So, I am about to be a first time mom, and of course I want to be perfect. My question is, how did you feed your newborn? Did you let them wake up on their own or did you do a strict schedule of waking them up to eat every few hours? I keep getting mixed responses and of course i'm going to ask my pediatrician what they recommend. Just curious......

<blockquote><b>Quoting NewMommyXOXO:</b>" So, I am about to be a first time mom, and of course I want to be perfect. My question is, how did you ... [snip!] ... hours? I keep getting mixed responses and of course i'm going to ask my pediatrician what they recommend. Just curious......"</blockquote>


As long as there are no medical issues, I would let them sleep and wake on their own.

I woke her up for the first week and that was after 4 hours a straight sleep. After that I let her sleep.

When i first had my daughter, i would set my alarm on my cell phone every two hours and wake her up to feed her, i didn't know at the time that i didn't need to do that lol.

I let mine sleep. Never wake a sleeping baby imo. He usually woke up every 3 hours though. so I automatically knew when to wake up lol

In the hospital they will make you wake the baby to nurse. But once you get home do as you please. Let the baby sleep. I remember texting my mom at midnight one night because my baby had been out for 4 hours (this was two nights after coming home from the hospital with my first) and she said let him sleep. Now I can't ever get him to sleep but that is how life goes!

With dd#1 I woke her up every 2hrs for the first week then every 3hrs after that till she was about 3mos when she ate as she pleased. Bad idea..got no sleep.

Now I had dd#2 I let her wake up..unless its been 4hrs with no wake ups. She is very small and I want her to gain weight otherwise I would jist let her wake as she wants and eat.

Unless you have jaundice issues or weight gain issues, let the baby sleep.

I let DS sleep. He'll wake up when he's hungry.  

I nursed on demand, but he wouldn't sleep very long and he nursed like 20 times a day. I think the guideline is to wake to nurse until they've gained back to their birthweight, then it's okay to let them sleep.

depends on the baby. All of mine, but one, did a darn good job of waking themselves and demanding a feeding! Like if two hours passed between we were doing good.

One was a bit stubborn for a couple days and decided he wasn't into the nursing bit. So he would sleep and not wake for feedings. I woke him.

THere are lots of factors to consider. If the baby is jaundice, they need to wake and be fed because you want to work that out of them quickly. If they lost a lot in the hospital they need to work on regaining it. Even their birth weight can make a difference. A 10 lber can skip a feeding and still be hearty where as a 5 lber needs everything they can get. If they feed very frequently normally and happend to get into a sleepy stretch its different than a kid that wants to just sleep all the time etc. A baby thats gaining slowly needs to be fed more often. etc