Hey there mamas,
Just a quick question regarding my new little man. He is two weeks today and a champ sleeper, yeah! I know at the 10 lb mark you can let them sleep as long as they will go at night but he is still pretty tiny like I am thinking about 8lbs or so, so I am setting an alarm to get up every three hours. Well I am getting pretty tired of course and have turned off my alarm a couple times and gone back to sleep. He has been waking at the 4hr mark ready to eat, and super duper hungry! Do you think this is alright? He eats about every two to three hours during the day and has a couple good awake sessions daily, he is very bright eyed when he is up! I am not worried about his sleep, his brother was barely conscious for the first two months ;) But I am wondering if I should be more vigilant and get him up at the three hour mark at night so his blood sugar isn't going down too much etc before he reaches 10lbs. I am charting his feeding/pooping and making sure he eats at least 8 times per day and he is peeing and pooping great :D So what would you do? Would you wake him or let him sleep at this early age? Thanks!
I never woke my DD up. Babies will wake when they are hungry, and I personally would let them sleep & not wake them to eat.
As long as he is eating well during all his feedings and is peeing/pooping and seems to be thriving, then I would let him do what his little body is telling him to do. It sounds like he is not having trouble waking when he DOES get hungry, so my 'vote' would be to let him sleep.
I worried about my daughter doing that (she was my 2nd baby) and my husband and mom both said LET HER SLEEP. She was about 3 weeks old (not sure weight, but she wasn't 10 lbs yet--she was 7lb 6 oz at birth, so was probably not much different than your little guy) and she was pushing the hours at night also. By a month or so, she was sleeping more than 6 hours straight at night. I laid there staring at the clock the first night she "didn't wake up" when I was expecting her to.... worried. But she was fine.
:)
Don't stress yourself too much about it. Sounds like he is thriving!
Congrats Mama!
You're probably safely beyond the sleep baby timeframe, and I'm not sure who told you about the 10lb mark. It really has nothing to do with the weight, but more with his weight gain and behavior. What was his birth weight, and what is his weight now? The average weight gain in the first 3 months is 1oz per day. However, some babies gain more, some less. They key is consistency. If he gained half an ounce per day for the past 2 weeks, then it's a good weight gain.
Is he nursing 8-12 times per day with 6+ wet diapers and 3+ poopies? Does he wake when he's hungry? Does he eat vigorously and not fall asleep easily after only a few sucks? Does he have several alert periods during the day? Is he practicing holding his head up? Does he maintain eye contact for short periods of time? Is he a generally happy baby? You've answered most of these in your post :)
All that being said, I never woke my babies. They woke when they were hungry. Behavior and wet/poopy diapers are a better gauge than anything :) Get some sleep, mama!
And here are 2 great resources for you regarding sleep:
http://www.secretsofbabybehavior.com/2009_06_01_archive.html
http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/comfortnursing.html
CONGRATS on the baby!!
I would NOT wake my children up. I let them wake up on their own.
You are a better mom than me - I didn't chart their eating, peeing and pooping.. darn!!! you go!
Don't set your alarm anymore - let him wake up on his own to nurse...eventually - between 6 and 8 weeks - he should be sleeping for 6 to 8 hours at a time...my first two did that - Nicky was a whole different story!!!
DO NOT WAKE HIM!!! :) Enjoy your sleep!!!
He sounds like our daughter, she was the same way and so I followed her lead. She always seemed to do fine. Then her schedule would change all of a sudden and "I" would have to adjust again.
She was always following a good growth pattern and was alert and curious. so it seemed to work for us.
Each child can be so very different from another..
Good to hear from you!
Let both of you sleep if everything else is working regularly. You both need it :)
The one thing my husband and I learned the hard way on our first child was...NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY!!
Sorry about the all caps, but get all the sleep you can.
We woke our son up to feed him and he didn't go back to sleep for 16 months...okay well he didn't sleep through the night until then.
They will not sleep long enough to starve themselves...promise!!
If he's acting like a normal 2 week old... then I'd not wake him up. If he was hungry, he'd wake up and let you know. My little #2 breastfeeding monster would nurse every 45 minutes when he was awake (for the first 1.5 months) but then sleep at least 3-4 hour stretches overnight. So much so I'd wake up engorged... see if he was waking and if not, I'd pump!!
I don't have much experience with bottle fed babies, but breastfeeding babies give very obvious cues that they are hungry and most breastfeeding Moms will feed on demand.
I would let him wake on his own. I let my kids sleep as long as possible at night and they turned out perfectly fine. :-) If your baby has jaundice, be sure to feed him probably every 4 hours...otherwise, let him sleep until he wakes up, even if it's longer than that. Congratulations and enjoy your baby!!!
You need to read Babywise. I did this with both of my children. I have a 3 year old and a 11 month old.
Both of my children from the day they cam home were on 3 hour schedules until about 10 p.m. and then I let them sleep as long as they could in the middle of the night. When they woke, I fed them and put them right back to sleep until 7:30 a.m. and then we would begin our 3 hour schedule again.
Both of my children slept thru the night at 9 weeks.
LET HIM SLEEP!
You do the same.
Everyone will be happy. He'll wake when he is hungry.
If he is healthy, gaining what he lost, and doesn't have jaundice - let him sleep! My wonderful dr told me to never wake a sleeping baby. Doctor's orders!!
Let him sleep. He wil wake when he is hungry. Congratualtions on your new little man!!! Enjoy
