Help with Feeding Schedule

Here's my advice...never wake a sleeping baby. As long as he's making wet and poop diapers and growing like he's supposed to, he's fine. Feed him on demand, but if he's sleeping, let him be...

-M

Ditto what Susan said...

I fed on demand until my son began to wean himself from feedings...around 10 months, I think.

It's really tough some days, but the best advice I got was to rest when the baby rests...ask for help if you need to get stuff done around the house.

Be patient...and have faith, it will get easier.

Don't wake him at night, enjoy any sleep you can get. Their sleep/eating schedules vary so much. It sounds like you are doing a wonderful job, congrats!

DO NOT PUT YOUR NEWBORN ON A FEEDING SCHEDULE!
A baby MUST be fed on demand.
Yes, breastfeeding is arduous... it is not a cake walk. This is the way it is. It is normal.

YOu must feed on demand, so that your milk supply keeps up WITH HIM. Your baby is growing, and their intake needs naturally increases, and especially at 'growth spurts.'

There were times I nursed my kids even every hour. This is called "cluster feeding" and it's a normal natural thing.
You NEED to feed your baby when HE tells you.

As far as waking him to nurse... he is still so young. But ASK your Pediatrician. Once a baby is a certain weight, you can just let them sleep during the night and then feed him when he wakes.

Sure, GENERALLY speaking, a baby must be fed every 3 hours. BUT sometimes it is less than that. You have to go according to your baby. NOT A SCHEDULE.

Ask your Pediatrician about night feedings... because it has to be per HIS age, HIS growth/weight & health. He is ONLY a newborn. So this is why, YOU have to keep up with HIM and his nursing needs, and feed on demand. VERY important.

All the best,
Susan

Let the baby sleep at night. Baby will tell you when he's hungry. I breast fed 5 children for 1 to 2 years each. I always fed on demand. All 5 slept through the night by 3 months old. The key to success is just to relax. Really.

Hi T.,
Hang in there. You're doing your son good but breastfeeding him! I have six children and have breastfed all of them. Your baby is growing very quickly right now and may need to nurse more frequently. I nursed mine "on demand" which means let them tell you when they're hungry. May sons seemed to nurse way more than my daughters did. When they nurse more frequently it tells your body to make more milk. If you put them on a "schedule" then it mess' with your supply of milk. I've had a couple of friends who tried the "schedule" and it didn't work. Just enjoy your little guy! My oldest is a boy also and now he's 11. It took alot of patience for him and I to get it right but it was so worth it! God bless you. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions are need some encouragement. ____@____.com

J. V.

I agree, never wake a sleeping baby. When they are tired, they sleep, and when they are hungry, they eat. The first time my daughter napped for 3 hours, I was in a tizzy over whether or not to wake her up to eat. Now, I wish I could get her to nap for 3 hours (without me holding her) so I could get something done!

As he gets older, you will find that your son naturally develops his own schedule. Sometimes it's hard to tell when they want to nurse for comfort vs hunger, but you'll figure it out. Great job on breastfeeding!

I never woke any of my kids to feed them. They all have different needs and put themselves on different schedules. I figured if they were hungry, they'd wake up - they are not going to starve themselves...and remember that breastmilk starts being digested within 90 seconds of hitting the stomach, so they are NOT the same as forumla-fed babies.

Example:

#1 - ate every 2 hours day and night and slept 2 hours on and 2 hours offduring the day - but slept 12 hours at night, eating while sleeping
#2 - ate every 3-4 hours and took 2 naps each day from birth
#3 - took 3 naps each day and nursed at 7pm, 11pm and 4am - all on her own accord

Stomach sizes:

Newborn - size of a marble
3 days old - size of a shooter marble
10 days old - size of pingpong ball

Obviously overfeeding them will cause "acid reflux" - since there is not enough room in there to hold 2 oz, so they need to eat more frequently.

You are giving your son the best gift possible by breast feeding him! What a wonderful Mama he has.

Personally, I don't think anyone should be on a feeding "schedule" - least of all very young babies. If you are hungry, you grab a snack or eat a meal, right? He is not able to do this on his own so you need to help him out. Let him sleep when he is tired, and if he gets hungry he will wake up and let you know.

Don't wake him up at all! He will let you know when he's hungry!!! You could be setting up behavior that is hard to break later in his life...breast feeding can be habitual for them, not the eating part but the comfort it provides. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it is a good thing, but you both need to be getting as much sleep as you can right now. sleep is super important for babies, it's how their brain grows and maps together, so not waking him up is better for him. Let him develope his own routine and trust me, he will be getting enough!
I breast fed both of my girls, one for 10 months and the other for two years... if you are waking him up to eat, you are going to feel obligated and resigned eventually, so let him let you know...and try for now to rest and relax when he is asleep! Yes, I know how hard that is, but it will help you through the night!
Believe it or not, breast fed babies alter their schedule according to their needs. You will notice a major 'feed me' escalation when he is going to have a growth spurt and sometimes he won't seem interested at all...but bottom line is don't wake your baby to feed him, his little body will tell him when it's time.
Good luck!

My DD was the same way, we often had to wake her to eat. If I remember correctly, it was about 8-weeks that we stopped waking her up and letting her sleep through the night (from time I went to bed around 11pm to 7am).

Eileen, you put it best. During the day wake your baby after 3 hours if he hasn't on his own. If he still won't nurse try again in 1/2 hour. You want him sleeping longer at night which will get him used to sleeping through the night. Check out Babywise-Giving your child the gift of Nighttime sleep. You can use that as a foundation and it's pretty inexpensive on amamzon.com. Oh yeah, if you haven't already get a Swaddle Me for sleeping at night. Babies will wake themselves with the startle reflex by throwing their arms up. Didn't mean to plug products but these things were a lifesaver for me and many of my friends. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Hello T.,

First off, congrats. I myself was nursing every 2 hours for the first month then I slowly extend the feeding time to 2 1/2 - 3 hrs (especially at night). My #2 was a little harder to nurse at first because he was sleepy all the time, so I had to strip him down at every feeding (down to diaper only) to keep him awake.

Your son might tell you differently but I can tell mine's hungry when he turns his head around and licks his lips at the same time (roughly every 3 hrs or so) .. but mostly when I see him get excited whenever I put him in a nursing position ;-).

You can stop! Once he has established birth weight and is on the upswing on the growth chart...let sleeping babies sleep! Congrats!

After the first day home from the hospital, I never woke my baby up to feed him.
That first day, we had a heck of a time trying to get him to stay awake. Then I forced so much milk into him that he projectile-vomited it all over the living room (thank God for hardwood floors!). My milk had just come in that day, so there suddenly was a lot more for him to eat!
After that experience, I fed him on demand and only for as long as he'd eat, so whenever he seemed unhappy or did the "headbob," he got the boob. He ate a lot during the day and slept for 4-5 hours at a time some nights when he was tiny.
I think the most important part was that I relaxed about the whole thing. I knew my baby was getting plenty to eat because he had the requisite number of pees and poops, and he seemed happy, alert, and healthy during the day.

Never wake a sleeping baby. Your baby will know to wake up when he's hungry. If your breasts are getting overfull, you can always pump a bit (it'll so nice to have a store in the freezer). New babies have growth spurts at regular intervals - 3 weeks, 3 months, etc. He's probably also trying to increase your milk supply by nursing more often. Just bear with it and it'll normalize soon enough.

Both of my daughters were sporatic eaters early on - only nursing from one side or the other for weeks before they were able to nurse from both breasts and sate themselves for more than an hour or so.

this time will pass quickly - though it doesn't seem like it in the midst of it. Hang in there.

Breastfed babies need to eat every 2 hours or so. If he wants to sleep at night, don't wake him up, but if he is sleeping longer during the day you can wake him a little early so as to try to push the longer sleep time to the night time. waiting to feed a breastfed infant at 3 hours is way too long, and can result in a failure to thrive. Formula fed babies will eat every 3-4 hours, but breastmilk goes through their system faster, and therefore they need to eat more often. The best thing to do is feed on demand. Don't put your child on a schedule, they will fall into a routine when you let them. For more info on breastfeeding see the La Leche League site: www.lalecheleague.com they have a lot of good information that will help you out.

I'm with Tracy on this one - feed every 2 hours during the day and let him sleep as long as he wants at night... I promise he won't starve to death in that fourth hour! :) And he probably won't sleep much more than four hours at night, even if he sleeps up to six hours, he will probably eat a lot the next day to make up for it... just keep tanking him up during the day and get as much sleep as you can at night, because sleep patterns change as the months go by and as I'm experiencing with my daughter (who slept up to 6 hours at a time at 3 months old) who now at almost 7 months is up every 2 hours, sometimes more! Definitely check out LaLecheLeague - their information was SO helpful to me while nursing my son (for 19 months) and has helped me have an even more successful nursing relationship with my daughter so far!

If he sleeps at night - LET HIM!!! This is a good habit that you do not want to break. Wake him during the daytime (or whatever you want him to consider part of his daytime) and let him sleep as LOOOOOOONG as he wants at night.

T.,
A great resource for new moms is "Your Baby" by Penelope Leach. She is highly respected in the field of child develpment, easy to read and probably a much better reference for you that what you might find on the internet.
From my perspective, infants live in the world of immediate needs,i.e."I'm hungry now. I'm wet now. I'm tired now". for an infant, these needs are not about being stubborn or compliant, they are a simple and direct expression of your baby's immediate needs. If you are worried about his nutrition, talk to your pediatrition, otherwise for now,let your infant tell you what he needs and when he needs it.
Good luck. K. H.

First of all, I want to clarify that I am not a doctor - this is what worked for my baby. My pediatrician told me that my daughter should be eating every 2 hours (this was when she was 2 weeks old) even at night. I refused to wake my baby up in the middle of the night to feed her. My suggestion - Unless your baby was a premie or a low-birth weight baby, do not wake him up in the middle of the night to feed him. During the day, sure, go ahead and wake him up every 3 hours to make sure he eats. At night though, if you wake him up you're creating a habit and it will take him longer to sleep through the night. My daughter was sleeping 8 hours at night at 7 weeks old because I wouldn't wake her to eat. Good luck and congratulations!

I have read that you don't want to let the feeding interval go longer than 3 hours until 6 weeks, just so you establish a good milk supply. If he is sleeping long periods at night at you don't want to interrupt that (for both of your sakes) I would think that you could let him go a little longer without any detriment to your milk supply, but I am not an expert. But from what I have read, 6 weeks is how long you need to establish your milk supply, then after that he can go for much longer (many babies may even start "sleeping through the night" by that age).

When my twins were born I was feeding them A LOT. I surrendered to them and fed them when they were hungry. I worried if they slept more than 2 hours and then I decided to let them sleep. I had the luxury of being home and just laid around with them and fed when they wanted till they were 6 months old.

My understanding is that once he is back at his birthweight and gaining (usually by two weeks) you can let him sleep through a nighttime feeding. If he's hungry before three hours, feed him. But I'd recommend feeding at least every three hours during the day just to get him in a rhythm and routine. That way his body will get used to sleeping more at night over the next few months. Blessings to you! Enjoy as much as you can!
SAHM of two girls.

In the hospital, they always tell you to wake your sleeping baby to feed, but most doctors will tell you that once you get home from the hospital, you can let the baby sleep as long as it needs. (Feed on demand). Both of my children had different sleeping schedules when they were infants. My daughter would sleep about 4 1/2 hours at night (But never at the same time), while my son woke up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

With my second, he refused to eat if I woke him up at that age. I just relaxed and let him eat when he wanted to eat. I enjoyed the extra sleep (he's not a good sleeper right now with teething and a cold so now I miss it) and he ate regularly(but not every three hours on the dot- he would sleep 4-5 hours sometimes- and gained weight at all of his doctor's appointments. You are fine nursing him when he wants to eat.

My two kids were completely different....mostly becuase with my second, I relaxed a bit and didnt' stick to a super strick schedule. For my son (second kid) I tried to stick to the every three hours as much as possible during the day. Then after my night feeding, usually around 10p-11p, I would let him go until he woke up to feed. It was great! He has been sleeping thru the night since he was 3 weeks old and I have NEVER had to fight with him to get him to eat (he's now 14 months). Good luck!

He's probably going through a growth spurt. They occur around 3, 6, and 8 weeks where they need to eat almost every hour. It's good for him and for you as it will increase your milk supply to meet his needs. My little one was going through it at 3 weeks and I was so frustrated, until I learned what was going on.

I saw someone mentioned cluster feedings, and that is probably what is going on when he wants to eat more often. My son used to cluster feed in the evening, every 45 minutes to an hour, for maybe 4 hours. It does get better, at some point he will stop. With sleeping for more than 3 hours, if it's at night, letting him go longer is probably fine as long as he is eating enough during the day. It sounds like he knows when he's hungry, and you need your sleep too.

T.,
I have two boys, one 3 years old and one 3 months. My 3 year old stopped nursing last May, at 2 1/2, I was 4 months pregnant. My 3 month old nurses on demand throughout the day, and takes between 2-4 naps. He goes to sleep between 10 - 11 pm and sleeps until morning, I get about 6-8 hours of sleep. I would start nursing him as much as possible during the day, and especially when ever he wants, and try to get him to sleep for longer periods at night. He won't starve himself, if he's hungry, he'll let you know. At 3 1/2 weeks, you should be able to get about a 4 maybe 6 hour block of sleep, maybe midnight to 6am, wouldn't that be nice?
Best of luck to you and congrats on the new baby.

T.!
Forget the schedules and listen to your baby.Your baby knows when he is hungry and when he is not.UNless the baby is underweight or born premie he does not need to be waken up to eat.But feed him every time he cries for it.I am a big believer in breastfeeding on demand.Every baby is unique and has his own schedule.I would reccommend Baby Book by DR Sears,but mainly i advise you to listen to your intuition and your baby more than any books or doctors.
M..