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Babies: 0 - 3 Months
juliane2004
member
PSA: Babies need their sleep.
juliane2004
member
Every other post seems to be a sleeping question. So many people wonder either "why is my baby sleeping so much?" or "why is my baby not sleeping?"
NEWBORN BABIES SLEEP. Sorry to yell that, but everyone seems so shocked at this!
Even when they do become more awake and alert, they still need to nap after just an hour of being awake (which includes feeding time), otherwise they become overtired and will not fall asleep easily. Newborns sleep a LOT.
Trying to keep them awake all day in hopes they will sleep at night backfires. Trying to wake them up when they are really really young because "all they do is sleep" also backfires.
They shouldn't be awake for 2+ hrs at a time until
4-6 months or so. They shouldn't be awake for 4+ hrs until 10+ months.
People don't realize this, and then wonder why their babies don't sleep
and are "colic-y".
Please let your baby sleep!!!!
Try putting your LO down awake to fall asleep on their own after an ideal / appropriate amount of awake time.
In regards to the ideal awake time, it can be different for every baby, but here are two guidelines I've found to be quite accurate for my DD. Note that the first one was more accurate when DD was 0-5 months, and the second one was more accurate at 5+ months.
Don't forget that "awake time" includes all things
"awake", like diaper
changes, feeding, playing, and the amount of time it takes the baby to fall asleep!
Also, typically it takes babies 20 minutes to fall
asleep, so include this in your awake time (i.e. if their awake time is
good at 90 minutes, but them down at 70 minutes.) It seems short, but it works. Here is a post about "optimal awake
time": https://www.babywisemom.com/2008/07/optimal-waketime-lengths.html
First Guideline for Awake time for babies
Newborn 50-60 mins
1 month 60 mins-hour and 15
2 months 1 hour and 15 - 20 mins
3 months 1 hour and 20 - 30 mins
4 months 1 hour and 45 - 2 hours
5 months 2 hours - 2.25 hours
Late 5 months/early 6 months 2.25-2.5 hours
6.5 - 7 months 2.75-3 hours. Some are getting more.
8 - 10 months 3 - 4 hours. Some are getting more.
11 - 12 months 3.5 -4.5 hours. Some are getting more if moved early to 1 nap
Second Guideline for Awake time for babies
0-4 weeks: 30-45 minutes
4-6 weeks: 40-60 minutes
6-8 weeks: 40-70 minutes
8-12 weeks: 50-80 minutes
3-4 months: 60-90 minutes
4-5 months: 1 hr to 1.5 hrs
5-6 months: 1.5 hours
6-9 months: 2 hours, give or take 15 minutes
PS: Here's a link to a post I wrote about sleep last year, maybe it can help: https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/29470977.aspx
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Re: PSA: Babies need their sleep.
I agree completely that newborns need to sleep. Just wanted to post that all babies are different and there are different schools of thought on how to handle napping.
Rather than force our DS to a nap schedule, we just follow his cues. Some days he naps most of the day and other days, he is awake most of the day. It has really depended on where he is during his growth cycle (i.e. during the 3 week or 6 week growth spurt, he was awake and eating; in the days immediately following, he slept and grew all day.) Some people also naturally need more or less sleep than others, i.e. I have always liked 9 hours of sleep a night, but DH is happy with 6.
We have been very lucky that DS has slept like a champ and not had any issues with colic. Good luck guys!
Bracing for 3 month growth spurt & getting ready to move to the 3 - 6 month board...
this exactly! did i sneak on your computer and write this?
See you on 3 - 6. GL with the growth spurt!
Thanks for posting this so often, it really helped me see I was keeping LO up too much. He seemed wide awake at 8:50 this morning, but it was nearing that magic time so I rocked him... BAM asleep.
Not quite ready for putting him down awake-- he still needs help calming down.
This. Not everyone is blessed with a "textbook baby." I've been reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" where he describes how 80% of babies have common fussiness and 20% have extreme fussiness/colic...and how those babies have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. That's been my son since day 1. Every day I try tips and tricks that I read on here or in books and have had very few successes...but I keep at it, hoping that one day it will just click with him. But he's a challenge - he loves to suck, but won't take a pacifier for more than a few minutes on a rare day (I try every day and have used different kinds to see if there's one he prefers more than another). He doesn't like to sleep flat on his back - he can be in the deepest sleep but as soon as I lay him down, his eyes fly open and he's wide awake, despite my best efforts to soothe him back to sleep. The first 3 weeks he had three states of being: eating, sleeping (occasionally), and crying no matter what we did to soothe him (it was like if he wasn't on the breast, he was screaming). Only this week has he gotten a little better and started to enjoy time in his swing a little longer, been alert without being constantly fussy, etc. Believe me, nobody wishes he would sleep more often and more easily than me...but there are days where he will go hours without a nap, or at least not much more than a cat nap in the swing, despite my best efforts to get him down. I know I'm a first time mother and trust me, there's already a list of things I plan to try differently with #2 if and when that time comes...but for now I'm making my way. I do know that my little guy is thriving - growing bigger faster than I want him to and making great strides - so even though the sleep is an issue, I do know that he is okay and that brings me comfort.
I appreciate your tips and I'm sure they're helpful for LOTS of mommies around here...but remember, you've obviously been blessed with babies with easier dispositions than some people. That makes a world of difference and consider yourself very fortunate.
If you lived closer, I'd love you to come work your magic on my son. 
I agree with the "let a sleeping baby lie" and "don't try to keep a baby awake" ideas, but we need to acknowledge that all babies are different, as PP mentioned. For example, my DD is a pretty easy baby and (so far) only cries or fusses when she needs to be changed or fed. However, since she was two weeks old she has been awake for very long periods of time. She has even gone 6 hours without so much as a nap (during the day). That said, she has always been an excellent night-time sleeper; since 4 weeks, she has only been getting up once through the night and last night she went from 10pm-6am. We certainly don't keep her awake and in fact try everything to get her to nap during the day more than she does (right now, she probably takes about 4-6 30 minute naps in a day). So, considering she is gaining weight, eating well, sleeping great, and is a happy girl, I really don't see the need to stress over the amount of time she is awake during the day, YKWIM?
Yeah, I get what you mean. It's great she's happy on 4-6 30 minute naps but most babies aren't. It's not so much that I'm stressing about how long to keep the baby awake, it's that I'm trying to suggest that if you DID look more at her awake time, maybe she'd sleep for 2-3 2 hr naps instead?