Should I let them sleep this long?

[ForAquaGuide]

I'm in a bit of a pickle as to what to do and whether or not I am doing the right thing.

I have an 8 week old and yesterday and today they have been cluster feeding like crazy.

Today especially before going down for their current nap. They had only slept two hours between 8am to 12pm. When they woke up, they then proceeded to cluster feed on until 3pm on and off.

Shortly after they went down for a nap and have been asleep for nearly 3 hours.

I fed and put them down in their basket located in the bedroom with the room dark with a small lamp emitting a soft light. I am currently in the other room within ear shot with the monitor and I have checked on them and found they are fine.

But am I doing a bad thing by letting them sleep this long or should I be getting them up because of the time of day because it's not night time as such? They're good at waking up and telling me when they need a feed, comfort or a nappy change but because they're not in a routine, every day is unpredictable.

I keep hearing they need to be woken up every 2 or 3 hours for feeds and such etc. However I've read if they're well fed and have no weight gain issues they can sleep for as long as needed.

At night especially they've slept between 4 to 6 hours before waking up on their own of a nappy change and feed and have generally shown no sign of distress that letting them sleep this way has had a negative impact. My midwife at the time even said that was okay for night times.

Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated 😊

I wouldn't be concerned about them sleeping this long, but I wouldn't leave them to sleep in a room alone. I appreciate everyone has their own tolerance for risk but it is against SIDS advice and not something I was prepared to do

I know not what you asked I wouldn’t leave them sleeping alone in another room for any longer than it takes to make a cup of tea or go to loo. As for waking them though, there’s absolutely no need to if weight gain is on track and baby is having plenty of wet/dirty nappies. However, I’d never let mine sleep more than 2 hours in the day and I’d wake them up to feed if it had been 3 hours since their last feed. That was to get them to sleep through which by 8 weeks they were both sort of doing depending on your definition- they’d do minimum an 8 hours stretch between 10pm and 6am. So for us it worked! But that’s entirely optional, you definitely don’t need to be in a routine if that wouldn’t work for you or baby, and there’s no other reason to wake a healthy baby (obviously if there were feeding issues it would be different).

Them? How many children are you talking about?

Thankyou for your advice! Reading my post I realised I hadn't given enough detail! Just to clarify I've been in the room with them all this time, only to go and do a few bits and pieces when needed and taking the monitor with me. Only going in the other room just to post this and then returning to them

Any reason why they are in the bedroom and not in the living room with you.

Because of cluster feeding, it's been easier to tend to them on the bed or nursing chair upstairs instead of downstairs so we've been camping out in the bedroom and nursery today only popping downstairs for supplies when needed.

If they had a good feed and were well I wouldn't wake them. If they hadn't fed well that day or weren't well I might try to give them a feed

Between 4 and 5 months every Tuesday my daughter used to have a 4-5h nap. It was a contact nap and she fed on and off for the time. The rest of that week she fed and napped normally. It was odd but just leant into it for that day