Long naps - when should I wake her?

[grass_tiger]

My little one is three weeks old tomorrow. She naps for looooong times. I am wondering when it is good to just let her sleep or if I should be waking her for feedings and, if so, after how long. One way or the other she is sleepy towards the end of her meal (breast only) and has to be be woken more fully for wake time....every time, no matter how long or little she sleeps. But she is then over tired for trying to go to sleep. Once she falls asleep she'll easily sleep two to five hours straight, but then I don't think she is getting enough feedings in a day (six or seven about 20 minutes long with us waking her currently). Should I just let her sleep? Is it too early to worry about letting her sleep long periods of time during the day? Presently she is sleeping a good three to five hours at night and we'd like to not upset that.

I know Tracy in her first book recommends not letting the baby sleep past a feed cycle (three hours), but I couldn't tell if she meant from begining of a feed to the next beginning of a feed or if that meant not to sleep longer than three hours in one span. Thanks.

[GG]

A baby that young needs to eat every 3 hours and you start counting from the beginning of a feed.  That means if the baby wakes up at noon to eat, the next time she should eat is at three o'clock, even if it takes her a full hour to eat due to trying to keep her awake.

If she wants to sleep, that's fine.  Some babies that young need and want to sleep.  My ds slept all the time for the first few weeks!  But they do need to be awakened to eat.  So let her sleep and wake her every three hours.  After feeding her, change her diaper.  If she can stay awake 10-15 minutes longer for activity time, that's great.  If not, just let her sleep and start it over again 3 hours later.

Make sure to mention this to your doctor, though, just so she knows how much she's sleeping.

[grass_tiger]

Thanks. I know Tracy said they can sleep five hours at night, so I'll allow that, but I'll make sure she is woken at the three hour mark for feeds the rest of the day. Thanks for the clarification!