11 day old and EASY...please help!

[Zke77]

Hello all! I began BW with my first daughter at about 5 weeks and she has done beautifully ever since, with the usual developmental/illness/teething bumps in the road of course. Now I have an 11 day old baby girl and have tried to implement EASY from the start. We are actually doing really well, I've gotten her into a rhythm and routine she is coming accustomed to, I am just really alarmed at how much she is sleeping. I am not complaining, just alarmed. My first little girl was the most alert, wide awake baby ever, even from birth. Gabrielle is completely different. I have to fight to get her to wake up to eat. It can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes before she's awake enough to get a good latch, and then she always falls asleep at the breast. She nurses well, has already surpassed her birth weight, etc. so I'm not worried about that. Is it normal to have virtually NO "A" time at her age? I literally have to fight to wake her up a bit before swaddling her and putting her down so she'll fall asleep on her own. Her naps are anywhere from 2-2.5 hours a piece, because she's already sleeping after her feed. Does the feed still count as awake time even though her eyes are shut the majority of the feed? The BWSAYP book says that naps at her age should be anywhere from 1.5-2 hrs, and I feel like we are nowhere near that. Am I allowing her to sleep too long?

Oh by the way, she does pretty well at night, only waking twice after her 11:00 feed. Sometimes she takes a little while to fall asleep after the first night feed, usually 30-45 minutes. I already do all the "wake your sleeping baby" tips for feeding during the day. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Holly

[ethan david's mommy]

Hi Holly.

I could have written the exact same post as you!  My new little guy is the same as yours.  He is 3 weeks old and still sleeps most of the day away, and my first was mostly awake! I'm not sure how "normal" this is but people have told me to enjoy the sleep while it lasts!  Hopefully someone else will have some insight!

Jo-Anne

[Grace's Mom]

My lo was the exact same way and I ended up not enjoying this ever precious time as I was soooo stressed about it.  Thank goodness I found BW at 8 weeks!  This site helped me out so much.

What you described is completely normal for some lo's.  Your lo will wake up more and more as the weeks go on and then you'll wish she would sleep more 

Just do your best to keep a routine....times are not the important part (to an extent), just the sequence of events.  If she is doing well at night...not up all night because she was asleep too much during the day, then you are doing just fine.  If it really starts to effect her night time sleep then I would try to keep her up more during the day. 

Enjoy!
Melissa

[Zke77]

Thanks guys. Sometimes its hard for me to get out of that "schedule" mindset and remember that she is still teeny tiny. I guess I get so obsessed with everything being perfect that I need to stop and realize that at her age, it's not a big deal if half of the time I can't wake her up to let her fall asleep on her own. We'll get there, right? I just needed to know that even if I can only get her to practice falling asleep on her own 2 or 3 times a day out of the 6-8 I put her down, that we will still be making progress.

[Grace's Mom]

Be sure to keep us updated and let us know if you have any more questions or just need some reassurance!

-Melissa