Really, really stupid Q's about newborns & sleep

CubbyMama

Bear with me here: DD didn't sleep hardly at ALL when she was a baby.  From the day she was born, she slept no more than 45 minutes at a time, ever, and it was months before she slept 2 consecutive hours.  Her newborn/baby phase is a blur of sleep deprivation to me.

So, what do you do with a "normal" baby in terms of sleep?  I know you're supposed to put them down for a nap every 1.5-2 hours when they're young babies, but...say the baby wakes up for a feeding at 5am.  Is he/she up for the day, then, or do you put them back down?  And how do you know?

I know this might be a stupid/obvious question, but like I said, nothing worked with DD, so I really have no idea how you're "supposed" to determine when to put a baby to bed and when to get them up for the day!

KoriBrett

ok first, cute cute cute picture!!!

Second, well, DS has little clues. ?If he's AWAKE he plays with my face and nurses with his eyes open and looks around some. ?When he needs to go back to sleep, he eats w/his eyes closed and just snuggles.

DD was similar. ?

eclaires

Well...Jackson was an exceptional sleeper.  This is what his schedule was like.

During the day, he napped after every 1-2 hours of wakefulness.  Just depended on what he seemed to need. 

Initially, at night, he would sleep for a 4-5 hour stretch - so we'd put him down around 8 or 9, he'd sleep until sometime around 1-2 usually, we'd feed him, he'd go down for 2-3 more hours, get up around 4-5am, feed again, back down, up for the day whenever he woke after that 2-3 hour stretch then a nap after being up 1-2 hours.

Once he started lengthening his night sleep, he'd drop feedings.  For awhile he was sleeping 8pm or so until 5am or so, and going back down for another 3 or so hours.  Then he stretched it to a 12 hour night around the time he was 9-10 weeks old.

Zenya

dd so far is a sleeper but she's basically with me all the time.  She's sleeping on me now.  when I go to bed I bring her with me.  when we get up I put her in the swing so I can eat (sometimes still sleeping).

 I don't think I put DS down for a nap until 3 mos or so.  Until then I think it's all kind of random.

eclaires

Oh and we treated that 4am/5am wakeup like a nighttime feed to help keep him going back down at that point.

I have zero desire to ever in my life be up that early, regardless of what he might have wanted - I never paid attention to what he was doing (not that I let him cry - we just treated it like it was the middle of the night regardless). 

Jackson sleeps 9-9 now, which works for us b/c I am a SAHM.

CubbyMama

OK, all of that makes perfect sense.  Fingers crossed that this next baby doesn't take after his/her sister!  And eclaires, I'm right there with you on the wakeup thing...Keira sleeps 8pm-8am and it RULES.

KoriBrett

Oh and with both of them I started writing down what time they ate or passed out and kept track for a few days to see if there were patter?

sh*t nevermind DS is up and crying. ?Speaking of sleep. ?'night!

Amanda&Chris

The first few months are really anything goes, but what I did was have a time that started the day (6:30 for me) and before that if she woke up I still treated it as a nighttime feeding.  Obviously with a NB you do what you have to do, so sometimes I held/rocked her in the dark until 6:30 if she didn't go back to sleep.  Basically, I just didn't want to send a message that it was okay to get up at 5:00 a.m. for the day.

eclaires

It totally does.  I am so far from a morning person it is not even funny.

3 days last week he slept until 10 and I was actually up before him instead of me hearing him talking to himself as my wakeup.  LOL.  

I can stay up late, no problem - getting up early is my kryptonite.