Never wake a sleeping baby

'Never wake a sleeping baby'

This comment didn't ring true with Daniel and little Alexander has chosen to follow in his brother's footsteps. Since leaving hospital he has been feeding around 6 times in the day. This includes waking only once in the night which has been quite nice as I've been able to have some solid sleep. The feed around 10am I have been waking him up because he has been too happy sleeping.

The early childhood nurse came to visit and weigh him on Thursday and he had actually lost weight since leaving hospital. When we left he weighed 3.6kg and now he weighed 3.5kg. :( I really didn't expect to be in this situation again as Eliza had no problems. Also I had been hearing Alexander swallow clearly, something I didn't hear with Daniel or Eliza, so I assumed that he was feeding well.

Obviously this news made me quite sad. It shook my confidence and made me question myself. The nurse said that I needed to wake Alexander up every 3 hours in the day but let him sleep at night. The last feed should be as I went to sleep, around 9pm, however I haven't been waking him for this feed as he has been cluster feeding from around 6pm until 8:30/9pm most nights. I've also been scared to wake him as I don't want him to then cluster feed for ages while I could be sleeping. This has meant though that he has still been having 6 feeds in a day, most of which he has been woken for.

I am nervous about Friday. On Friday he will be weighed again. If he hasn't put on 150-200g then the clinic nurse wants me to start on motillium again. I'm ok with taking it as I know it worked with Daniel, however, I just didn't expect to be back here again. I am worried that by waking him for feeds he isn't actually feeding well. The solution with Daniel was to let him sleep and feed when he wanted to. Waking him wasn't helping. I am worried that if he has put on the weight I will be expected to keep waking him and keep feeding him every 3 hours. Daniel's weight went up and down over a few weeks. I am nervous that Alexander will do the same.

So the theory 'never wake a sleeping baby' is incorrect in my case. I am hoping that waking him has boosted my supply and that Alexander will be putting on weight regularly and I dong need to worry about him. We will have to wait and see.

Update:
Today I visited a friend at the SAN who had a baby on Sunday. When leaving I bumped into Amanda which was a lovely surprise. She gave me a hug which was lovely and she asked how we were going. I said well but that Alexander had lost weight since leaving hospital so after weighing him on Friday I might need to get some motillium from Dr Booker to boost my milk. She suggested that I go and get the script from Andrew now instead of waiting, that way it will save a visit later. I also mentioned that I was still having some abdominal pains and she suggested talking to Rhonda, his midwife, about it. Again, because I was there. She gave me a hug and I headed off to Dr Booker. I spoke with Rhonda about both and she said she'd get Andrew to write me a script and also to get a urine test to see if there are any bugs in my uterus or bladder. He checked my stomach and it didn't seem sensitive this time which is good. He also gave me a script for antibiotics incase I start to get a fever or feel sickly.

I do love the care I get from Dr Booker, Rhonda and from Amanda. I'm really glad that I bumped into her. Hopefully all will be good.