Is it alright for dd to go so long?.....

[mads1]

in this past week, there have been a few nights when my 9 week old dd has gone upto 9 hours without a feed. Is this ok at such a young age?

What usually happens is - I feed her at 6.30pm before bedtime. She then wakes herself at around. 12.30/1.30am and again at about 4am. So the longest gap was about 6 hours. But there have now been a couple of nights(the last 2 nights)where she has slept through to 3-4 am. Actually last night we woke her up at 4.10am as I was concerned about the 10hours gap!

Should I carry on letting her wake for her feeds or is she still too little?

I personally would not let her go for more than 4 hours without a feed at this age.

you could do a dream feed after 4 hours, that way she sleeps but gets fed too...I used to dream feed at 11pm.

Definitely try a dream feed around 10 or 11. It'll mean you don't have to worry about her getting enough, and with practice you can do it without waking her

My LO started going from 6.30pm to around 3am at about the same age. Just let her sleep. If she was hungry she'd wake up.

Nowhere does it say that babies should be fed every 4 hours through the night. When newborn maybe, but even then 6 hours is OK.

It annoys me that people say to demand feed but then advocate waking a baby at night to feed it when it's perfectly healthy and happy and getting much needed sleep.

mads1, same thing happening with dd (12 weeks) i find she makes up 4 it by having a progressively shorter feeding intervals through the day, and then cluster feeding(more or less non stop) between 5.30 and 8, the she drops off till 5/6 We are getting a weigh in this week

thanks for your responses. My instincts are telling me this is fine. Just wanted to know if anyone knew otherwise.

Have thought about dream feeds but scared it will break her big chunk of sleep and that she'll then feed every 3-4 hours after. Also, I did try it once and she fully woke, was sick every where and pooed! Didn't exactley go to plan !!

As long as she's gaining well and seems happy and healthy i would think yourself lucky. My dd was a brilliant sleeper until she hit 20 weeks so enjoy it while you can!

Don't wake her. Assuming she was a good weight at birth and has continued to gain, is alert and content during the day, producing frequent wet/dirty nappies, etc, etc, let her - and you! - get the sleep.

She is regulating her own intake. Be guided by her and trust your own instincts. No need for a 'dream feed' which, as you say, may well backfire anyway!