Should I wake baby up for night feeds?

[CluelessMummyToBe]

Not posting this to boast I promise. My baby (16 days old) sleeps a lot at night. I generally have to wake her up for a feed and have been leaving it 6-7 hours most nights. No idea how long she would continue to sleep for if I didn’t wake her. She is gaining weight, only ever lost 0.5% of her birth weight before she started to gain. I’m trying to just be responsive to when she wants to feed but some people have suggested I should be waking her more often in the night. She tends to feed loads in the morning and evening and go for a long stretch without feeding in the afternoon too. Do you think I should keep doing what I’m doing, wake her more often for feeds or stop waking her altogether and let her sleep for as long as she wants? I should also add that she is quite colicky when she does feed and wondering if that’s because her feeds are all so closely clustered together.

Are you breast or bottle feeding op? People might be able to better advise you if they know

Good point, thanks. I’m breastfeeding exclusively

Nooooooo! I’m of the view never wake a sleeping baby, unless they were not gaining weight or there’s a health reason. Although she’s so tiny I understand your concern and would ask gp/hv. I’d imagine the sleep will change before too long anyway, not much stays the same with babies!

Speak to HV for advice maybe? Personally I wouldn't wake more often than you're doing as baby is growing well, but I don't think I'd let them have a gap of more than about 8hrs either so if they were going to sleep longer than that I think I'd wake them after that gap, because that is a very long time for a baby of that age and im thinking more for fluid especially given it's quite warm right now. At that age I was EBF and my DD would cluster feed all evening and settle for bed at the end of it around 10 or 11pm and then wake roughly every four hours for a relatively short feed until the morning when she'd cluster feed for a few hours again. And I knew that was very 'good' sleeping for a baby of that age so I imagine your baby's sleep is particularly unusual.

All medical professionals will tell you to wake the baby.

If they're sleeping, they don't want fed. I woke dd (she was a nicu baby) I stopped waking her after a week because my HV said if she was hungry she would wake up. I stopped waking her. She's nearly 20 weeks and still sleeps through.

As long as baby is gaining as they should then leave them to it.

If she’s gaining weight and healthy then I’d let her sleep and enjoy it OP.

The people who say you should wake your daughter at night, sound jealous to me. If this advice is coming from a health professional (such as a health visitor) ask them why they think you should do it. imo, If you start waking your bay at night, you will train her to do it. She will wake if she's hungry, and her pattern might change.
Just enjoy the rest while you can.