Feeding on demand with a sleepy newborn?

[theriviera]

Dd3 is 1 week old. Nursing is going well and she is almost back to birth weight. Like my other kids she is a sleepy eater. Did you wake to feed during the day? I don't at night but have been during the day if it has been more than 3 hours.

[BDKmom]

First off, congrats on your new baby girl! I hope that you both are doing well.

As long as your DD is growing and gaining weight as she should, I would not wake her to eat, no matter what time of day. My DD slept *a lot* the first two weeks. Five hour stretches at night. Then, in week 3, she "woke up" from the newborn slumber and nursed every two hours and didn't STTN until 9 mos old.

I would take advantage of her sleeping now and rest up and spend some time with your two older DDs. Soon enough she will realize she in in the world and keep you busy nursing round the clock.

[TwoBees]

Is she falling asleep while eating, or eating while she looks like she is sleeping? Or is she sleeping through feedings?

A few times I let DD2 sleep through feedings during the day. Most times during the first three months I attempted to gently wake her (picking her up, unswaddling her, stroking her cheek, talking to her) if she had gone 4 hours or more during the day, but if she would not rouse enough to eat, I let her sleep. At night I did not wake her. I was trying to set a day/night pattern so she would not confuse the two.

And congrats!

[AngelaS]

I woke mine up every three hours during the day. If they needed to eat 8-12 times in a 24 hour period, I wanted to get those in during MY waking hours as much as possible. I didn't want them sleeping a five or six hour stretch during the day! Lol

[AnnieW625]

No! Dd1 was a pretty good sleeper during the day from about 3 weeks on and no I never woke her. Dd2 was an awful daytime sleeper so I never woke her either. It just wasn't worth it to me and figured she would wake up when she needed to be fed. The only advantage of DD2 not sleeping for more than 3 hrs. during the day from pretty much birth until 7 months old was that she was an excellent night sleeper and STTN at 7-8 weeks old.