Sleep/Awake time for a 6 week old baby

[HeathersMummy]

My DS is 6 weeks old this week and is thriving and I'm not sure if this is a problem or not. He's in a good routine in the evenings for bath/bed at 7.30pm then after a feed at 11pm he's only up once at 3am before getting up at 7am.
I'm just not sure of his daytimes. In the morning he falls asleep in the car when we're doing the nursery run - he's perhaps been awake for 2 hours. After his feed at 11am(ish) we have to pick up from nursery so he falls asleep in the car again and sleeps until his next feed at about 2.30pm. After this feed he will stay awake happily for about 45 mins to an hour - if we try to keep him awake any longer he gets over stimulated and is difficult to settle. After this sleep he's awake for about an hour and a half before whilst we do bedtime routine.
Don't get me wrong, when he is awake he's bright and alert and whilst he hasn't rewarded us with a smile yet, he's doing all the things a 6 week old should. I'm just concerned that he's not actually awake for very long each day. My gut says he's just a baby and will take the sleep he needs but all those blasted books I have read say that he should be awake much, much longer. Oh, I'm just not sure what he should be doing . Does this seem right? I didn't have these problems with DD as she was always hungry so was frequently awake.

[RuthChan]

It sounds to me like you have an extremly happy and well balanced baby.
You said yourself he is thriving.
His sleep patterns sound perfect for a 6 week old and you should definitely burn all your baby books and follow his lead and your instincts.
Let him sleep as much as he needs in the day. So long as he's sleeping well at night too, there's no need to change a thing.

[babybear77]

My lo is 10 weeks now and is pretty similar. I too was panicking because some books say he should be awake up to 10hrs a day - fat chance. I'm stressing now because he slept from 7pm to 3am and again all the books say 5hrs is a nights sleep and they shouldn't be sleeping that long at night. I guess the baby hasn' read the book! He will become more alert and awake perhaps not just as he allegedly should be!
BB x

[MrsMattie]

Go with it. Sounds like he s finding his own little rhythm, and it is much easier for you to work around that (as much as you can) than to try to get him to sleep at certain times, or for a certain length of time or whatever (in my opinion).

[Sawyer64]

Sounds very normal to me.

Make the most of it,as his awake times will increase just when you get used to him falling asleep after feeds etc.

[agoomama]

My second born is 10 weeks old today and has been the same way...awake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours between naps during the day and naps can vary between 1/2 hour to 4 hours long. She goes to bed by 8pm and usually wakes at 1am, 3am and then 6 or 7am, so night time sleep is pretty normal. Before this week, I didn't clue in that she needed this much sleep and had been miserable when she was awake longer than this. I came to this sight wondering the same thig...is she sleeping too much? By the responses I'm reading, this must be the normal for some babies so I will now stop worrying. BTW, I'm agreeing with the people here who say to burn the books! As a mother who is constantly trying to educated myself in order to bring up the healthiest baby I possibly can (as I know all mothers do) I have been finding that the conflicting info they all have to offer leave me feeling inadequate when my baby is not lining up to what they say. I'm a believer in "go with your gut" when it comes to our kids. Although, the books do have their place at times.

[nappyaddict]

It sounds like he is finding his own routine just fine. I can recommend getting the Baby Whisperer book cos her EASY routine is great and works around the babies natural pattern anyway.