New born sleeping too much?

[jbakedbean]

My brother has just had a beautiful baby with his wife (almost 4 weeks old) and they are very appreciative of the fact he sleeps so well. Perhaps I am just jealous but I have seen him on regular occasions for long periods of time and he is probably awake for about 30 minutes a day in total, including nights, he doesn't really make much eye contact, isn't looking around at his surroundings. he wakes up about every 3-4 hours for a feed, but even then will just whine a little and then go back to sleep. he stirs when you strip him off to get changed but doesn't wake fully. He has been like this since he has been born. Is it something you would be worried about or am I just being silly?

My ds1 was like this for about 6weeks. I put it down to a mixture of being a newborn, the epidural I had and the hot weather.

He suddenly pinged awake at around 6 weeks and started being very interested in what was going on around him.

So in my experience I'd say give it a couple more weeks and don't worry but if the parents are worried tell them to mention it to their HV or GP.

Sorry my last post is based on him feeding well and having plenty of wet and dirty nappies.

If he's not feeding well due to the sleeping all time and he's not putting on weight due to the length of time between feeds then the parents need to speak to someone ASAP. Otherwise I go back to my original post.

As long as he's eating, weeing and pooing, it's fine.

< my face at thought of incredible sleeping baby!

For each of my 4 boys I've complained to the HV that they are sleeping too much and is something wrong. I forget each time it's just what newborns do - then they hit 8 weeks and you wish they would sleep.

wow, thank you so much. I have 2 toddlers myself and never experienced a sleeping baby so that's probably why I'm worrying.

Thanks for your comments. That's great and it's put my mind at ease. He is eating, wetting and pooing very well and putting weight on.