to do this and I feel a little mean should I let her sleep until she wakes askeing to be fed or carrying on waking her to feed?

Also nappies duroing the night when i wake her for a feed I generally do her bumthen feed her but somtimes as shes fed and gpoing back to sleep i feel like she has weed again so chnge her and wake her back up am i voer worrying??

If anyone can offer any advice I would be most grateful XX

This is just my opinion but i never woke Issac he always wakes me when he is hungry. If she is wanting to sleep longer then she may just end up feeding more throughout the day... Im a lil jealous of your 4hour gaps Issac does 3hours max through the day but only wakes once in 12hours through the night.

I always change issac before a feed and its the same through the night so he goes 12hours with only 1 change unless he has poo'd then ill wake him (i always check on him before i go to sleep)

You could always let her sleep through the night and see how she feeds the next day? you may find she will wake around the four hour mark anyway.

Congrats on your baby girl :-D xx

Wss ^^ I agree

I also have never woken lo to feed her. She will wake and cry if hungry. I nappy change before her night feed but wouldnt change her again in the night unless she has pooed.

Wss ^^

My lo was born at 37weeks and was 5lbs 2oz but he went down to 5lbs. I just fed on demand initially i was bf and then ff i did this for the first few months until he established his own routine. Generally the last nappy of the night after bathing was the same, i wouldnt change unless he hD pood! Your lo will let u know when shes humgry hun.

Can only agree with the others. I wouldn't wake LO during the night for a feed. She'll let you know when she's hungry. I would put a clean nappy on LO after his bath and wouldn't change it until morning unless he'd pooed as I found changing his nappy at night would just wake him up more and make it harder to get him back off to sleep. The way I saw it was that when he slept through, he wouldn't have a nappy change until morning so there was no need to do it for his night feed unless it was dirty.

I personally wouldn't wake LO for a feed any time of day but I know that if they are born early then its a different story. I'd do as HV said & wake thro night (just because of being early) next time u see HV ask how long u shld do that for, coz im sure its only a cpl of weeks.

As for nappies, I always change before feed as its easier than doing so after. And I find it a good way of remembering. Unless its a poo which gets changed asap. I wouldn't bother changing nappy if you know they've done one pee for example. Its only if the nappy hasn't been changed for a while you should worry. One pee gets soaked into the nappy & wouldn't cause LO any probs.

Dont feel bad about asking questions, its always the silly questions we dont want to ask but sometimes they are the most important ones

Thanks for that guys. I think Im reading too much on the old net and with the midwife I dont know whats best and end up working myself up that Im not doing the right thing where I should be trusting my instinct a little more I think. I decided last night I wasent waking her for her feed so left her and she did wake up for a feed then wouldnt settle back down had 2 pooey nappies and 2 bottles and still no sleep Im pressuming shes going through a bit of a growth spirt at the moment. X

I think there is a 6-8 week growth spurt x

I agree with the ladies, don't wake at night, but as she is early and if your worried about the weight loss, then wake in the daytime for more feeds. my smallest baby borfn at 37 plus 5 , was 5 lb 15 oz at birth, and went down to 5lb so we could come home till she gained , so we were told, to wak dand feed 2hrly, whinch is really hard work, she did put on weight, but I think she would have anyway now, be guided by your instincts as mum X

We were told to wake baby up every 2 hours at night (born at 37 + 6 but a good weight) - we could only do that for a couple of days, then I refused to carry on, it felt stupid. If a baby is hungry, they'll let you know.

Well midwife been again today and shes gained 7oz so im happy we uped her feeds to 4oz at night and at some feeds during the day sometimes she has it all, sometimes not. Ive decided not to wake her at night every four hour hours and let her demand feed but shes doing it of her own accord anyway now. Feeling a little better now she going back in the right direction. Nappies still a problem as she dosent like a wet nappy thats for sure! LOL X

I had Noah at 35+6 and we had to stay in hospital due to him being a bit premature, but on his first night there, they noticed a feeding problem with him. He wasn't waking for feeds and wasn't noticing he was hungry, so they inserted a tube up his nose and fed him that way until his feeding was established. We were put under Transitional Care and I had to feed him using the demand feeding method, but was told not to let him go over 4 hours without a feed, so they suggested waking him up by changing his nappy, then once he got going he'd probably want food. This seemed to work, and now he wakes up for feeds usually on the dot.