NW, EW and when to start the day... Too much sleep?

[Saskin]

My little guy (7 weeks) is a great sleeper... He sleeps 2 hour chucks during the day and at least 5 hours at night... but I ALWAYS have to wake him... except for the EW or NW feed...  So what's the problem?

Most of the time he wakes between 4-5... then I have no problem with our routine... which I start around 7 but he also often wakes at 530 or 545.  Or at least, that's when he starts crying and by then... boy is he hungry!  The problem is that when I feed him at 545, he is not hungry at 7... of course... but if I get him up for the day... he is fast asleep by 715 and he will sleep until 10... eliminating a feed... and he's sleeping more than 2 hours... (which Tracy advises to avoid).

During the day, I can NEVER keep him up for more than 1h... he gets very fussy if I do... including after 4 where Tracy suggests a cat nap... my guy doesn't know the meaning of a cat nap...

So he's often sleeping more than 6 hours during the day... which tracy suggests to avoid because it can cut into night sleep... BTW if I try to force him to sleep no more than 6 hours... he wakes up at the same time because... of course... he's hungry.  So... what to do when the NW becomes the EW?  Start the day... or what?  what other options do I have.  Will this time start to stretch out with as he gets older?  Or am I creating a habit by starting the day at 545... If I start my day at this time will it eventually become 7am? 

[Erin M]

Hi there!
He's still so little, at this age, it's really hard to hold them to their routine if they're bound and determined to sleep.  My ds was like that -- slept when he felt like it, and I just let him.  One thing you could try is that when he wakes at 5:30/5:45, give him a small feeding (we bf and I'd just do one side, but I imagine you could do less oz if you're ff) and that way he'd be decently hungry when he woke later.  I would just treat the EW as a NW though and not get him up as you might create a habit of waking that early (definitely NOT what you want long term...).  Some babies are just particularly sleepy.  While my girls were sleeping less than your little guy, my ds was sleeping something like 20 out of every 24 hours at 7 weeks and even past it.  He will eventually wake up more and be able to stay awake for longer periods of time and it will sort itself out.  For now, it sounds like you're doing a fabulous job reading his cues and giving him what he needs.