What rule do you follow?

Question

my daughter is 2 weeks old- and usually for 2 of her 'sleep times' during the day/night she will sleep for 5 or 6 hours. Other sleeping times she will sleep for 2 or 3 hours and then wake to eat. She has at least 3 bowel movements a day and has plenty of wet diapers. I tend to follow the rule of 'your baby will let you know when they are hungry'.. instead of the rule of 'wake your baby every 2 or 3 hours to eat'...
What do you all go by? Anyone else's newborns sleep that long?
(It's been almost 7 years since my last daughter was born- so I can't even remember what her sleep patterns were like)

Answer 1

DUring the daytime I wake my babies to eat. This establishes their little systems on a good schedule, and you know when they are hungry so if they are crying at another time, you know they are NOT crying from hunger. However, after the "last" feeding of the night, like 11pm or whatever, I would never wake a baby to eat DURING THE NIGHT. All of this also promotes the baby's adjustment to day and night. If you let the baby sleep 6 hours during the day, they are going to really be screwed up.

Answer 2

I hear ya, I also had a 7 yr gap between my girls. I think that 2 to 3 hours is fine for a baby that age. There were times when I first bought my baby home where she would sleep for 6 hours straight I was so tired that I did not wake up myself! I think that she will know when she is hungry but make sure she does not go too long without a feeding. As long as you keep a very close eye on her and have her near you while she sleeps than your judgment is best! Congratulations! Good Luck to you.

Answer 3

My youngest child was a very sleepy baby and slept through the night from birth. Unfortunately, she would sleep alot during the day, too and wasn't nursing enough to give her a good growth rate. We had several months of frequent doctor's visits to do weight gain checks. I had an excellent family practitioner doctor and she said to let her sleep at night for as long as she wanted and not wake her so I could get the rest I needed as well. During the day, at first I had to wake her to eat at least every 2 hours. Sometimes she just wouldn't, but I had to keep trying. As she grew a little older, I was able to increase that to not let her go more than 3 hours between nursings. For about the first year of her life we measured her growth in ounces gained or 1/4 inches grown. I exclusively nursed her until she was almost 7 months old since my doctor felt that breast milk was best and that was what I wanted to do. So, I was able to combine the 2 rules with success since I let her sleep all night and woke her to eat every 2-3 hours during the day. She is now 9 years old, extremely healthy, eats plenty of all fruits and veggies, is rarely sick, but she'll still go several days with eating very little then make up for it in a day or 2 of eating everything in sight. It's an odd pattern that no one else in our family has, but it works for her and our doctor is not concerned by it.

Answer 4

I have a reflux baby so I had to wake her to eat. But I was able to let her sleep all night. She ate every three hours, and slept 10 hours overnight. She had prevacid in the evenings and that helped her through the night.
Not sure what I would do with a healthy baby......I got so used to the scheduled feeds and the baby was so happy with it.....never fussed, never cried. just ate when the bottle was offered.
My sister has 4 kids and she always woke them to feed during the day, but never at night. she always had good healthy babies and they seemed to sleep through the night longer. I guess if I have another one (and he/she is not reflux) I will try the schedule and see if it works......if it does not work, I will go right to the demand feedings.

Answer 5

Never wake a sleeping baby to eat. The only time this rule changes is if the baby has acid reflux and has to be kept on a set schedule. It's just like don't wake a baby to change it's diaper.

Answer 6

I had a preemie the first time and was told I couldn't let her go more than 3 hours without eating. We had to set the alarm clock for some really awful times to wake her up and eat. The second time my son was term and he always let us know when he was hungry. As long as she is growing at appropriate rates it should be fine. And about the time you get used to it she'll decide to only sleep 45 minutes at a time!

Answer 7

I think you are on the right track-the kid knows when it's sleepy, hungry, etc. Mine didn't eat on a regular schedule and at 3.5, she still doesn't. Rather than foster a potential eating disorder, we just go with the flow.

Wish I could have 3 bowel movements a day. I'd settle for three a week lol!

Answer 8

I went with the if he's hungry he will let me know. MY son went into his own bed at 1-1./2 weeks old, and by 2-1/2 weeks old he was sleeping through the night. I was lucky he made his own schedule. He was awake more in the daytime...but I felt it was a great deal.

Answer 9

Enjoy the time when shes sleeping. Most newborns dont sleep that long. As long as shes healthy and gaining weight dont wake her. Shell let u know when shes hungry.

Answer 10

We had 5 kids, I dont remember thier sleep patterns either, but it seemed my first one slept a lot. We fed them all as they were hungry until they were old enough to put on a regular schedule, about 2 years old.