Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

Hi Moms,

I gave birth to my son Joshua on October 3rd, 3 weeks early due to a sudden and serious case of preeclampsia which has yet to resolve.

I am a new mommy and feel so clueless. Any and all help is so deeply appreciated, I feel like a basket case.

Here's what we do:

We wake DS up for his feedings approximately every 3.25 hours (sadly I had to give up breastfeeding bc his ped wanted him on formula bc he was jaundiced and bc of my high BP). When we wake him up, we first change his diaper and then feed him and rock him to sleep.

Is this right? SHould we change the diaper and then feed him or feed him 1st and then change him?

I feel so stupid for even asking but right now I'm confused about everything.

Also, do you automatically change a newborns diaper at every feedling or only when they cry to let you know something is wrong (besides hunger).

TIA! I'm losing my mind and my DH does back to work on Tuesday as he only got 2 weeks off.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

Congrats on your !

There is no 'right' way- you already have the instincts you need

I do change at every feeding. She (my 3 month old) is always wet! I change after the feeding, but either way is fine.

Good luck

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

There is no right or wrong way. You are doing fine. I use to feed then change, but DS had reflux and would spit up when I laid him down after he ate, so I switched to change then feed. Welcome to motherhood, you'll do just fine.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

If you have to wake DS, he prob isn't hungry so waiting for food while you change a diaper prob won't upset him too much.
I don't thik there is a right/wrong way to do it. Some might say that keep a routine so DS knows what is coming.
I would check DSs diaper before feeding, if its dry, feed him. He may have a "Code Yellow" while you are feeding him and then you don't have to change a dry diaper before you feed him and a wet one after.
I was on the phone w/my aunt the other day. I just changed DS diaper and he did a "Code Brown" in the clean one. I kidingly yelled at him that the $.22 for the new diaper was coming out of his college fund. My aunt thought that was very funny.

I'm sure you are doing just fine.
If you notice DS is getting mad when you wake him, you might want to have the bottle ready.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

congrats, No right or wrong, whatever works best. We used to change, feed, burp and then sometimes change again. You will find your own groove, it takes time but will work out.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

Congrats!!!!

We never woke Kaydyn up to feed her. She wasn't jaundiced though so I'm not sure. She def let us know when she was hungry.

I would generally change her when she was almost done with her feeding. She would scream bloody murder when she woke so we really couldn't change her 1st, and once she fell asleep if we woke her up changing her diaper we would have to give her more formula. So after she got a couple of ozs in I'd stop and change her.

We also rocked her to sleep and also used the swaddle.

Message edited 10/16/2009 4:52:16 PM.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

Congrats!!!!

I have two week old Twins. I let them wake on their own...they wake every 3-4 hours) and I change their diapers at each waking before feeding ( to wake them up a bit and also so they dont spit up being jostled after a feeding) and then I hodl them up a little after each feeding to digest and then back to sleep.

Pretty much the exact same as you.

I hope that you start to feel better really soon!!

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

Posted by JennZ

congrats, No right or wrong, whatever works best. We used to change, feed, burp and then sometimes change again. You will find your own groove, it takes time but will work out.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

I usually change after bc she almost ALWAYS poops when she's having a bottle


I SHOULD change before though bc DD has reflux, but theres no point, I'd have to change her twice


DD usually falls asleep halfway through her bottle, so even if DD isnt wet we take her to the changing table and "pretend" we're changing her to wake her up, otherwise she wont finish her bottle. I usually burp her halfway through, then after she's done too

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

My son often pooped while feeding, so I waited.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

my only suggestion is to never wake a sleeping baby... trust me when they are hungry they will tell you.. take advantage of all the consolidated sleep you can get...

i did change ds everytime i fed him, always before becuase he nodded off while eating

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

first, congrats

I usually change my ds MID feeding (he is 5 weeks old). I do not change him before I feed him cause he is screaming to eat and I do not do it at the end cause I do not want to wake him when he drifts off to sleep (which he does after the feeding) so I feed him a bit, burp, change, finish the bottle, burp, rock, put into crib

I rocked my dd to sleep for a year so there is not right or wrong answer

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

i agree - there is no right or wrong way... i found i changed DS before i fed him and then sometimes i would after as well, because he would have a BM as i as feeding him.. he pooped A LOT...


best of luck - ask all you want - eveyrone here is a great help

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

I'm new at this too, we've been letting him wake on his own (which is anywhere from every 2-4 hours), change him (he's almost always wet at least), feed, burp, rock to sleep. There are times when I end up doing a double diaper change before putting him back down but it's once in a while. And I started off changing after feeding but I found that it would wake DS back up too much.

So that's my two cents, and with that I know the routine could be different next week! It's whatever works!

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

I used to change before and after a feeding. If her diaper had anything in it then it usually wouldn't hold what came out during or right after the feeding.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

I change DD before I feed her so that if she falls asleep after eating I don't have to disturb her. I definitely wouldn't wake him to eat, though, because he will let you know when he is hungry. If he is falling asleep halfway through his bottles, change him mid-feeding to wake him up enough to finish. The more he eats the longer he'll sleep. I used to do that for DD when she wouldn't finish.

Congrats and good luck. I think everyone feels clueless at the very beginning. I certainly did! I'm sure you're doing a great job!

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

Is your ped requiring you to wake him? DD was severly jaundiced (4+ days in the NICU) so we had to wake her every 3 hours. I think by her 2 week appt the ped was satisfied with her progress and we were able to let her sleep longer. Once you reach that point, he might be able to go longer stretches.

DD always pooped during a feeding, so we always changed her after.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

Message edited 10/16/2009 11:15:34 PM.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

First, congratulations!!

Second, I always changed my DD before she had her bottle because usually if I laid her down to do it after she would spit up. I changed her diaper before every bottle which in the beginning was about every 3 hrs.

Edit - I never let her go more than 3 hrs. in the beginning without eating although she always seemed to wake up and be ready to eat at the 3 hr. mark. My ped. said to not let her sleep for long stretches early on (not that she did until she was 8 weeks old) because babies prefer to sleep over eat early on and he said they should be eating about every 3 hrs. so they are getting enough formula/BM and gaining enough weight.

Message edited 10/16/2009 11:23:24 PM.

Re: Help! New Mom of 13 day old, am I doing this right?

honestly - my way of doing it is simply to change her first ALWAYS - this way if she manages to fall asleep, then i don't have to 'disturb' it....by changing her....ya know?

there really is NO right or wrong way. you are fine and WAY not alone!!!!

i had a major BP problem after birth as well - so i feel your pain on that one as well (i was in the hospital for 12 days total). If you have any ??? - please feel free to FM me. In the end, Exforge worked very well to bring down my BP!!!