I've noticed that you all refer to the 4-5 hours of sleeping at night only. My newborn is 11 days today. Sometimes he sleeps for 2 hours, sometimes for 1 hours, sometimes for 3 hours. The lactating expert told me to only make him sleep for 4-5 hours once a day ( I'm trying to make it happen at night) . So I am waking him up if he goes more than 3 hours without feeding. Can you please advice?
1 Answer
Congratulations on the birth of your baby, @Souha, and on the great start the two of you have made with breastfeeding!
The lactation consultant's advice strikes me as good advice in the medium term. For the short term, though, you can feed on demand for the most part.
Now, the fine print: if your baby is still asleep three hours after his last feeding, and it is daytime, please do wake him up to feed him. This will encourage him to get his day/night set, it will help him gain well, and it will prevent you from getting over-full and possibly engorged.
In short, it sounds like you are on an excellent track.
Please do not hesitate to contact the lactation consultant with follow-up questions such as this, if she is available for questions.
Another very helpful resource for you is La Leche League International.
