How vigilant do I need to be?

[november]

My baby is now two days shy of two weeks old. We had some serious problems starting out, but things seem to be going quite smoothly. She has lots of wet/poopy diapers every day and at her one week weight check she was already only 4 oz shy of her birth weight.

How strict do I need to be about the feeding every 1.5-2.5 hours things? How long is that supposed to last?

As it is, my LO hasn't eaten for 3.5 hours and I CANNOT get her interested in it no matter how hard I try. I've changed her diaper, ticked her feet, pulled off her clothes, girlfriend just wants to sleep. Now, in the evening and at night, she eats eats eats. But during the day, she'd much rather sleep for 3-4 hour stretches, only eat for 15-30ish minutes and go back to sleep.

What do I do? Am I hurting my supply by letting her sleep? I hear people say 'just follow baby's cues!' but then turn around and say 3 hour feeding break MAX so I don't know what to do!!

[DCMama01]

Ha. I'm in the same shoes and my DD is 1 day shy of 2 weeks old. She has a very similar eating pattern as your DD. I've tried waking her up to eat and she has no interest whatsoever. So I'm back to just nursing on demand. She was less than an ounce off of her birth weight at one week.

I just wish she cluster fed during the day and slept 3-4 hrs at night instead of the reverse!

[babygirlsmama]

My pediatrician said one 4 hour stretch of sleep is fine in the early days, so long as you are getting in plenty of nursing sessions otherwise. If you are confident the baby is nursing 8-10 times or more, you are probably doing just fine.

Another thing to watch for is whether your breasts feel a bit uncomfortably full. Even better than the clock, that is what tells me my gal is overdue for a feeding.

[sunshynbaby]

I think four hours is okay as long as she is having plenty of wet diapers, etc. It sounds like she has her days and nights mixed up. When DS was that young, we worked to straighten out his days and nights by always making it dark and quiet during the night hours (and always had lights on/curtains open during the day). We also wouldn't play or make eye contact at night (SO hard to do!) because eye contact is like a shot of espresso for a newborn. Congrats on your new babe!

[saffrongirl]

Originally Posted by sunshynbaby

I think four hours is okay as long as she is having plenty of wet diapers, etc. It sounds like she has her days and nights mixed up. When DS was that young, we worked to straighten out his days and nights by always making it dark and quiet during the night hours (and always had lights on/curtains open during the day). We also wouldn't play or make eye contact at night (SO hard to do!) because eye contact is like a shot of espresso for a newborn. Congrats on your new babe!

I agree about the days and nights. At two weeks old though, it's really going to be hard to turn that around.

My LO (who is 9 weeks old) was a really sleepy baby too in the beginning and had lost weight at her two week check up and slowly gained the weight back. It was a bit stressful and frustrating because NOTHING would wake her up. I just kept offering it to her over and over and eventually she woke up more. She was/is also a really efficient eater so it wasn't necessary for her to hang out on the breast the way my first dd did. First dd would graze for 40 minutes or so, while this one will basically drain the breast in about 10 minutes. Perhaps you have a quick eater as well?

I'd say the poopy/wet diapers is a good clue that things are okay. Follow your instincts and just keep offering her the breast. She'll wake up more and more...