My baby has started sleeping long stretc

I don't have her age or weight chart in front of me (no family member was selected this turn), and her age genuinely changes the answer — so here is the split, with one question at the end.

Short version: you usually should not wake a healthy, gaining baby on a rigid clock. Waking is a feed-safety decision for a small or not-yet-cleared baby, not a discipline thing. But "let her sleep" only applies once her age and growth say it's safe — that's the pediatrician's call, not a rule of thumb.

1) What you tried vs. the better lever

Rigid waking clock — the problem isn't that you wake her; it's that the *clock* decides instead of her *output* (wet diapers, weight, how she feeds at the wake-up).

Better alternatives:

• Wake on output, not on a timer. Two dials you can check without waking her: how many wet diapers over the daylight hours vs. her normal, and does she feed well and stay awake/alert after she comes up on her own. Steady on both → let her run.
• Hand off the block instead of the task. Mon–Fri early morning is the hard one. If another adult is in the home, agree that person owns the first feed of the day so you get a real unbroken block — not "you check on her." Write it down (see scripts).
• If a wake is needed, make it a feed, not a fuss. Wake → feed together in her safe space, then back down. Keeps the wake-up cheap for both of you.
• Use her age/growth as the ruler, not hours. Total sleep for 4–12 months is 12–16 h across night *and* naps (AASM 2016 consensus, Paruthi et al., endorsed by AAP). A long night stretch is normal consolidation once the early months are past — the hours tell you it's plausible, not that she'll be okay unattended.

2) Constraints and avoid list

• Safe sleep, every sleep, naps included: on her back; her own firm, flat, non-inclined surface (cot/bassinet — no pillows, duvet, loose blankets, bumper pads, soft toys); same room as you, different surface for at least the first six months; not the same bed.
• Never the sofa or armchair — not even "just for a minute." If you feel you might drift off, put her down in her own safe space *first*, then feed/cuddle. This is the #1 thing that happens to an exhausted caregiver at 3 a.m.
• No bed-sharing if anyone smokes, drinks, or takes anything sedating; no bed-sharing if she's preterm or small.
• Don't stack sleep training on top of safe sleep. "Sleep through the night" is not a milestone to push; many babies wake through the first year.
• No sleep aids, melatonin, or OTC sleep medicines for a baby, and no powders, drops, or anything bought online or shared.
• Don't switch from feeding to schedule — don't replace feeds with a fixed clock and assume she'll make up intake. That's how growth quietly slips.
• Don't move her out of your room before ~6 months just to get sleep back.
• Don't spend a night solving this alone with a fixed 4-hour rule. Split the night into blocks so one adult is properly asleep and one properly awake, baby on her own flat surface either way.

3) Red flags — stop DIY, get clinical help

Call the pediatrician (same day or next available):

• Fewer wet diapers than her usual, or no wet diaper during her waking hours
• Feeding less often, shorter feeds, or pulling off before she's satisfied
• Weight loss, or no gain since the last check
• Hard to settle to sleep in the daytime, unusually floppy, or a bulging/hard-to-settle baby — skip to urgent
• She's younger than you'd expected for this stretch and the growth check hasn't come back yet

Urgent / emergency now — don't wait for a sleep plan:

• Hard to wake, or she seems floppy, blue, or has pauses in breathing or colour change during sleep
• Fever in a young baby, especially under 3 months
• Refusing feeds, sunken eyes, or very few wet diapers over a long stretch

A pause, colour change, or trouble breathing in sleep is the point where home coaching stops — that's a clinician, not a routine. I can't call emergency numbers for you from here; use your local emergency service or nearest children's emergency department.

4) Tonight / this morning — under ~10 minutes

1. Don't wake her just because the clock said so. If she's feeding well and her nappies are normal, let the night run.
2. Agree the handoff in one sentence with whoever else is in the home (script below) so you actually get a block.
3. Keep her next to you, on her back, in her own flat space — even if the "improvement" is that she's sleeping through.

5) Success in 24 hours (no promises)

• You got one unbroken block of ~4+ hours, handed off, not negotiated.
• She had her normal daytime feeds and her usual wet diapers, and woke up feeding well when she woke.
• One decision got made with her pediatrician's written feed/weight guidance — not with a timer or a forum.

This is a week to take to the pediatrician, not just to log. Bring her age, her last weight and date, and how many wet diapers you're seeing now; ask them to tell you the wake-if-needed window *for her specifically*, so you stop carrying this as a daily judgment call. I can also build you a 7-day sleep/nappy record to hand over, if that's useful.

Scripts you can screenshot:

> "Morning, whoever is up first: [Name] owns the first feed today. If she's still asleep at [time], we let her sleep — her nappies were normal yesterday and she fed fine on her own. Only wake her if she seems off, won't settle when awake, or it's [time] and she hasn't had anything since last night."

> To the pediatrician: "She started sleeping long stretches on her own this week. Last weight was [x] on [date]. She's having about [n] wet diapers a day and feeding well when she wakes. Do we still need a wake-for-feed window at her age, and what should it be?"

One question so I can stop being general: how old is she in months, and has she had her weight check since this started? If she's under ~3–4 months or the check is still pending, treat the pediatrician's wake-for-feed window as the active plan and keep doing what you're doing until then.