When is best time to play with newborn and how?

SAB1224

My Newborn is 11 days old and right now he is breastfeeding every 2 and a half hours during the day.  After feedings, he just wants to sleep.  When do you play with your newborn?  I don't really want to wake him up just to play and when I do do this he is just cranky and hungry. Also, how many minutes of Tummy Time do you do a day and when you do play with your newborn what does your play consist of?

 Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.  Thank you! 

mrsmikeyray

Let him sleep. DD is 3 weeks old today, she's starting to be more awake during the day. Just play with him, talk to him whenever he's awake. He's going to sleep a lot for the next few weeks. I do TT whenever she is alert, for as long as she can handle. If she starts fussing too much I turn her back over. She likes to lay on her side and watch the tv. I know she can't make out what things are but she likes to watch.

kkasper13

Yes. Let him sleep for sure. You will know when he is ready for "playtime". At 7 weeks we play after she eats (we give it about 10-15 minutes to let her digest a little, too) until she shows signs that she is tired again. We probably get about an hour of playtime between eat feeding and nap by the time we change and feed her. She is up for about 2 hours between naps and we start trying to get her to nap about 20-30 minutes before her nap should actually start. 

WeWearCombatBoots

Only play when he is awake. Play consist of me making faces, I talk while he listens, I sing songs to him while I move his arms and legs to the beat, I read to him, I hold a toy in front of him to look at, give him kisses, pr turn on one of his sound machines. Anything you can do that they can watch. You can even have them look into a mirror, and repeating phrases are good, just things like their name, or "I Love You".