Feeding babies at night

Hi Ladies!

I thought I would hop over to this forum for a quick question. I'm 35 weeks and expecting twin girls. I'm trying to get organized and thinking about schedules. I have good intentions but I'm sure organization/schedule will be out the window before I know it when the babies are born. Anyway, when you feed your babies at night do you feed them every three to four hours OR do you let them sleep at night and wake when they are hungry? By all means I plan on waking both up to feed right after the other so I don't spend all day and night feeding. I also plan to bottle feed. Please let me know what worked best for you!

Thank you,
Summer :ibiggrin:

 

Hi there! congrats on twin girls! if you are exclusively bottle feeding; go with 3 hours if they seem not interested in eating all thier food you can go by thier cue=most often newborns will need to eat every 3 hours! in the NICU they feed the girls exactly 3 hours so we just kept that schedule-now at 4 mos they are begining to go 5-7 hours --sometimes if im lucky they can go 8 hours GL!

 

It may depend on how early your twins are. I never woke my twins up at night, they did a fine job of waking me up by themselves. With Evan, even though he was a full term, full sized baby, he also needed to be woken up at night (he is a great sleeper). During the first few week though, you shoudl probably keep them at a 3 - 4 hour schedule at night with feeding. Congrats on your twins and hope the rest of your pregnancy is uneventful & healthy!

 

Congrats on the impending arrivals! IMO, they can sleep as long as they want unless the dr. says for them to be woken up every 3 hours for a feeding.

 

Congrats! Our pedi said not to go past 4 hours at night at first. At their 2 week check-up, he was sufficiently pleased with their weights that he said we could let them go as long as they would sleep. And we always woke up the second one to feed if only one woke up hungry, day or night. FWIW, we kept them on a strict "no more than 3 hours" schedule (would feed more often on demand) during the day, and I think that helped them get their days and nights straight relatively quickly.

Best wishes to you on a smooth delivery and your new babies. Take it easy on yourself those early weeks and take every offer of help available!

 

QUOTE(SweetGirl @ Aug 20 2008, 04:36 PM) [snapback]939590[/snapback]
Congrats on the impending arrivals! IMO, they can sleep as long as they want unless the dr. says for them to be woken up every 3 hours for a feeding.


Ditto.

 

Honestly as long as they are not early or have low birth weights I would let them sleep. Ours were 4 weeks early (from their 40 week due date) and the dr's had no problem letting them sleep. I was nursing so I wanted to establish my supply but since you're planning on BFing as long as the dr's give you the ok I'd let them sleep!

 

My doctor had me wake them every 3 hours- mainly because Maya only weighed 4 lbs 8 oz. I know for the first couple weeks you do want to wake them every 3-4 hours if they are not waking themselves, but after that, unless there are other issues, you can let them sleep. Mine were very sleepy for a long time so we had to wake them and really try to make them stay awake to eat. Good luck!

 

hi and congrats! mine wake by themselves every 3 hours. occasionally 1 of them (usually my girl) will go 5 hours. they are 7 weeks corrected, im looking forward to them getting a little older and sleeping longer (i hope!!!)

 

Honestly, if I had to re-do it, I would not wake them up to eat at night. I wake them up in the day (I am SUPER scheduled since DAY ONE!) The dr. told me to wake them up at 4 hours in the night (even though they were gaining great!), but it got them in a habit - it took me until 9 weeks and with my moms help to break them of that. At 9-10 weeks they went from 4 hours to 8 hours of sleep. At 2 months they were at 12 hours a night!

 

My babies were in the NICU and while there they fed them every 3 hours religiously. When we took them home they stressed that we needed to feed them every 3 hours. My DH set the clock every 3 hours so we could get up and feed them. I wich w had never done that-it was so hard to get them to sleep longer in the night. They are 4 months old and they get up around 3:30am and then again at 7am. They gained weight great even after we stopped getting them up every 3 hous

Congrats on the :Clap: babies

 

Mine woke me up every 3 hours! :lol: I agree, unless they are early or your doctor tells you otherwise (I'd talk about it with them) I say let them sleep.

Good luck and congrats!!