Sleep/eat cycle ?

angbrienza · February 2016

forgive me if this is mentioned in another post... Direct me if there's a specific one. I feel like baby (almost 7 weeks) is still very much in a sleep/ eat cycle rather than a sleep/awake/eat cycle. Am I the only one who's baby pretttttttty much just goes from naps to bottle and then back down? She'll nap for a good 1-3 hours each nap during the day with half hour to an hour between SOME daytime naps and at night will do 3-4 hour stretches of sleep with tiny feeds that lead her right back to sleep but she barely has any awake time! Or at least I feel that way. I can't help but wonder if she slept less during the day, she might sleep longer stretches at night. I know that usually backfires since sleep begets sleep... I'm ranting. Thoughts? Experiences? What are your babies doing?

andreaAL11 · February 2016

DD is 8 weeks and the same exact way. I keep convincing myself it's a growth spurt but I'm just not sure? I think it was tbh, because now she will stay awake for a little bit longer but we are in the same process. She's barely awake sometimes that I miss her!
Wake up, eat for 20 minutes, 15 minutes awake then back to sleep for another 1-3 hours. Wakes up, eats for 30 minutes, passes out. This repeats until bed time which she usually passes out around 2 am. Idk we just go with the flow. There will be days (like the past 4) where she barely wakes up to feed and when she does falls right back asleep on the boob as you mentioned. Some babies Gus with their spurts and mine just sleeps a ton

kdoak2015 · February 2016

My DD is 10 weeks and still has very little wake time. She does an eat/play/sleep cycle but spits up a lot and has to stay upright after eating so sometimes we do a sleep/play/eat cycle. She maybe plays for 15-20mins before losing her shit because she's hungry. Sometimes she only plays for 5mins depending on her mood. They are still young and shouldn't be awake for longer than 2hrs and that's pushing it.

breezypip · February 2016

Hmmm... My baby, 9 weeks, seems to be on an awake/eat cycle! I cannot for the life of me get her to nap even when she's showing tired cues. And I get about a half hour between when she finishes nursing to when she's rooting again. She sleeps great at night, but the days are exhausting. I've spent hours trying everything and I may get 20-30 min here or there, and by evening she's tired and grumpy.

laurabwalker · February 2016

Yes my baby is only awake like an hour, unless she fights her sleep then will be awake 4-8hours and it's awful

Mizuiro007 · February 2016

DD is 11 weeks and still on sleep/eat. For about the last week she sleeps 8pm to 6am and during the day wakes to nurse almost 1hr 45mins on the dot (tracking app) and nurses until she sleeps. Is she's awake it's for very short periods and she easily gets overtired with those.

For reference, at 15 months DS still sleeps about 14-16 hrs a day between overnight and his one nap. With all the growing they do and how much focus it takes to do everything it's understandable they would sleep so much.

Taylovesbrad · February 2016

My babe is 10 weeks and has about 30 minutes awake time.

oregonmommy-2 · February 2016

For like two weeks, my little guy was awake a majority of the day. But the last 3 days he has been so sleepy and he is still sleeping good at night.. I'm thinking maybe a growth spurt, he is 8 weeks old. He does eat, sleep, play but sleeps mostly. He does wake to eat every 2 hours until about 8 then he is out!

And he used to not go to bed until around 10-10:30. now by 8 he is so ready for bed!! So I have been putting him to bed that early.. But it is definitely harder for me to get sleep because my husband works until 10pm so I want to spend some time with him and loose precious hours where I could be sleeping!!

ksrkim · February 2016

My DS is 8 weeks. I try to do eat/play/sleep and am somewhat successful. Sometimes it is not play, instead it's a diaper change, especially since the changing table is his new favorite place. I also have been doing baths in the morning to help keep him awake. I need to start with an evening bath routine but I haven't figured out how that will work with my 2 year old. It's easy to wake my baby up, all i have to do is put him down. With this all being said, there is usually at least one time during the day where I let him sleep after nursing and I usually join him.

angelicac06 · February 2016

Lo is 10 weeks and it feels like he's awake much more during the day than he is sleeping. He is sure a cat napper. The longest he naps is 50 something minutes once maybe twice a day. The rest are 29 minutes here, 19 minutes there etc. At night it's awesome. It's now one lovely 7-9 hour stretch. I wish he napped longer. I am going to start putting him in his crib for naps and closing the door to see if that helps. I would not however trade his long stretch for longer naps.

pupsicle23 · February 2016

DD is 9 weeks and only recently is more awake, but only in the mornings. We do eat, play, sleep until about 3:00. After that, any awake time is fussing and she's visibly tired. She moves into eat, sleep with tiny awake windows until it's time for her bath. Despite this, she will still sleep a 4-7 hour stretch.

misamima · February 2016

We do the eat/awake/sleep cycle as well. She's 6 weeks old and some awake times are significantly shorter than others. It ranges 45-75 mins (includes eating time which is approx 25 mins). I find that her awake time gradually increases as it gets later in the day though.

angbrienza · February 2016

angelicac06 said:

Lo is 10 weeks and it feels like he's awake much more during the day than he is sleeping. He is sure a cat napper. The longest he naps is 50 something minutes once maybe twice a day. The rest are 29 minutes here, 19 minutes there etc. At night it's awesome. It's now one lovely 7-9 hour stretch. I wish he napped longer. I am going to start putting him in his crib for naps and closing the door to see if that helps. I would not however trade his long stretch for longer naps.

Yeah I don't think I would either. Although I love her long naps for getting things done around the house... Like prepping dinner before the big kids get home from school, laundry, showering and actually drying my hair.

grkgdss00 · February 2016

I feel you. My DD is almost 6 weeks and it's tough to get her to do "awake" time without it being eating, and she can be so fussy if she doesn't get the boob

the swing is helpful and her mobile in the crib, but then I feel bad cause I think I should be "playing" with her more personally.

groovylocks · February 2016

It's very normal and i wish Olive would nap more in the daytime. She's up almost all day. Mind you, she's now "talking" - chattering in response to conversation - and all she wants to do is be awake and part of the conversation. This is the best milestone that she's hit yet, even better than smiling, so i don't MIND it.. but her lack of sleep concerns me. I've read what you guys are experiencing is much more typical.

I actually spoke to the doctor because i was concerned she wasn't napping enough. When she does nap now, she will zonk out. Then suddenly her eyes will pop open and she'll start babbling. Then suddenly zonk back out as if nothing had just happened. It creeped me out but my mom told me i did the same thing.

teachmegs817 · February 2016

DS will be 2mo old on Tuesday. We are only on an eat/play/sleep schedule because DS has been super fussy lately. The play is replaced with, "let's just sit wide awake and gurgle/grunt/squirm, to find comfort" phase. His 3 hour schedule that was down pat for the first 3 weeks has totally gone out the window. He still eats every 3-4 hours, but his sleep is SO out of whack. He spends a ton of time awake at night and then spends a lot of his day sleeping on and off, to make up for all of the awake time during the night. We are hoping he grows out of this really soon, so that we can begin to get him back on somewhat of a schedule. It's been a rough 4-5 weeks.

I think he is starting to be awake more during the day, because he will take 2-3, 45-1hr cat naps, and then give one good 2-3 nap before 6-7pm hits. He doesn't play much, because within 15-20 minutes he loses his shit. But during the night, he's back to the cat napping and he no longer sleeps longer than 1- 1 1/2 hours in his bassinet at a time.

breezypip · February 2016

@groovylocks my girl is the same way. Reading this thread is worrying me a little because she never wants to nap. I try everything to put her down but she fights it and will instead smile and babble at me while I TRY to rock her to sleep. When she does nap it's for just 20-45 minutes. I've gotten one 2 hr and one 3 hr nap ever.

12815AEEA · February 2016

My LO barely sleeps during the day :-/ It's frustrating and exhausting. I don't know what else to do. I do EVERYTHING to get her down and it often doesn't work. Like now, she's screaming her head off in the rock and play...ugh. She's been up way too long and I've tried to put her down multiple times.

misamima · February 2016

12815AEEA said:

My LO barely sleeps during the day :-/ It's frustrating and exhausting. I don't know what else to do. I do EVERYTHING to get her down and it often doesn't work. Like now, she's screaming her head off in the rock and play...ugh. She's been up way too long and I've tried to put her down multiple times.

Do you swaddle her? White noise? Perhaps paci?

laurabwalker · February 2016

@12815AEEA my LO fights naps and ends up screaming as well, sometimes I spend two hours trying to get her to nap

jenEP · February 2016

The only way my LO will nap is on me or in ergo. I try everything to get her to nap in her rock and play (swaddle, white noise, etc) but she only lasts a few min. I hope thing changes soon!!

12815AEEA · February 2016

@misamima Yes I do all those things...to no avail much of the time. @laurabwalker Then by that time, it's time to nurse again! It's a vicious cycle. I'm jealous of all your babies who sleep! My LO averages only 11.5 hours of sleep in a day. SO not good.

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