Night feedings

[SquirrelyGurly]

I'm feeding my 3 week old babies every 4 hours even through the night but I've come across some information that said only do night feedings if needed. Is feeding them through the night necessary or should I be allowing them longer stretches through the night?

[island rehabber]

3 week olds can go 5 to 6 hours overnight, in other words you can miss a feeding. I only make an exception when I have true neonates-- 1-10 days old. That's when I feed every 3 hours around the clock.

[Spanky]

In addition to neonates, I continue to feed babies that are underweight and need to "catch up" through the night / ATC up to 6 weeks. I know one of your babies was struggling form the other posts... is she comparable in weight to her siblings?

[SquirrelyGurly]

Two of my babies are 48g and one is 51g , I've had them for a week and a half and all 3 of them have steadily gained weight and appearance wise look healthy (not lethargic, soft coat growing in, not emaciated or dehydrated) I did follow recommendation on my other post about sugar water in between feedings to help with my one babes #2 issues and it helped tremendously! (She is one of the 48g babies) I'm going to continue to monitor her but hopefully we're in the clear now! I don't mind night feedings but lack of sleep is definitely kicking my butt, I'm one of those that when I wake up I'm wide awake and it takes me forever to fall back asleep and it's maddening! 😅 But for now I will continue our night feeds and enjoy my sleepy squirrely cuddles! ❤️

[SquirrelyGurly]

Correction (I haven't weighed since the end of last week) but they now are 53g, 55g and 50g (-the one that had the stool issues is the 50g one.