not a stealth boast - peace of mind needed! 6 week old sleeping too much?

[acupofteafortwoormore]

I am not sure if this is the right place to post but did not know where to put this?

Basically my 6 week old is sleeping for what feels to me like too long at night & I just want to see if this could be normal for her? (Honestly not a stealth boast).

She is my third but first was awful sleeper - & second was what I think is normal, a few waking say night till 4 or 6 months.

Number 3 started doing 4 hourly stretches at night really early (was told to wake her at first) and then 5 hourly & in the last few days she sleeps 6 or 7 pm till 3 or 4 then wakes, not screaming just wakeful I feed her & then she wakes again about 6 or 7 - again not screaming.

Then last night she slept from 7 till 5 am & I am worried that this is too long & she is not well.

Today my boobs are painful, feel bruised and I think my supply is being affected

Is this just her ? Or should I wake her? Is this on the normal scale?

She is breastfed/or has expressed breast milk during the day then has one formula at bed time.

She feeds when she wants but that is pretty much 3 hourly, 7, 10, 1, 4 & 6/7 - which does not seem much for a breastfed baby?

Any similar reassuring tales?

Have tried HV three times but no answer!

I think 3 hourly seems about right, it does seem long time at night.

Is she weeting nappies well? Usually if they are weeing and bright when awake they are fine. Tbh i would skip hv and go to gp just to be on safe side

What's her wright gain like? Any concerns there? Thinking of my 5 weeks old - he ate for example today -
2:30 am
4:30 am
7:30 am (all 10-15 min feeds)
130 ml expressed milk 10 am
Big giant feed 12:1230
Tiny feed : 2 pm
4-45 pm
7 pm
9:30 pm
Will have one more feed before our bedtime

He's also been out and about and in car journeys 2-7 pm. His weight gain is 8-9 ounces a week. Reading this it would seem like quite a few feeds, but most of these are smallish ones.

If your little one is having big giant feeds, maybe she is tanking up a lot? If you have any idea about the weight gain that might give you a clue?

Having said that of course I know weighing for no reason is discouraged for good reason.

Hmm... Well, my 6 week old has been doing mammoth sleeps during the day recently (slept for 4 hours yesterday afternoon) and has had the occasional night when he's slept for 8 hours (he did 9pm till 4am about a week ago). But then he'll have days when he's more wakeful and last night he was sleeping in shorter bursts (3 hrs max). My DS also wakes 'quietly' at night - rarely cries unless I'm particularly slow at rousing and feeding him.

Is your DS always this sleepy? Or does he have more wakeful periods. How does he seem when he is awake? And yes, what's weight gain like and wee/poo output?

Re. boobs - the engorged feeling is common if/when baby suddenly starts sleeping much longer periods. I remember when my older DD first slept through the night at 7 months I woke up with enormous throbbing boobs. How do they feel during the day? Is he emptying the breast sufficiently at other feeds for you to feel comfortable? And how is he when he's actually feeding and right afterwards? Content or fussy??

If she looks happy and gaining weight, it should be fine. My first one was awful sleeper, but second did occasional 6 hours stretches from 3 weeks, and consistent sleeping through the night (7-9 hours after a dreamfeed at ~11pm) since 8 weeks (dreading 4 months regression though...). He is ebf, and used to cluster feed in the evenings till about 11 weeks, but not anymore. As he is a big boy (75 centile), no worries about feeding too little. Actually, when he slept for 6 hours at 3 weeks I asked GP whether I should be waking him up, and they said no. I think it is only first 2 weeks that you need to be cautious about them not feeding for too long.
Your breasts should adjust. If very uncomfortable, I used to hand express a tiny bit over thw sink - just to relieve the pressure.

Hmmm. My DD (now 6) was a very good sleeper sleeping through from 18 days however I did "dream feed". Have you tried this??
My ds (6weeks) is also a "good" sleeper (not quite sleeping through though) and has his biggest feed at 8pm then again at 3/4am and ALWAYS wakes again at 6am (mainly because his big sister wakes him up!) and then he feeds roughly every 2 to 3 hours through the day x bf babies take what they want and providing she's weeing and pooing and gaining its probably fine x

DD pretty much slept through from 10 weeks and was not a big eater/ slow to gain weight. I introduced a dream feed (as also suggested by Double ) around midnight and it helped a lot with my milk supply and her weight so that's maybe something to consider rather than wake her.

My dd is 18 weeks and has pretty much slept through from 4/5 weeks. We do the same as you, she's bf most of the time but has a ff at bedtime. The ff was from 5 ish weeks and used to be at 10-10.30 (whenever we went to bed) but we've moved it forward to try and get a proper bedtime so now she has a ff at 7 then I feed her back to sleep after we inevitably disturb her going to bed, then that's it until 6ish. During the day she used to go 2.5 hours between feeds but that has stretched to 3 hours now. Dd seems fine. She definitely looks chunkier to me!