What's the deal with waking (OR NOT) a sleeping baby????

[aliceinwonderland]

Someone says: "Wake him up every hr or so during the day, so he sleeps on a longer stretch at night"
Someone else says "If you keep waking him up, he will never learn to sleep in longer streches"...What gives????

I know the whole deal about him being too young to be on a schedule, etc. etc. He is of course... I'm very accomodating right now, but not sure I buy all of it. I'll be in law school by the time he's 4 months old, so it'll be better for everybody if he's a little predictable :) :)
THANKS IN ADVANCE,AS ALWAYS!!!

[papal]

I never woke a sleeping baby (except in the first two weeks to feed every 3 hours..but to be honest.. i think she would have woken up when she was hungry anyway!) and I never forced her to sleep (because she sleeps only when she is sleepy).
By 4 months, you might see some sort of schedule.. so don't worry. That is when I started seeing a pattern.. a nap every 1.5 hours! :)

[llcoddington]

We woke Lauren every 3 hours during the day to feed her and then let her sleep as long as she liked during the night. She had her days and nights completely backwards, so we HAD to do this. Every hour or so is way too much to wake during the day.

By the way, I am in awe of you- if Lauren had been born shortly before Mother's Day, there is NO WAY I could have driven a long distance to a restaurant for breakfast! :) I barely made it out of bed the first few weeks!

Lana
mommy to Lauren 12/5/03

[aliceinwonderland]

I did that with MUCH trepidation...But he was SO SO good, I couldn't believe it!!! (he makes up for it at nighttime, though!!). LOL

[momma_boo]

Eri - everyone will constantly tell you different things. Wait till they start talking to you about solids!

But don't fret. The way that Erik is now is no way at all indicative of how he will be in 4 mos. DRASTIC difference. Really, there is. I went back to work full-time at 4 mos and by then it wasn't so random.

At this point, he's probably starting to figure out night vs day. As long as the weight gain was fine, my ped said we could let DD sleep as long as she wanted at night. During the day, I tried to make sure to feed her at least every 3 hours, 2 hours if she wanted it. That was about as close to a "schedule" as I came - not letting her go too long between feedings during the day.

Honestly, it's hard to find a rhyme or reason to their sleeping at this early age. Waking him up during the day thinking that it will help nighttime sleep is a myth, IMHO.

[aliceinwonderland]

yea, it does seem like a myth to me, but I wanted some expert advice :) :)

Thanks so much :)

[egoldber]

You need to figure out what works for you. Because Sarah was slow to gain, I was told to not let her go longer than 3 hours during the day without eating. But she generally woke herself to eat.

With no effort on my part (just letting her do her thing and following her cues), she fell into a routine by about 4 months.

HTH,

[californiagirl]

I wake mine if it's been about 3 hours since she last ate, during the day. I also feed her just before I go to bed, even if she's asleep. She doesn't wake up then, and unfortunately she doesn't sleep any longer because of it, but it helps keep me from getting engorged if I get lucky and she sleeps a long time (there's nothing more annoying than waking up because of engorgement while the baby is still asleep!)

A lot of good advice ("Never wake a sleeping baby", "Sleep whenever the baby sleeps", "Feed until the baby pops off of her own accord") just doesn't work at all for me and my baby. I'm getting more and more willing to just do whatever seems effective.

[Marisa6826]

Hi Eri-

The idea is to get Erik used to daylight hours - and try and avoid day/night reversal (which is horrible!).

It has nothing to do with a schedule. We learned that we needed to wake Sophie every three-four hours only during the day, and let her go as long as she could at night.

Another trick is to not change his dipe (unless poopy) at night. Feed him, burp him and put him right back to bed. No singing, no talking, no bright lights.

During the day, keep your blinds open, lights on, try and get him as awake as you can during those feedings. If you need to undress him to keep him awake during a feed, it's fine. Sophie was jaundiced, so she was always a sleepy little lamb. We would even have to wipe her hands and feet with a cool washcloth so she would be awake enough to eat more than a half ounce.

Babes tend to get "milk drunk" right after a feed and doze right off, so don't be surprised if he fights you.

Good luck!

-m

[AngelaS]

This is what I did too. :D It worked for us as well!