HELP! 2 week old sleeping 8hrs+ through the night - is this OK?

[squidgeymiller]

My 2 week old sleeps A LOT through the night - Most nights I have woken her to feed her after about 6/7 hrs but last night I left her to wake up on her own and she slept for 8.5 hrs.

The only reason I was waking her was because the midwives in the hospital said a newborn shouldn't really go longer than 6 hours between feeds, however, my friend has said that you should never wake a sleeping baby. It takes a lot to wake her up and usually takes me about 10 minutes to get her awake enough to feed. She doesn't particularly like being woken up either!

She was 2 weeks late (I'm not sure if that makes any difference!) and at 2 weeks old is usually awake quite a lot of the day (unless we're out and about) and at the moment is cluster feeding almost constantly morning and afternoon, with a couple of hours sleep in between.

This is (obviously) my 1st baby and I don't have a clue if it's too early for her to be sleeping this much at night and awake this much during the day.

ANY ADVICE OR THOUGHTS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED - I THINK I'M GOING MAD GOING OVER ALL THE PROS AND CONS IN MY HEAD!!!

PS - I know I shouldn't complain about this and believe me I'm not - I just want to make sure she's OK sleeping this much, and that I'm not causing her any problems / feeding her too little!

[moondog]

Is she b/fed?
If so,it's waaaaaay too long.
Prob. too long if bottle fed come to think of it...

[squidgeymiller]

yes exclusivelye bf - don't knwo what to do - should I be waking her up???

[chocolatequeen]

I had the same with my first - he would have slept through from 2 weeks. I had to keep waking him though as he was not gaining any weight. Once he started gaining weight though I left him to sleep through again. With DS2 was told to wake him up to feed him until he reached a month - the pediatrician said that small babies are unable to regulate blood sugar and if blood sugar drops too low it can be dangerous. This too in turn makes them more sleepy, thereby making the problem worse. We were feeding at 11pm and again at 3am, stopped the 3am feed at about 6 weeks. He fed 3/4 hourly during the day.

Even if you do start waking her, I doubt it will ruin her sleeping pattern (fingers crossed!), she´s probably just going to be a great sleeper, lucky you!

HTH

[moondog]

You should be able to 'dream feed'- sort of feed while she is still asleep.
It is very very early days with regard to milk production and your body needs night feeds to send off the right hormonal messages for milk production.

Is feeding going ok otherwise?
Have you access to a supportive HV and/or a breast feeding group??

[katiebl]

If she's gaining weight fine and she's healthy I wouldn't. If she's happy sleeping why wake her. Is she a big baby? cos they often sleep longer. My cousin and my ds did. Just be warned they don't always keep it up.

Just think - you must have good milk. She would wake if she was hungry. Is she starving when she wakes up?

[moondog]

Squidgey,lets hope that Mears or Tiktok come along becasue they really are the ladies who know more than the rest of us put together. (Not sure if yo know of them or not...)

[JanH]

I wonder if you should put this under breastfeeding, sm?

It does sound like too much sleep, but as long as she is producing lots of wet/dirty nappies etc - you know the routine? Well you prob. don't as this is your first but whenever a Q like this is raised it seems to be the first response.

(My DD1 was late but tiny, and didn't feed well and she started sleeping a lot, and was underfed as it turned out which is why I'm wondering.)

Good luck anyway - hope you have just got a good sleeper!

[NotQuiteCockney]

Hmm, Kellymom says they shouldn't be left to sleep for more than 2 hours (in the day) or 4 hours (at night). \link{http://www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/newborn-nursing.html\cite}.

[moondog]

YES,GOOD IDEA!
pOST AGAIN UNDER FEEDING.i THINK tIKTOK CHECKS THAT ONE OUT EVERY TIME SHE LOGS ON.

[LIZS]

I'd go along with minimum 6 hourly at night at this stage,. Did she have a difficult delivery or any jaundice which may affect her still ? It can become a viscious circle of sleepiness and poor, infrequent feeding in some circumstances. Is she feeding well, regaining birth weight, weeing, pooing and otherwise healthy ?

[Mercy]

Did/does she have jaundice?

[squidgeymiller]

she was 8lb 6 at birth at last hv visit (last Fri) was back up to 8lb 6.5. plenty of wet/dirty nappies and otherwise healthy and happy.

She is/was not jaundiced and I do have to say that she was very sleepy while in utero - had to be induced and monitored quite closeley with trace machines as every time they tried to monitor her she was asleep - in fact, she spent most of the day while I was in labour asleep! Eventually had c-section as no progress with the labour after 2 days. Do you think this makes any difference?

I've also realised that it's usually around 4am when she wakes up, whatever time I put her down. Might just try feeding her at 8, waking her at 12 for a feed and then letting her lead the next feed.

She usually wakes up after a couple of hours after the 4am feed - usually 6/7am.

Thanks for all the responses so far - I will also put this question on the BF thread.

[Rosa5]

I had same problem with first baby ( now 12 weeks) but she was also lazy eater. I was encouraged to wake her to feed if she went over 4 hrs but the only thing that worked was toe tickling. If tried to dream feed her she slept on . I tried both breast and bottle.
Since then she has only just started having a midnight feed and now wakes again at 4 am - that is the time that she always woke from birth. She also cat naps during the day max sleep is 40 mins but can be extended if out and about !