How long should I be letting newborn go without feed at night?

[megonthemoon]

My DD is 3 days old, and my milk came in yesterday which she has adjusted to really well. She has been feeding well right from the start, feeding most of her first evening before having a big 7 hour sleep to sleep off the birth. I was expecting the past 2 nights to be a bit crazier as she recovered from the birth but she went 12-5 the second night without a feed and then last night went 11.30-4.30 and only fed at 4.30 because I could hear her stirring and thought I'd better feed her, rather than because she was crying out for it.

Each daytime feed is lasting about 45 minutes, feeding from both breasts, and she is clearly feeding well as I can see her swallowing, hear it gurgling in her tummy, and this morning's poo has started to change from mec to proper breastfed poo. Starting to wee more too. She had 8 feeds during the daytime yesterday, including 3 big evening feeds about 2 hours apart.

This is such a change from DS where we had a fraught first few weeks of feeding and wouldn't go more than 2-3 hours in the night without screaming for a feed. So I'm not quite sure how long I can leave her overnight without a feed - should I completely be taking my cues from her given she seems to be feeding and sleeping so well, or should I be making sure that she never goes longer than X hours without a feed? I'm worried about establishing my supply as much as about her as she seems so content!

when she wants to eat - you'll know!

my first woke up every 2 hours for 15 months.

My second slept right through the night from day 1.

When they want food, they demand it.

that first night my husband was really worried and eventually started demanding that we wake him (ds2) and feed him because he was "too weak from lack of food to wake up"

So I would say just go with the flow.

If all other signs are good, I would go with her cues. My DD did this too post birth but it didn't last unfortunately, although she was doing at least 4-5 hours in the night til 12 weeks. The last 4 weeks she has been feeding 2 hourly.

Thanks! She's 9lbs so a good size to begin with. It's so funny how different she is to her brother - same weight but otherwise completely different - more laidback personality and better feeding/sleeping habits so far!

I guess we'll just go with it if she does feed well during the day and see what happens. i'm sure it will all have changed by next week and I'll be back on asking how to deal with a baby waking every other hour!

Midwives at hospital weren't worried as they thought she was probably just sleeping off the birth. Community midwife said probably no more than 5 hours without food overnight is best, but didn't seem to be prescribing that IYSWIM as she was more concerned that she is feeding well overall which she seems to be.

Right, shall relax and try and enjoy the sleep while I can, certain in the knowledge that just posting here has jinxed it! :o

I was told never to let a newborn go more than 6 hours - the first night we were home from the hospital 4 day old ds slept 1am-7am, and when I told the midwife the next day she was horrified!

However, ds had had a traumatic birth and was badly jaundiced (had phototherapy for it) so the neonatologist insisted he was woken to feed every 2-3 hours day and night as he wasn't demanding to be fed at all. For a healthy baby feeding lots in the day, 5 hours at night sounds great to me.

She sounds exactly like my DD - fed lots all day and slept solidly for 8 to 9 hours at night. She was 81/2 lbs at birth and never went below this.

I did have a midwife trying to persuade me to wake her every 3 hrs to feed saying "she is probably getting too weak to cry"!

I told her she was barking mad and that DD was quite capable of letting me know in no uncertain terms whan she was hungry!

Unless she has any medical problems, let her sleep and thank your lucky stars!

Incidentally, DD is now 11 and has always been very, very healthy.