Night time feeding, wake him up or not?

[LilAkuma]

My son is about 11 days old now and he is our first. For the first 8 days of his life he stayed at the hospital because he came out at 36 weeks. At the hospital they feed him every 3 hours. 12, 3, 6, and 9 at the hour.

We tried to do that with him when we brought him home. One thing that I noticed is that during the nighttime feeding, he is a sleep and we have to wake him up to feed him. He DOES drink his milk in the middle of the night.

My question is, should we wake him up in the middle of the night to feed him even though he does not wake up on his own? Or should I let him wake us up when he is hungry. I am not sure if I should let him wake me up when he is hungry because I don't want to starve him.

[H.Starr]

I would definitely not wake him up. He'll let you know when he's hungry, he won't sleep himself into starvation.

[RImommy]

Did the doctors at the hospital give you specific instructions for waking him? If not, I would definitely not wake him, especially every three hours. If you're concerned or his doctor thinks he is not gaining enough weight, maybe try to wake him after 5-6 hours... but enjoy getting whatever sleep you can!

[tberry]

My doctor told me not to let my DS sleep longer than 4 hours without eating until he was about 3 months old. By that time they are eating more during the day and can usually go longer at night without eating.

[H.Starr]

My doctor told me not to let my DS sleep longer than 4 hours without eating until he was about 3 months old. By that time they are eating more during the day and can usually go longer at night without eating.

Wow. That seems like an awfully long time to me. My son was sleeping longer than four hours at night when he was only a couple weeks old. He slept 10 hours every night by the time he was six weeks.
No way on earth I'd wake him up.
I think if they're hungry, they'll wake up. That's what our dr told us. Made sense to me.

[ra11en]

If he is gaining weight and developing well I say let him sleep. Our DD was very small, 20% in both weight and height. Our pediatrician said not to wake her unless she showed signs of losing weight and/or not eating well. She was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and no way was I going to wake her up!

Formula vs. breastfeeding should be considered though. Formula stays in their system longer, breastmilk is digested much easier and quicker. Regardless, if he is sleeping let him sleep. He'll wake you up when he's hungry! Our pediatrician told us not to even attempt to put our DD on a real feeding schedule until 3-4 weeks of age, feed on demand until then. I'm sure they couldn't do that in the hospital too well, but I would think now that you're home to rely on him to let you know when he needs to eat.

[eniese]

Since your son was early, I'd call the ped. and ask how long he can go between nighttime feedings. A full-term healthy baby will typically wake when they need the food, but premature babies don't always, so it's best to get the go ahead from the doc before you let him go much more than 4 hrs between feedings.

[LilAkuma]

I thought I asked here before calling the doctor. Well we have a doctor trip tomorrow I'll ask him there. I have a list of questions to ask him.

Thanks for the tip everyone.