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Should I wake my baby to feed every 3hours?

“Do you have a tip for a baby who doesn't want to wake up?”He would rather sleep than eat. A magic trick in your bag ?”

That is a message from a mum, texting me from the maternity, within the first 24h of her baby ♥️

Here is what I text back to her:

“Let your baby sleep ☺️ Unless the doctor says not to because of bad breathing, jaundice, prematurity, or other medically diagnosed problems. But otherwise, let your sweet baby sleep. And trust his behaviour 😉 If someone comes to bother you about his weight, remember that it is normal for babies to lose weight at birth. It is the natural recovery of the sport his birth was.”

Behind the question : there is actually 2 mains concerns, and we are gonna cover them both:
1. Can babies go longer than 3 hours between feed at night? and

2. Can I let my baby sleep for more than 3h? (and how will he gain his birth weight back, if I do?)

UNDERSTANDING YOUR NEWBORN SLEEP
－ DURING THE FIRST DAYS

So we are gonna start with a few things. I want you to know about your newborn's sleep, debunking a few myths too, so you can ditch some doubts or guilt on the way. Let's just dive into that.

These recommandations focus on babies :

born full term
during their first 30 days (0 - 1 month)
medical challenging conditions ruled out

I will be add notes for when a condition makes the guidelines slightly different (in case of breastfeeding for example)

Disclaimer: The guidelines for premature and or little weight newborn can differ from a baby born full term. If your child is born prematurely or you wonder if you might need to follow premature's guidelines too, I recommend you to ask your health carer or even drop me a question, I will clarify it for you.