Can I let my 10 week old baby sleep through?

11 replies

Marcine · 21/11/2017 17:09

DC3 is 10 weeks and appears to me to be thriving, fully breastfed and in a reasonable routine, and most nights now sleeps 10-11pm to around 6-7am. Obviously I am extremely happy about this.

She was born on the 50th, lost 4% birth weight and was still on 50th when weighed next at 6 weeks. However since then she has dropped to 25th centile and the HV is concerned she isn't feeding enough. She would like me to wake and feed the baby at 3am.

Waking at 3am is the last thing I want to do, but I also don't want to risk my baby's health. DP thinks as she is gaining weight and fed on demand we should let her sleep as long as she likes and enjoy it while it lasts. I guess my question is more of a wwyd?

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toadierocks · 21/11/2017 17:18

My 2nd baby was like this by about 9-10 weeks he was sleeping through. I just made sure he had a massive feed at 11pm and he went off nicely. we were very lucky. before that he was waking at 4am for a little dream feed but as soon as he didn't need that he stopped waking up. I think you know your baby best and the routine that suits. maybe top up the last feed with expressed milk? I pumped and boob fed so I had a surplus in the fridge that I gave him first then fed him. He was a bit bigger - on the 90th centile....... also maybe you could add in another extra feed during the day to get a few more Oz's in.......

wowbutter · 21/11/2017 17:20

I would let the baby sleep. In the early days of my first baby, I woke to feed, then my mother arrived and told me not to. I stopped. Baby woke when hungry. More sleep. Everyone's a winner.

toadierocks · 21/11/2017 17:21

but I'd let her sleep through. the more rest you can get for both of you is very precious, you'll make plenty of milk through the night so you could always express at 4am and still have plenty in the morning for a huge feed.... or I'd just enjoy some well earned rest.

papooshka · 21/11/2017 17:22

Let her sleep. My fully bf DD went 7pm-7am from 12 weeks. A friend of mine with fully BF DS went the same from 7 weeks!

CryingShame · 21/11/2017 17:26

I'd agree with the other poster on this, I have never seen the need to wake a sleeping baby. My DS was a bloody awful sleeper, no way would I have been waking him if he'd slept 11 - 6 at 10 weeks. I'd have bitten his hand off.

Look at when your daytime feeds are to see if you can move them round to fit in an extra daytime feed but sod waking him up at 3am. This will be the same HV recommending controlled crying when you can't get him to sleep through again afterwards.

Justbookedasummmerholiday · 21/11/2017 17:32

Ds slept from 2 weeks!! I lay there with huge leaky boobs while he snored away!

MonkeyBrainsInPickle · 21/11/2017 17:38

My baby slept for the same amount of time at night at 10 weeks. I was never told to wake her up. It didn’t last though so enjoy it while you can.

flumpybear · 21/11/2017 17:38

I’d just play by ear, if baby loses weight then needs more sustenance from you - have you heard of dream feeding? May be too early but have a read up if you can express and DF

Lazypuppy · 21/11/2017 18:19

Just been to antenatal class on feeding and they say you should wake baby, they shouldn't be going more than 6hrs without a feed. It could be her blood sugar has dropped so low she doesn't wake up, so you need to wake her up. At 10 wreks their stomach is only the size of a ping pong ball so need regular feeds. If you overfeed, you'l stretch her stomach and she'll need more and more at each feed which ypu may struggle to produce

Apparently best breastmilk is produced between 1-5am so feeding more at night is normal

Original poster

Marcine · 21/11/2017 19:31

I understand waking newborns to feed, but does that still apply at 10 weeks?

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Original poster

Marcine · 21/11/2017 22:39

Have given her a bottle top up before bed tonight, I will try to express and feed a bit extra each day.

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