Night time feeds

[sarahpurple]

As I am expecting my first baby in the next few weeks I was curious to know how many times a night is a new born baby breastfed?

 

[Beatlesfan]

I think it's different for all babies, but Imogen fed initially every 2 hours ish until she was about a week old, then started feeding roughly every 3 hours. From 3 weeks ish old she went longer during the night - feeding between 3-5 hours although 5 hours is rare. It is usually 4 - 4 and half.

So depends what time you go to bed/get up and how much sleep you are used to. Lately i've been going to bed 12 ish feeding Imogen, then she wakes 4 -4.30 am for a feed, sleeps and then around 8.30 for her next, so in theory she only wakes once for a feed if you look at "sleep" time being 12 - 8. But other nights (like last night) she fed at 10 pm, 1.30 am (I stayed awake to feed her at this time cos she was awake from 10 - 1.30) then she slept til 4.30 am, then awake at 8.30 am. But she was unsettled last night so getting her back off to sleep took some patience (rocking, dummy, cuddles etc.) First time she went off with a cuddle, 2nd time in the end I left her in moses basket gurgling to herself and I dozed, prepared to wake if she became distresses, but she went off by herself til 8.30 am.


Also, babies feed for different durations - Imogen it's usually half hour but babies vary. are you planning to co-sleep or use moses basket/cot?

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[sarahpurple]

Thanks for the reply I am planning on having a cot next to the bed.

 

[Moomum]

Ruby has a feed and off to sleep at 11.00 and then wakes at around 3.30 - 4.00. As she sleeps in a moses basket right beside me, all i do is lift her into bed, stick her on the boob and carry on dozing I don't even need to switch on a light

Breastfeeding rocks!

 

[andreag]

C settles into a routine fairly early (about 3 weeks) and fed at 12, 3 and 6 during the night after going to bed at 7. I changed her half way through feeding as she'd fall asleep on one side but after changing she would take the other side. at 10 weeks we introduced a dreamfeed of EBM when we wnet to bed (about 11, and then she dropped her night feeds and slept until about 7. She had stopped pooing in the night so we didn't need to change her. Waking up times have got later, and I treated any feed beore 7 as a night feed - ie no chatting or playing, just feed, change feed and back to bed. She was generally good at going back to sleep again - I sometimes found it more difficult, but then discovered the ribena I was downing was about 50% sugar - so no wonder! I never felt really tired though - I think the b/f hormones give you extra energy.

 

[lisa&alex]

every 3 hrs ish.. he tends to feed for a whileb4 bed about 11ish.. he will feed for a god hour to two hrs then sleep a fair bit.. he has slept for longest 5-6hrs

 

[sarahpurple]

Thanks for all the replies they have been useful