Do You Wake Sleeping Babies?

[Leigh]

absolutely not. I will, as they get older, start to shorten the morning nap so that they align with the afternoon nap of everyone else, but not at 9 weeks, no way.

Sleep does beget sleep. If baby is sleeping longer at a stretch, the same will happen at night. If you wake her after an hour, she'll probably wake MORE at night.

I have one now that is trying to tell me not to feed their bf'd baby as much because mom can't keep up with demand. Uh...no. Yes, I can "hold her off' for 10 minutes if I know you''re on your way, but I will not let her cry pitifully for an hour, nor will I give her less at a feeding if she's hungry.

She's 4 months old, btw, and drinks 6 oz at a feeding, usually 7:45am, 11:30am, and then she waits for mom at 3:45-4:15. Like I said, she will wait only if she's not too upset. Otherwise, mom will have to deal, sorry!

Sounds like Mom isn't pumping often enough. I normally wouldn't say this, but someone selfish enough to ask you not to feed their baby is probably not doing her part to make those feedings possible. Tell her to bring you formula to supplement if she doesn't want to provide breastmilk (or can't), and that you will not (and CAN not) let a baby go hungry.

[AfterSchoolMom]

Absolutely not. At 9 weeks he should be eating and sleeping on his own schedule.

I don't know why first time parents almost always seem to think that less daytime sleep will mean more nighttime sleep. So frustrating!

[Heidi]

Sounds like Mom isn't pumping often enough. I normally wouldn't say this, but someone selfish enough to ask you not to feed their baby is probably not doing her part to make those feedings possible. Tell her to bring you formula to supplement if she doesn't want to provide breastmilk (or can't), and that you will not (and CAN not) let a baby go hungry.

She's pumping 4-5 times a day at work, which is a big challenge, but only gets 1-2 oz at a time. She's very frustrated and I get that. Mom is a teacher and baby will be gone for the summer...so we are just trying to get her through the next week.

The whole thing would probably explode if I had her all summer, and if this is any indication as to how things will be in the future, I suspect we will be parting ways sooner or later. Too bad; they are really nice people, and baby is sweet, but they just don't understand some things...

[MyAngels]

I usually show parents a print out of this when they ask me to try to shorten their babies' daytime naps: