to wake, or not to wake.....?

[Emma1979]

i was just wondering how many of you will wake your sleeping baby? hollie is somewhat of a catnapper, likes to nap for 45 minutes at a time, however there is the wonderful occasion where i manage to resettle her after 45 minutes, and then she sleeps for over three hours... i was just wondering, if your baby is napping for ages and is going past their 'due' feed time, do you wake them, or let them wake when they are hungry....

[widdly]

Definately let them wake when they are hungry!!

BUT.... it depends, does holly know the difference between day and night yet??
If she does realise the difference between day and night i would just let her sleep and wake on her own when she's hungry.
If she doesn't know the difference between day and night i would wake her for her feeds during the day, but let her sleep through feeds during night if she wants.

This is what worked for me hope it works for ou too

[Pandora]

I never woke DS for a feed, ever. Sometimes he would sleep 5 hours at night and then a four or five hour stretch in the morning.

The only reason I've heard for waking is for very young babies who might be sleeping becuase they don't have the energy to wake up to feed, or if there are weight gain issues (which in itself can be highly subjective anyway)

[Lucy]

Nope, I have never woken mine for feeding..........I kind of figure if they are still snoozing, let them enjoy it........and then let them have a monster feed when they do wake.....

[Rachel]

Hi Emma - I wake Grace for feeds only during the day and now only after 5 hours (this has happened only a couple of times as we have issues with day sleeping!). When she was younger I would wake her after 4 hours. I have done this since she was born as I wanted her to have her feeds during the day and not overnight. I make sure she gets 5 feeds in 24 hours. At night, she usually has her last feed anytime from 5 - 7 (depending on her feeding schedule in the day) and after that I don't wake her, she is in control. This has worked for us and she generally sleeps really well overnight, only waking once between 3 and 5 am. I must admit though, it is getting harder and harder to wake her as it can be such a battle to get her to sleep in the day that it almost seems cruel - having said that she has always woken happy the few times that we have woken her (and we do it very gently).

[Karina]

I am demand feeding, so I dont wake Claire if she is having a long sleep. I have done it a few times but then I find she takes a very long time to settle again if I do, so I dont wake her anymore. Claire does short sleeps and frequent shortish feeds (so annoying!) but it doesnt seem to work any other way for her. If I feel like I am about to explode from my breasts being so full, I just express and when I have done this, I have found she wakes soon after anyway, like she knows!! cheeky monkey!

[Olive]

never woke!