5 week old sleeping too long. To wake or not to wake?

[Ilovethekitties]

Hi all,

Five week old sleeps at night from 9PM - 3AM, feeds and then sleeps from 3:45 - 6:30AM and feeds again. He was born heavy at 8lb7 and has gained weight consistently. He is on 5oz of hungry baby milk and in the evening will feed every two hours.

I'm worried about letting him sleep that initial six hours as online it says to wake them after four. Should I be waking him for a feed?

No, never wake a sleeping baby!

Peadiatric nurse here, We wouldn't leave them anymore than 4/5 hours as they can drop their blood sugar.

I never woke mine for feeds, and they were sleeping largely through the night from that age with very few night feeds.

No. Don't wake them. Just feed well throughout the day. Your baby is gaining weight steadily, so there is no issue.

I asked the same thing of my health visitor recently! She said that as my DD (also 5 weeks) was back up well over birth weight, feeding well (dirty/wet nappy output good) and consistently putting on weight, her advice would be to not let her go more than 6 hours but anything up to that is fine.
Not wanting to override PP professional opinion of course!

I would say don't wake 5.5 hours seems ok between feeds. Make the most of the sleep.

DS was the same for a while, health visitor said to leave him to sleep. He's now 9 weeks and has decided sleep is for wimps. I'm glad I made the most of it while I could.

Don’t wake him. Enjoy the rest!

I am literally sat with a 5 week old on my knee having just fed her. Not meaning to hijack your thread OP but my baby has just gone since 7.30 pm without a feed, so 8.5 hours - obviously amazing as an exhausted parent (!) but I too was wondering the same, should I have woken her. She too is a healthy weight gaining baby.

Why are you giving hungry baby milk? I wish they would stop selling the stuff it’s not good for babies.

I'm sure if it was bad then they wouldn't sell it

My DD is 7w and she sometimes sleeps 5-6h between feeds. At the beginning we were advised to wake her up as she was born smallish (2.6kg) but now that she's above 4kg we were told to let her sleep and feed when she asks. I'd ask her GP/midwife still to be sure.

@Ilovethekitties they also sell alcohol and tobacco so I'm not sure that argument stands up.....

Wow mine slept through the night at 6 weeks, it never occurred to me to worry about it. He fed well during the day. The other two were 5 months and seven months before they slept through.

I wouldn't wake him.

I wouldn’t wake him but I also would swap back to normal first stage formula. Hungry baby formula fills them up, and makes them sleep a long time because their body has to work so hard to digest it. It doesn’t do their digestive system any favours and can cause abnormal peaks and troughs in blood sugar.

I was told by dd's special care nurses not to go near hungry baby milk.
It is not healthy at all for babies apparently.
I would research this yourself OP.

Try dream feeding, my DD feeds better asleep, i dont have her chuking herself around!

Will research hungry baby milk for myself, thanks for the warnings.

What?! I've never heard of having to wake them? In the first few weeks maybe. But at 5 weeks if weight is good etc, I'd go with it. I'd love it if my newborn slept like this!

www.firststepsnutrition.org/parents-carers

This website probably offers the most unbiased and up to date information.

Never ever wake a sleeping bubba! hungry baby milk ... constipation central!

Yes hungry baby milk is designed to make babies sleep longer by being harder to digest. It seems odd to be giving it when you're concerned about him sleeping for too long.

I hadn't read anywhere that's what hungry baby milk is for, we certainly didnt switch to get more sleep, our son has always slept well so I dont know where you have got that from. Your comment is not helpful to me and frankly sounds judgemental, I am a new mother and I am on here for advice not to be made to feel bad about my choices I think best for my child, if you feel you can educate me then please do so.

I have switched to the regular milk today upon reading about the constipation that might come with the hungry milk, we haven't experienced that but dont want to moving forward, thanks to the posters who took the time to direct me to the right place.