Wake for Night Feeding?

As long as she is eating thru the day and is fine it is not necessary to wake her at night and feed her. If you do continue to wake her she will get in the habit of that and then when she is older she will expect it.

Let sleeping babies sleep!!! She is obviously growing so I'd not wake her anymore.

My 2nd child was born at 33 weeks and was 5lbs 10oz, dropped to just over 5lbs before she left the NICU. For about the first month or so, I made sure to keep her on an every 4 hour feeding schedule. At about the 8 week mark I started to let her sleep until she woke up to eat, but stayed on a regular 4 hour schedule during the day. She started sleeping through the night at about 9-10 weeks old and I loved it! :) I'd say let her sleep until she wakes up. Babies will wake when they're hungry and as long as she's still gaining weight and acting normal throughout the day, let her sleep.

I would not wake to feed. I believe in "never wake a sleeping baby" (as much as possible.) That's from my favorite sleep book, _Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child_.

Hi C. K.
My name is G. and I have two girls: one is 2 1/2 years old and my other is 5 months old. They were both born under 6 lbs so I feel I can give you some helpful suggesstions. My pediatrician told me not to go more than 6 hours at night without feeding. So lets say you put your daughter down around 9pm. Give her a really good feeding right before she goes to bed and then around 2 or 3pm, you should wake her to feed her. Then give her one more feeding before you rise from bed in the morning, lets say around 7am. That way you're stll able to get a good night sleep, but only having to wake to feed once maybe twice in the middle of the night. Hope this helps.

Best,
G.

No Way! Enjoy that sleep and work feedings in during the day. You'll all benefit! : )

NO NO No enjoy your sleep and thank your lucky stars she's sleeping through! she's not going to fade away in 9 hrs or even 14 hours relax if you're breast feeding and you can't hold on that long pump some off and freeze it for a rainy day. remember sleep is good - I have never heard of a child getting sick or anything grave from sleeping. Cheers, L.

As long as she is gaining weight steadily, I wouldn't worry about waking her up for a feeding. Babies need their sleep, too. :) I have a friend who had a baby about the same size as yours. They were worried about her gaining weight, so they wouldn't wake her for a feeding but would stick a bottle in her mouth in the middle of the night. She'd drink it all down while sleeping. I don't know if that's recommended or not, but it seemed to work for them. But like I said earlier, if sleeping through the night is working for her and she's growing steadily, I think you're fine letting her sleep.

I wouldn't wake her. Most babies are metabolically ready to go longer periods at night without eating once they reach about 11 pounds.
My son is over 3 months old and is finally sleeping for 7 hours at night now. Take advantage of her snoozing and catch some zzzs yourself! :)

As long as she is healthy & growing, NO, do not wake her to feed her. Let her sleep. Her body will tell her to wake up if she needs to eat.

Be very grateful that she sleeps through the night. Under normal circumstances, the only time to wake a sleeping baby to eat is if you are breast feeding & are so engorged it hurts, otherwise let sleeping babies lie...

I had twin preemies, so I know what you're going through. We were told to feed them every three hours and set an alarm to do so. We did for the first couple of months, and then we realized that they were waking up on their own at 2 hours sometimes, and other times we'd have to wake them up at 3 hrs. When we put some thought into that, we realized that they were capable of waking up on their own when they were hungry and it didn't seem like the alarm was needed anymore. We very hesitantly started letting them wake up on their own and they are now healthy, happy almost 2 year olds.

My thought would be that if your little one can make it 7 hours without a snack, you should get that sleep you need! 2 month old healthy babies should be capable of waking up on their own if they're hungry... I'm sure you'll go through a growth spurt soon and she won't be going that 7 hours! Or maybe you're lucky and you have a baby that will sleep through the night this soon! :)

she is still young where it would not hurt to keep her going no longer than 7 hrs btw feeding from pm to am. this ensures she has 7 opportunities to eat each day... my girls were most active at evening and would shorten to 2 1/2 hrs btw the last two bottles for the day. both my smaller than normal girls did this. they were always hovering in the 10th% for weight and would only avg about 26oz per day.... even into the 3rd month....
i remember the concern i had that they wouldn't eat more than 7 formula bottles per day and rarely eat above 4oz.
i found i was not the only one and there were other moms who had babies like mine, my doctor never had any concerns. at some point soon she will drop one more feeding (by 3 months most babies can go 9 hrs at night) and i will pray she can at least get btw 4 1/2 and 6 ounces in per feeding. the advice from the controversial book Babywise was invaluable for me. i highly recommend it.

you can, thats perfectly ok.

one thing that we can get caught up in with formula feeding is making sure baby eats a specific amount every time, and making sure taht amount always increases - this is a myth - what you always want to make sure of is that you feed baby when shes hungry, and stop when shes full. dont worry so much about the amount, as long as shes eating, thats whats important.
if we make baby eat a certain amount because thats what we think she should drink, we risk getting baby to not listen to her hunger cues. so just dont get caught up too much in the amount shes eating - and dont always expect that amount to go up.
just thought i should mention that.

otherwise, night feeding is NORMAL until around a year - my son (we breastfed and coslept) nursed at night until between 15-17 months - once a night. one worry i have is that babies who sleep soundly, though a releif, will not always sleep like this, and also, if they are sleeping too soundly, they are at higher risk of those mysterious infant deaths. i want to stress that the infant death is still rare, but more prevalent in babies who sleep too soundly. babies are programmed to wake at night for food, but also for simple survival, their systems are immature, and waking keeps all systems a go :D dont worry, its highly unlikely your baby will have any issues, yes be grateful that shes sleeping at this point, but also be grateful when she does wake at night... its all a good thing.

the first 3 months are like the 4th trimester - its usually a sleepy time anyway - im going to assume that somewhere around 3 months old she is giong to wake up and her night habits will completely reverse. maybe not. just dont be surprised if she does start waking and you have the opposite problem. its really ok. i dont want to scare you at all - just let you know what i have learned thats all.

anyway. you can absolutly wake her to feed her - but never force her to eat if shes not hungry. ;D like you said, sometimes shes so hungry - so thats not a good thing for her to gulp down her food. so yeah , waking her is a good idea. :D

good luck.
www.askdrsears.com is a good place to go for help..

NO WAY! I would never wake her up to eat at this point. Trust that her body is telling her when she is hungry. It sounds like she is gaining weight excellently!! For her to gain that much weight in eight weeks tells you her body is working well and giving her the signals to let you know when she is hungry. As long as you are not having any other issues with her eating so fast in the morning like spitting it right back up, then you don't have to be concerned with that either.
Be thankful your baby is such a good sleeper, there are a lot of moms that are not so lucky :)

Let her sleep. Habits that she forms now will last a long time.

i agree with everyone else.. do not wake her to feed. babies wake when they are hungry. no sense in getting her into a habit of night time feedings unless you want her on that schedule for a long time.

my first child the nursery actually woke up to feed while we were in the hospital to get him on a "routine". i told them i prefer a daytime routine if he was sleeping fine they should have left him alone. he was no small baby and no need to worry about his intake. i told them they were nuts, they had to wake us both because it was a late night delivery, i fell asleep at 1am and they woke us both at 2am.

needless to say they didnt think i knew what i was talking about since it was my first child. but i worked hard to undo their routine and baby slept through at 4 weeks. second child at 5 weeks.

C.,

The advice you were given in the hospital about waking and feeding no longer applies now that she is bigger and older. My last two were born at 37 weeks. My girl was born just under 6 lbs, my boy just under 7 lbs. By 8 weeks, both of them could make it 12 hour stretches at night. Yes, they were ravenously hungry when they woke, but it's all a part of the growing up process. Let her sleep.

Good luck,
S.

As long as she's at the right weight and the doctors are not concerned with her weight or growth I don't see why you'd need to wake her. I personally had two kids who woke and fed every 3 hours until they were 7-8 months old! Some of it was where I woke them because of engorgement from nursing and I think it became habit and they'd wake on their own.

You are lucky and if the doctor doesn't mind then I don't see why you'd have to wake her but I'd double check with a nurse or doctor.