Can a 2.5 week old sleep through the night?

[9DonkeysAndABoy]

Our 2.5 week old really wants to sleep through the night. He is quite alert during the day, though. Midwife advice varies: some say we should wake him up every 4 hours, some say we should let him sleep as much as he wants to. I have to say he is not the kind of baby that follows a usual pattern, so if we let him be, he'd be awake for ours during the day, and sleep 8 hours a night! All of this would sound ideal if he was not so young, so I do not know how long they can go without food.

He was jaundiced and lost a bit too much weight when he was born. But he isn't anymore, so I do not think jaundice is a reason for his sleepyness. His weight is back up too. He is also alert during the day.

Did anyone have a baby like this?

Hmm, I would be very unsure about this. His jaundice may still be lingering after 2.5weeks even if it looks better. Babies have tiny stomachs and are designed to feed little and often. Is he breast or bottle fed? either way, I think it would be highly unusual to go for 8 hours. Perhaps speak to hv/gp?

Sounds just like my DS, he slept from 11ish to 7ish from 2weeks. HV didn't believe I was EBF!
He also lost too much weight at the beginning but soon caught up. He's a strapping teenager now.
DD took longer to sleep through but some babies do, don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
No doubt his weight is being monitored.
Good luck!

personally i would want to wake him at least once.

you can get into a bit of a vicious circle whereby newborns don';t take as much milk as they ideally need, that makes them sleepy... they sleep more and don't take enough milk, and so on and so on....

also, in the interests of boosting your supply and getting it really up and running you would want to feed plenty, including the night,.

bearing this all in mind however, if he really really won't wake in the night, and if he is feeding around 10-12 times during the day to make up for it I would go with it and see how you get on

If you left your HV know and he's gaining weight, it's fine, mine did this.
People may think it's a bad thing but they are often just jealous mistaken.

I'd leave him. If he is hungry he will wake up, I am assuming he is putting on weight and feeding okay in the day?

According to DM I slept from 12 - 6 from day 2, it does happen. I just wish it would happen to me!

My DS was exactly like yours OP. We always had to wake him for feeds, not the other way round. Thisisyesterday is right about the viscious circle and you certainly can't bank on him waking when hungry if he has had jaundice and weight loss. It took about 5 weeks for my DS's jaundice to fully work itself out even though he no longer looked yellow so I would play it safe and feed him every 4 hours (or as often as your DS will let you).

My DS remains a belting sleeper (tempting fate) and has slept through the night (8pm to 5am) with only 4 exceptions in 8 months. Hope you get the same!