# Newborn sleeping 4-5 hour stretches at night



## butterfly_mommy (Oct 22, 2007)

So my DD2 is 11 days old and from day 5 has been sleeping 4-5 hour stretches at night. She will cluster feed in the evening, nursing long stretches alternating breasts on and off from 10-12 at night and then I will nurse her to sleep at about 12:30 and she will sleep through till 4:30/5:30 am. We co-sleep so it is not like I am sleeping through any hunger cues and I have even tried a few times to get her to dream feed but she is out and will not take the boob. She then will wake a bit and root and grunt to nurse, I do a diaper change and nurse her back to sleep and she will again do a 3-5 hour stretch.

She is gaining well, she was 8lbs 7oz when we left the hospital and 3 days later was up to 8lbs 12oz and then 2 days after that was up to 9lbs 0.5oz (she was 9lbs 3oz at birth) so at a week was almost at her birth weight.

She has good output with lots of pee and poo diapers (however 2 nights ago went 8 hours with no pee or poo but then made up for it with 3 big pees in less then an hour)

She is just so different then my DS who needed to nurse/suck every 1.5 hours all night and had a poo at every feed. I also had crazy oversupply with him and I do have lots of milk with DD but not the crazy amounts I had with DS.

Anyway does this fall in the realm of normal? Should I just relax and enjoy the sleep or should I be trying to wake her up during the night?

Oh she is also sleeping tons during the day but is waking to nurse every 2 hours or so with some cluster feeding when she wakes in the morning. She has 2-3 wakeful periods that last anywhere to 20 mins to 1.5 hours.


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## girlspn (Apr 14, 2011)

Congratulations on your baby! 

Relax and enjoy your sleep! My dd was like that in the early months, slept for 4-6 hour stretches at night. I would get so engorged, waking up drenched in milk, and had to manually express milk in the morning. Her nursing patterns have changed a lot. When she was around 4-6 months, she was nursing every 1-2 hours all day and night.

Like you, I questioned whether her sleep/feed habits were normal in the early days, but she would not wake up to nurse anyway even when I tried. She only nurses when she wants to.

This is my 2 cents based on my experience! Good luck!


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## Justmee (Jun 6, 2005)

Yes, relax and enjoy. One of mine did that for a while. Didn't last long though until she became an every other hour waker.







Enjoy your sleep while you can.


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## MakingHome (Jun 19, 2012)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *butterfly_mommy*
> 
> Anyway does this fall in the realm of normal? Should I just relax and enjoy the sleep or should I be trying to wake her up during the night?


Yes, I totally think it's smack dab in the realm of normal. I've found that birthweight affects this greatly, at least with our kids. They have enough "reserves" to not wake up starvin' Marvin more often. My view is: Rest! Let her sleep if that's what she's inclined to do, and you rest too!


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## skycheattraffic (Apr 16, 2012)

Yes, relax and sleep. The benchmark my dr and LC gave me about waking baby to feed every 3 hours is birthweight. Your LO has regained birthweight and is nursing well so she is doing what she needs. Sleeping a lot is totally normal and would only be a concern if baby was too sleepy to nurse. Her instincts have taken over and she clusters so she can have a nice long rest - just what she needs to grow and thrive )

Enjoy the rest while you can. Soon teething may get her up a lot more frequently :-(


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## MichelleZB (Nov 1, 2011)

My son did this in the early months! Now he doesn't. Enjoy.


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## butterfly_mommy (Oct 22, 2007)

Thanks everyone


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## sraplayas (Mar 15, 2005)

i've been wondering the same thing, butterflymama. thanks for asking the question!


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