4 week old feeding, confused! all advice appreciated!

[preggersshock]

It's been 4 weeks & feeding my baby girl still baffles me, I've had 4 different midwives & 1 health visitor tell me all different things...demand feed but feed every 3 hours, don't let her go any longer that 4 hours, feed her 6 times in 24 hours...

Now it has to be said at the outset that I know how lucky I am, my feeding issue is a nice one to have! My little girl is 4 weeks old and sleeps through the night, I have been told to wake her every 4 hours (not to let her go any longer!) however from about 11PM she goes into a really deep sleep, I wake her at 2ish for a feed but she has barely anything and I battle with her over that, last night she was stripped off to her nappy having her feet tickled, blowing on her etc & she was sound asleep, lips jammed shut, I felt like I was forcing it down het & then when I burped her she was sick, you can't blame me for thinking 'what's the point?' I woke her again at six and again she is still not interested.

She is a healthy weight, 9'8 (born at 9'4) & being combined fed. We had a shaky start to breast feeding as my supply isn't great so for 1st 10 days she was hungry, as soon as we topped her up with formula she was a different baby, super chilled out! I don't really understand why I have to wake her & what the deal is with the whole 4 hour thing? Surely if i am lucky enough to have a baby who sleeps through I should encourage this & would I not be setting myself up for disaster longer term, if she gets used to a middle night feed?

I am obsessed with feeding, when, how long between & how much she has had... It's taking over but naturally want to make sure she is getting what she needs, there is too much info out there & I desperately want to do the right thing by my little girl! I bottle feed breast milk so that I can see how much she gets in a feed.

During the day she takes her milk Ok, again I wake her up but she is fine with that is not a fussy baby, she's very content & I am sure she'll let me know if she's hungry, she also has periods of the day when she is very alert and interacts well so I don't think she is over hungry:-)

Has anyone out there had a similar experience & how did it work for you? What did you do? I feel as though I'll be 'damaging' her if I break the rules the midwives/health visitor gave me but the feeding thing as it is at the moment is not sitting right with me...

[funchum8am]

If a baby goes too long without feeding they can become dehydrated - milk is drink as well as food to them. Also some babies are very sleepy because they are ill or not thriving; they fail to wake for feeds, so get weaker and more poorly and it can become life threatening.

Having said all that your DD sounds like mine - she is putting on weight and just has her own schedule. If she is feeding well during the day I would keep an eye on her but not stress too much about waking her (like you I find it doesn't work!)

I am about your DD sleeping through...mine is 7 weeks and has always slept for hours from about 2pm, and is awake from midnight!

[Beatrixpotty]

By 4 weeks I was demand feeding(BF) so if it was me I would let her sleep through & not wake her.You need to wake up sleepy newborns to feed regularly if they are jaundiced or not gaining weight but if she is not jaundiced and gaining weight well I would just demand feed her even if that means leaving her all night.She sounds like a happy baby.They have probably given you that advice because you had issues with supply at the beginning but now she has settled I would have thought demand feeding is ok and gives you a chance to get some uninterrupted sleep.

[GailTheGoldfish]

She is a good weight and I personally I wouldn't be bothering to wake her in the night. So many people I know have been given conflicting advice about feeding so I do think there comes a point when you have to look at the fact that your baby is thriving and so what do you as a parent want to do? So long as your baby continues to gain weight and is healthy then don't let conflicting advice undermine your confidence.

[CecilyP]

I know regular feeding is recommended for low birthweight babies, but your DD is a very good weight so you do not need to wake her in the night to feed her. You are really lucky she sleeps through; it seems crazy to disturb that routine to give her a few drops of milk. If she goes longer between feeds she will just be extra hungry for the next feed.

DS was a much lighter baby but would quite happily sleep for 5 hours at a stretch without any problem.

[Pleasefiveminutesforme]

My DD (now 8momths) slept through from 6 weeks but she was exclusively breast fed so my supply dropped off as a result... when she dropped to 25th percentile my health visitor said if she dropped any more we would have to start waking her but she never dropped any more and the other thing the health visitor recommended is that I express before I went to bed -when I did my supply went up (something to do with being stimulated in the night). Anyway DD is now between 50th and 65th And totally sparky so I would say don't worry about it unless she starts to lose loads of weight. Oh and the other thing is that my DD still sleeps though and I am a hell of a lot of a nicer person than I would be otherwise so bear that in mind when you start setting alarms to get up in the night- being knackered will only make your supply drop more!

[Pleasefiveminutesforme]

When I say slept though I mean from 6.30pm till 6.30 am. Some babies love their sleep... My others were the same ( I was worried with number one baby but he remained on 98th percentile so was clearly getting enough in the day!)

[CecilyP]

Wow, that is a long sleep; DS started sleeping through from 8 weeks but it was only from about 11 till 7, so not so long without food. Far from my supply drying up, I could scarecly move in the morning till he had had a feed.