Awake from 9p - 1a...Help!

[alliflwr]

Hello, I'm new to this board but have read the Baby Whisperer and love it!  My daughter has been sleeping very well at night, from about 1am - 6am with her last feeding at around 11:30pm.  (She's four weeks old and breastfed).

My concern is that she seems to be wide awake from 9p - 1a.  The whole concept of "bed-time" at around 7pm doesn't seem possible.  We've tried keeping her awake from 7pm until her feeding at 11:30pm, but it still seems like it takes her until 12:30a or 1a to fall asleep.

Any suggestions?

Today her schedule was as follows:
6am - feeding then right down to sleep
8am - feeding then down to sleep
10am wake up, 10:45 feeding
Awake time from approx 11a - 11:30a.
Napped on the go from 11:30a - 130pm.
Feeding at 1:40pm
Naptime from 2:40 until 4:40pm

That's it so far, planning to wake her now (4:40pm) to feed her and then awake time, any suggestions would be appreciated!!

[DJDG's mom]

Hi Allison!
I know what you're going through and I think I can maybe help! My son is 5 1/2 months and at about 1 1/2 months I started to "train" him to sleep more at night and less during the day.
At 1 month your LO needs about 15-16 hours sleep TOTAL. About 10 of those hours should be at night. As she gets older it will change and within a couple of  months she should sleep about 11 or 12 hours at night and only 3 or 4 hours during the day.
So make sure to start trying to evenly space out her naps so that her awake time in between naps is usually the same. Otherwise if she goes too long without a nap then she'll be over tired and actually sleep less! Sounds strange but it's true!
So remember that her TOTAL nap time hours should be around 5 - 6 hours.
Once you get this taken care of then you need to come up with a "wind down" routine before bed, such as bath time or something relaxing, not too much stimulation after the last nap.
Also, some of the best advice I ever heard is that the earlier you put them to bed the better and longer they'll sleep! We used to put our son to bed at 10:30pm and he would wake up at 8:30 am, now he goes to bed at 8:30pm and he still sleeps until 8:30am! It's great! Although he gets up every 3 hours to nurse!!!
Hope I could help you, sorry if I was too long winded!!!