ewborns need to feed regularly; 8-12 times in a
24 hour period is a normal range but this doesn’t mean that your baby will feed every
2-3 hours. Some feeds might be close together and others might be spaced slightly further apart. What your baby does one day to the next is unlikely to be consistent. Many babies will wake for feeds on their own, but if your baby is very sleepy or not feeding effectively, then you may need to wake them for feeds until they have established a good weight gain pattern.
t is normal for a feed to take up to an hour in the early days. Babies often get more efficient as they get bigger; but some will naturally be slow
feeders and others will be fast.
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abies need a lot of sleep, but they can be difficult to settle and are not born knowing the difference between night and day. They gradually gain this knowledge over the first few months. Night
waking in the early weeks and months is normal baby behaviour (babies
spend more time in light sleep than adults and wake up more easily),
but can become physically and emotionally tiring for parents.
Strategies to cope with this overwhelming tiredness include
catching up on sleep during the day (sleeping when your baby
sleeps); leaving non-essential household and other jobs undone;
accepting offers of practical help e.g. shopping, cooking and
cleaning; and knowing that this time will pass.
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B