5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

Hi ladies,

I have a 5.5 week old who weighs 9lbs 11oz (up from her birth weight of 7lbs 11oz). Last week she weighed 9lbs 1oz so she gained almost 10oz in a week! She's definitely getting enough milk (i am EBF).

My question is this: I took her to the docs the other day where a nurse told me that due to her excellent weight gain I no longer needed to wake her during the night to feed her, and that her day feeds could stretch to 3 hours from the 2 hour gaps that they currently were.

SO...the first night I let her sleep she woke by herself after about 4 hours. However, last night I fed her at 11PM. She was in bed (but still awake) by 12 and sleeping by about 12:30AM. Well, I woke at 7:30 and she was STILL sleeping. I of course panicked but she was fine, I woke her and fed her.

Is this normal for a 5 week old? Is this safe and healthy for a 5 week old? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

ETA: she napped most of the day yesterday too.

Message edited 1/15/2010 6:03:15 AM.

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

Every child is different - by 6 weeks mine was sleeping at least 6 hours a night and I never woke her (I checked her like a crazy person though!) I think it's totally normal - enjoy the sleep yourself!

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

I never woke DD to eat. She was doing 4-5 hour stretches at night from birth and by one month 6 hours at a time and by 7 weeks was STTN 8-10 hours. Enjoy it! She will wake up if she's hungry.

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

be grateful! my DS slept about 5 hours at 5 weeks. it wasnt until 8 weeks that he slept 8 hours. but definitely don't wake your baby to eat. when theyre hungry, they'll wake up.

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

Never wake a sleeping baby. A baby will never let themselves starve. When she's hungry she'll wake up. Enjoy the long stretch of sleeping... I didn't have that till Mason was about 5 months.

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

every child is different mine STTN from the day they came home.

enjoy the sleep

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

I say enjoy it!

I have a 5 week old and she is barely giving us 3 hours at night. ... AND she weighs 11 pounds already!

I am jealous!!!

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

I only have the experience of one baby, so I'm no expert - but I never woke him to eat in the middle of the night
I just assumed if he was hungry he'd wake up yelling @ me for a bottle !!

He stopped waking at about 6 or 8 weeks - so I just let him sleep and enjoyed it !!

Re: 5 week old sleeping almost 8 hours straight?

Yup! ENJOY it now because most babies experience a regression around 3/4 months!

At 5 weeks, Yael started sleeping 10-12 hour stretches at night!! She stopped, of course, around 3 months, and didn't start doing it again until this week, at 6 months!