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Urban myth? Big babies sleep better?

My son was quite big and would feed for 1-2 hours at a time, but slept 12-14 hours a night from 2 days old. He actually wasn't growing well and they stopped me BF-ing at about 4-5 weeks I think, but he would knacker himself out with that evening feed fill his (not tiny) tummy and then crash out.

I've chatted to other mums and they seem to think their bigger babies slept longer through a night, but then I've read articles saying it's tosh! Just wondered what people's experiences were here.

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  • No experience of my own, but my brother was 10lb 13, and my mum said he slept through from 4 days old, and she'd actually have to wake him up to feed him in the morning.

    My Dad was just over a stone, and my Grandma swore he was drugged for the first few months because he never woke up, although she said it wasn't a bad thing because she was exhausted after the birth lol x

  • Babylonglegs

    No experience of my own, but my brother was 10lb 13, and my mum said he slept through from 4 days old, and she'd actually have to wake him up to feed him in the morning.

    My Dad was just over a stone, and my Grandma swore he was drugged for the first few months because he never woke up, although she said it wasn't a bad thing because she was exhausted after the birth lol x

    Your mum's experience mirrors mine, though H was only 9lb 5.

    Your dad! I nearly choked on my tea, wowser!

  • My little boy was nearly 9lb and doesn't sleep at all :(

  • I come from a family of giants. I'm 6"2, my Dad's 6"7, and my little brothers 6"6. I suppose it makes sense we'd all be big babies.

    When I had the last growth scan (because my bump was too small) the babies length was way over the 90th percentile, so there's a good chance she'll be a big lump too. Hopefully not a stone though!?!

  • LittleMonkey

    My little boy was nearly 9lb and doesn't sleep at all :(

    Oh I'm sorry! I had a feeling someone would say something like that. He hasn't read the big baby manual :(

  • Babylonglegs

    I come from a family of giants. I'm 6"2, my Dad's 6"7, and my little brothers 6"6. I suppose it makes sense we'd all be big babies.

    When I had the last growth scan (because my bump was too small) the babies length was way over the 90th percentile, so there's a good chance she'll be a big lump too. Hopefully not a stone though!?!

    Lump, lol! My son's 'womb name' was Chub. I thought he'd be huge (I certainly was, when pregnant I mean) so I was pleased when he was quite a slender 9lb 5. He's skinny now and almost 6" 7 and now we've been asked to attend a genetics clinic...

    My husband is very broad indeed and 6ft 3 (though I don't think of him as tall as in our house he isn't) so I wonder if this one will be huge, and hurt a lot. But if it means a good sleeper..... Wink

  • Ummm never heard this... And don't believe it... Mine was 9lb10oz and didnt start sleeping thru until well after her 2nd birthday.
  • M was only 7lb 7.5 but rapidly put on weight and would also feed for 1-2hrs at a time (drove me insane!).  She slept 11-5 from 4 weeks old and was doing 12hrs not long later.  She'd moved to 91st centile from 50th by that point

    I don't know though, I think they sleep or they don't and there's no great rhyme or reason to it.  I'm fully expecting a non-sleeper this time.

  • My youngest was 9lb 9oz, and slept through from 5 weeks. My friend had a 10lb 9oz boy, and he still doesn't sleep through, and he is nearly 1.

  • A friend of mine had a 12lb baby (oh yes!) and he was definitely hungry and did not sleep through.

  • E was 6lb 9oz and fed every two hours during the night for the first few months... She went from the 11th centile at birth to the 90th by about 1 year old. However I'm not sure if it was anything to do with her size or just how she was!

  • Complete myth I'm afraid - mine were all on the larger side of average at 8lb 1oz, 8lb 9oz and 8lb 6oz and the first and third have been pretty good but not amazing sleepers (pre 4 month sleep regression and learning to roll, N was only waking once most nights) but my middle one (the biggest) fed like a trooper and didn't sleep through until he was 2y 9m. I think it's just one of those things!

  • Um, did they not tell you to wake your 2 day old for feeds? No wonder his weight gain dropped if he was sleeping such long stretches at night without feeding. Whether big baby or small I'd not let a newborn go so long without a feed, I understand you had him a long time ago and advice changes but 12-14 hours is a LONG time for a newborn baby to be sleeping with no feed.

    Alex was 6lb12 and would probably have slept that long at the beginning if we'd let him but we were told to wake him and feed him at least every three hours through the day and night. As it was, he was readmitted for jaundice but it would have been so much worse if we'd let him sleep. Of course we'd all like babies who sleep through from an early age but there's a reason they're not meant to.

    Sorry, I don't mean to be mean Smile I just don't believe a newborn sleeping so long is a good thing. They need to eat frequently and if they are not waking for feeds you need to wake them.

  • No, she said the 'official line' was to wake him, but if he was content, and he certainly was, to leave him. He wasn't losing weight, but about 4 weeks in he hadn't picked up enough to satisfy her criteria so she had me substitute a feed a day to bottle, then 2, and so on. He soon got enormous, but we didn't add feeds, just switched them if you see what I mean.

  • Well mine was "content". He didn't have the energy to cry for a feed. Breastfed babies need feeding more often and people should be aware of this, otherwise their weight gain isn't satisfactory and people "have" to change to formula when actually it's totally unnecessary and the BFing relationship could continue if people knew not to compare to FF babies. Nothing at all against FF if it's the mother's choice, but if a mother wants to breastfeed and is given incorrect advice like BFing to a schedule or not feeding enough then it could end something that could have gone on happily for a lot longer.

    Sorry, this isn't against you personally, I just don't want a BFing mother to read this and think it's ok to leave a newborn BF baby that long at night. Their tummies are tiny (see below), breastmilk is thin, and they need feeding frequently else their weight gain will suffer and the BFing will be blamed.

  • I would never wake a sleeping baby. They'll wake when they are hungry and need fed.

    W was 10lb4oz and has slept through since 5 weeks.

  • RKB

    I would never wake a sleeping baby. They'll wake when they are hungry and need fed.

    W was 10lb4oz and has slept through since 5 weeks.



    But this is obviously not true for every baby. If we had left A as a newborn he would probably have died. He simply didn't have the energy to wake for a feed. He was full-term and healthy in every other way, not a preemie or low birthweight.
  • Everything is different for every baby and you need to learn about your baby. If that's what your baby needed then fair enough, but I was told never to wake a baby if they were sleeping as they would wake if they were hungry.

  • Saisi

    Well mine was "content". He didn't have the energy to cry for a feed. Breastfed babies need feeding more often and people should be aware of this, otherwise their weight gain isn't satisfactory and people "have" to change to formula when actually it's totally unnecessary and the BFing relationship could continue if people knew not to compare to FF babies. Nothing at all against FF if it's the mother's choice, but if a mother wants to breastfeed and is given incorrect advice like BFing to a schedule or not feeding enough then it could end something that could have gone on happily for a lot longer.

    Sorry, this isn't against you personally, I just don't want a BFing mother to read this and think it's ok to leave a newborn BF baby that long at night. Their tummies are tiny (see below), breastmilk is thin, and they need feeding frequently else their weight gain will suffer and the BFing will be blamed.

    Tp be perfectly honest, in the same position now, that I am older and also now that I have an internet connection (!) I would work harder to learn about persevering with the breastfeeding, but my HV really wasn't interested in that side of things, that time around. I did seem to have one breast much more efficient than the other, even now I notice one is leaking and the other never does, I think I have a broken one!

  • RKB

    Everything is different for every baby and you need to learn about your baby. If that's what your baby needed then fair enough, but I was told never to wake a baby if they were sleeping as they would wake if they were hungry.

    That's what the midwife, HV, and my mum and gran said!

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