How to keep a 1 month old awake

[Taler]

Hi all,

My daughter is 1 month old and we are on day 5 of Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby routine.

Any advice on how to keep a 1 month old awake as finding it difficult to keep her up at the times she's meant to be up.

Thanks,

Gemma

How are you getting on now Taler? Are you trying to get a routine because you are struggling? Is there anything we can help you with?

Good god, sorry to be harsh but WHY??? Why try to keep a little one awake? I've got a 6 week old who sleeps about 12 hours a day, couldn't imagine keeping her up or wanting too, they sleep so much for a reason, don't mess with nature!

You can't keep a newborn awake. Sleep is a developmental necessity at this age.

I bought the book and it started stressing me out while I was pregnant. Looks nice on the bookcase but haven't opened it since.
I would let the baby lead. Feed on demand. Our son woke a lot for two months then suddenly slept during the night until 7.30

I think it is very rigid and spoils the fun a bit. Maybe better to read about routines when the child is older. Don't wake the baby !

Congrats on your newborn

Gosh - please don't try to keep her awake, they NEED to sleep lots when newborn!

I agree with the sentiment from everyone here. Too early for routine.
If you do want to wake a dozy breast feeding baby you can hold them up vertically and their eyes will pop open like a little doll's. Or you can rub their palm while they're feeding to keep them awake. But that's only to keep them awake long enough that they get a full feed, not just the fore milk.

I wouldn't try keeping her awake tbh - UNLESS she is asleep all day and awake all night? Then it might be worth trying to stretch her awake times in the day in order to establish day/night separation.

But otherwise, no. Too little sleep and you risk overtiredness - which is far far far far worse than any consequence of too much sleep.

If you have a baby who loves her sleep (lucky you!) then I would use that to your benefit to try to teach self settling, in a very gentle way. Swaddling, stroking, shhing etc when she is sleepy until gradually she can fall asleep by herself. If you can do this during the sleepy newborn phase it will reap rewards later (especially at the 4 month sleep regression stage).

Honestly GF works for some and not for others. If your baby doesn't naturally take to it then don't force it. I think it is particularly unlikely to work for EBF babies. I know plenty of parents (including me!) who have stuck rigidly to GF when it was making both them and their baby miserable and frankly their babies didn't sleep through any earlier than the average.

Let baby sleep.

ds1 slept all the time at first and then naturally went into this wonderful routine of his own which -coincidentally only I am sure- fitted in with us.

d2 jeeeeeez he never slept, only power napped, was clingy, wanted a bazillion teeny feeds instead of regular longer ones,

and a friend whose first baby had been like ds2 while I was smug perfect parent with my routiney ds1 said 'and are you trying all those things you told me to do with dd?' YES!

so you see sometimes the book gets lucky and you get a child that is naturally in that sort of routine. The rest are on a sliding scale until you get ones that just cannot and will not fit into a forced routine.

Trying to deliberately keep a tiny baby awake? No no no no no.

I think the OP has probably got the message by now

I remember how fragile and lacking in confidence I felt at that stage and I don't think she needs to hear that she shouldn't be doing this any more than is already on this thread.

I second Goldmandra. I bought a million books in the first few weeks of DD's life as I was so convinced I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't, but I also didn't know that that was ok.

With hindsight, I WISH I'd never woken my baby up or tried to put her in a blasted routine, but I sort of had to learn that for myself!