How to wake up a baby who doesn't want to wake up?

jocass · February 2011

Hey ladies!

So, my son was born 3.5 weeks early, and is on the brink of his 2 month birthday. He's doing good about sleeping at night. At first because of his premie status he would sleep pretty 24 (except to eat), but now he's staying up more during the day. We've been allowing him short naps throughout the day, with one long nap in the middle of it all.

Well, the past few days, babyboy has not wanted to wake up from his long nap, and today my husband was barely able to get him to eat. We will undress him to change his diaper, put him in his swing without turning it on (he hates it), rub his head, tickle him, pick him up in the air over our heads (which he loves when he's awake). We're losing our minds!

Suggestions for getting this boy to wake up? We don't want him to get day/night reversal. We would like to sleep at night!

Thanks ladies!

zkat · February 2011

I would let him sleep. He should only have a total of about 7-8 hours of awake time in a day and it should be in 30 - 90 min. increments. His body knows what it needs and he will wake up if he is hungry etc. The old wives tale "Never wake a sleeping baby" is so true. Over tired baby = cranky, never go to sleep baby. He is way to young to try to sleep train and if he is sleeping that heavy, then he needs the rest.

Mrslovebugs · February 2011

zkat:
I would let him sleep. He should only have a total of about 7-8 hours of awake time in a day and it should be in 30 - 90 min. increments. His body knows what it needs and he will wake up if he is hungry etc. The old wives tale "Never wake a sleeping baby" is so true. Over tired baby = cranky, never go to sleep baby. He is way to young to try to sleep train and if he is sleeping that heavy, then he needs the rest.

I agree with this.

JenLuvsRichard · February 2011

zkat:
I would let him sleep. He should only have a total of about 7-8 hours of awake time in a day and it should be in 30 - 90 min. increments. His body knows what it needs and he will wake up if he is hungry etc. The old wives tale "Never wake a sleeping baby" is so true. Over tired baby = cranky, never go to sleep baby. He is way to young to try to sleep train and if he is sleeping that heavy, then he needs the rest.

I agree...let him sleep. He will wake up when he's ready!

Lilystar82 · February 2011

zkat:

I would let him sleep. He should only have a total of about 7-8 hours of awake time in a day and it should be in 30 - 90 min. increments. His body knows what it needs and he will wake up if he is hungry etc. The old wives tale "Never wake a sleeping baby" is so true. Over tired baby = cranky, never go to sleep baby. He is way to young to try to sleep train and if he is sleeping that heavy, then he needs the rest.

I agree and I have preemies. The neonatologist told us to let them sleep as much as they want, so we've been feeding on demand. We will start scheduling them once they have cues that they are ready for it. As of right now, mine are still sleeping in 3-4 hour increments.

jocass · February 2011

Really? I've read that he should be eating every 2-3 hours no matter what--when I was in the hospital after birth they were very adamant about waking him up to eat every 2-3 hours and made me feel horrible that I couldn't do it because he would just sleep.

Yeah, we aim for him to be up for 90 min at a time (although he'll be up 3 hours on his own sometimes). He usually goes 3 hours between feedings, so we try to keep him up for the first half and let him sleep the second half between each feeding during the day. It usually ends up him being awake about 6-7 hours, which I know is the aim for his age. But is it bad if he ends up being awake less than that?

zkat · February 2011

The 2-3 hour rule applies until they reach birth weight or if they have jaundice. More sleep is good. Mine sleeps more during the last half of a growth spurt.

1ht

Angel5218 · February 2011

zkat:
I would let him sleep. He should only have a total of about 7-8 hours of awake time in a day and it should be in 30 - 90 min. increments. His body knows what it needs and he will wake up if he is hungry etc. The old wives tale "Never wake a sleeping baby" is so true. Over tired baby = cranky, never go to sleep baby. He is way to young to try to sleep train and if he is sleeping that heavy, then he needs the rest.

Also agree with this. DS loves to take very long naps during the afternoon and at first I was really worried, now I just let him sleep. At this age they still need a lot of sleep. The only time I would wake DS up was the first couple weeks and I would wake him every 2 hours to nurse then he would pass out again.

Its hard not to worry about them, but trust me if he is hungry he will wake up.

liannemarie82 · February 2011

Yeah the 2-3 is until they regain to their birth weight. My son will be too cranky if I wake him. I learned after that it was just not worth it for both of our sanity! We are back up to to birth weight plus a few ounces and he is 2 weeks and 4 days.

flyingsaucer · February 2011

If your doc wants him to feed every 2-3 hrs, then you MUST wake him, but wake him to feed and then let him go back to sleep... don't try to keep him up for 9 minutes! That is too long for a lot of newborns and it won't help him sleep at night

tpatch · February 2011

I agree with the other girls. everything I read says let them sleep. Katie takes really long naps, if she doesnt she is a cranky monster!

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