Sleeping too much?

mandy522

My 6 week old is a champion sleeper. He's going a 5-6 hour stretch at night (which pediatrician said is fine for his age and weight) and usually sleeps from about 9pm - 7am, only waking to feed. However, I'm getting worried because he sleeps an awful lot during the day, too. He always wakes to eat every 3 hours or so, but I'd be surprised if he's awake for more than 5 hours in total during the day.

Most of my family tells me to just enjoy the fact that he's sleeping now, because he won't forever, but it seems like at 6 weeks he should be more awake than he is. I thought I read the norm was for him to sleep ~16 hours at this age, and there's no way he's awake 8 hours. Anyone else experiencing this?

laurenhankey

I dont think you have anything to worry about.  My LO is 18 weeks old, STTN from about 8pm - 7am when my husband wakes her for daycare and is only awake 2 hrs tops before she needs a nap which can go anywhere from 1/2 hr to 2 hrs.  Your LO is growing and needs lot of sleep! As long as he isn't lethargic or hard to wake up I wouldn't worry. Let him sleep!

kostk1ra

My son is 8 weeks old and sleeps for 8-9 hours at night WITHOUT waking up for a feeding.  He is awake in the morning for a couple of hours and then goes back to sleep for a lot of the afternoon.  I am also worried about him sleeping too much.  I was told by everyone how lucky I am that he's sleeping so much.  Apparently, he's growing and needs to sleep.  There are a couple things to worry about:  lethargy babies and insufficient weight gain.  As long as your baby doesn't show signs of lethargy and gains an appropriate amount of weight by his 2 month appointment (one ounce per day), he should be okay.