How long is too long to go without a feed

[LexMi12]

Hi! My newborn is 16 days old now, and usually feeds every 2-3 hours and 3-4 at night. However, tonight for the first time she went 5.5 hours without a feed!! So far we've been demand feeding as we tried to put her into a routine but it just didn't work for her yet and she began cluster feeding at night.

For the past 2 nights she has cluster fed in the hours running up to bedtime. She cluster fed before bed tonight and drank the most she has so far, and then went 5.5 hours before waking up for another feed. Should I allow this if she does it again or should I be waking her more regularly?

So far we've just relied on her to tell us she's hungry!

She's a big baby, she was 8lb 13oz at birth but due to the coronavirus she's only been weighed once since birth so we're unsure of her current weight gain although she definitely feels to have that she's growing well!

I know they say to wake them up every 3-4 hours but I don’t think our parents’ generation did that. My MIL told us that if the baby was a healthy weight, we should just let her sleep because she would wake up when she was hungry enough. We never actually got to test that theory because she always woke up before 4 hours had passed but maybe it’s something to think about?

I thought as long as they were gaining weight let them sleep. My boy still only goes 3/4 hrs at 26 days. I’d say enjoy the snooze!

We also demand feed. Hence the reply at this time!

Thank you guys! I'm hoping she lets us have a longer sleep again tonight!