How long and how many times should a 6 week old nap?

[snjshaker]

I just wanted to get some opinions on how long and how many times a 6 week old should nap during the day.  Generally my daughter takes a couple one hour naps and a longer 2-3 hour nap during the day, although I don't usually let her sleep 3 hours unless she's been really fussy.  As soon as evening approaches (around 5pm), she sleeps much longer and I must wake her up to hopefully not interfere with her night sleeping.  There is no activity time in the evening because as soon as I feed her, she drops back to sleep.  We wake her at around 8 or 9 pm to give her a bath and a final feed before we go to bed.  She usually sleeps a 4 to 5 hour stretch at first and then after feeding, sleeps a 3 hour stretch. She usually drops back to sleep after her second nighttime feed for another 2 to 3 hours and the day cycle starts all over again.  Should I keep her awake during the day more?  She gets really fussy really fast if I don't try to put her to sleep as soon as she starts yawning.  But she yawns all the time!  The longest she stays up is 2 hours, usually it's only on hour to an hour and half.  What are some of your experiences?  Thanks!

[Colesmom]

Hi, just wanted to bump this post to the first page.  I started BW kind of late (4.5 months) so I'm not sure I can be much help with this age.  I do know that you are to look for sleepy cues after 1 hour in newborns.  Have you looked on the EASY board for sample routines?  That may give you some ideas as well.

congratulations, btw

[Leanne]

I'm not sure what the norm is, but I can tell you how it goes for my son Ben. He'll be 6 weeks this coming Tuesday.

Ben naps about four times a day for about 1.5 hours (sometimes 2 hours) per nap. His last feeding is around 7/7.30pm and he's in bed by 8pm at the latest. He tends to fight his naps throughout the day and gets super fussy, but is easy to settle at bedtime... he's a lot like your LO in that he is much sleepier in the evenings (we should thank our lucky stars!)

I think he's going through a growth spurt though cos the past couple of days he's been a lot more difficult to put down for a nap and much hungrier than usual.

He's usually awake for an hour to an hour and a half at a time (E and A time.)

Anyway, hope that's some help.

[snjshaker]

We have tried to dream feed once and it didn't seem to help her stay asleep longer through the night.  Cluster feeding I do try to do but lately she seems to fuss every time she eats.  I don't know what is going on with that.  She usually eats great with no problem.  I guess I should make her bedtime a little earlier and then do a dream feed before we go to sleep?  Does that work for everyone?

[Leanne]

We haven't had a lot of success with the DF so far, but we've only tried twice. I'm trying again tonight. When we've tried in the past we didn't do a cluster feed and I don't think there was enough time between Ben's last feed and his DF.

This evening we fed him at 5pm, then again at 7pm. He normally consumes 5oz. of formula per feed, but at the 7pm feed he only consumed 3.5 oz., so I think I'll have success at the 11pm DF (I hope!)

It's definitely a bit of work (and trial and error) developing a schedule that works.

Good luck!

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Hi there,
I really would keep trying with the df. If you only tried it once, then that's not giving it a chance to work properly. Your lo doesn't yet know that she is supposed to sleep through the night (and, tbh, she's probably to young to do that anyway). What the df does is top her up to go for a longer sleep, so, when she wakes a couple of hours later (and she probably will), you can be confident that she is not waking out of hunger, but habit. This gives you the foundation to break this habit, and getting her back to sleep. Once you have done this a few times, then she will stop waking so often at night. You do need to do this a few times, though, and, with a lo as young as yours, she probably does still need another night feed, maybe a very early morning one.

I guess I should make her bedtime a little earlier and then do a dream feed before we go to sleep? Does that work for everyone?

That does work for most people, it definitely worked for us, but you do need to do it consistently for a while before it pays off.

HTH