How long should baby of 11 weeks sleep during the day?

[Rones]

My dd2 seems to be needing more sleep during the day and can only stay awake for a max of 1hr 15mins without going crazy because she's tired....this makes a routine hard to stick to as she seems to want more sleep than they seem to recommend (3.5 hrs at the strict end of the spectrum and up to about 5 hours). I've tried keeping her awake for a bit longer and she then just gets overtired and really difficult to settle. She's been sleeping almost 5 hours a day and I'm tempted to let her sleep more if she needs it but I'm scared it will start to affect her nighttime sleep? She is generally really difficult to settle in the evening too although she's always normally asleep by 8pm at the latest and I aim for it to be 7pm. I don't let her sleep beyond 5.30pm in the afternoon. There's so much conflicting advice out there that I'm not sure.....Maybe I just have a sleepy baby! Once she's asleep in the evening, we do a dream feed at about 11pm and then she usually wakes up once in the night (around 3/4am) for a feed which is fine as she then wakes around 6/7am. I'd like to keep this nighttime sleep pattern (obviously she can drop the 3/4am feed if she likes!!) so not sure if I should let her sleep more in the day? She was born 3 weeks early and had jaundice for a little while so I wonder if this has an effect on how much she needs to sleep?

My baby is/was the same. He's 17w now and still sleeps about 4-5 hours in the day, in short bursts (4-5 naps). Sleeps 11-12 hours at night with 2-3 feeds (other than that not awake in the night though). I think it's just that different babies need different things. If I try keeping him awake when he's showing signs of tiredness (sometimes only 1.5 hours after waking up) he'll just become majorly grumpy, overtired and be harder to get off to sleep. As long as it doesn't affect night time sleep I wouldn't worry!

wow that sounds very similar to my baby! I've definitely ditched the Gina Ford routines for now as there's no way she can stay up for a full 2 hours at a time....so maybe that's just her and I should count myself lucky for now at least....they always change!

I've had two - and both LOVED their sleep and had much more than books advised - and I never tried to make them stay awake for longer (not that I have any problem at all with those who do - we each have things that work for us and I know loads of people who GF has really worked for).

My 16 week old sleeps about five hours a day. I vaguely follow the Sensational Baby Sleep Plan when it comes to feeding - ie I aim for 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm (with no dream feed) - then she wakes once in the night at about 2am. Then wakes for the day at 6.45/7. If she wakes later - or earlier - I just adjust to make it around four hourly and to get her down by 7.15 after her bottle. But sleep-wise - I just let her sleep. She's only JUST started being able to stay awake for 2 hours (at 11 weeks it was one hour - like your baby) - and in the morning it's only an hour and a half. I do wake to feed though.

I truly believe sleep begets sleep. I've even let her sleep up till 6pm - and she goes down fine after her bottle at 7pm.

So, if you're interested - this is her routine (which is roundabout - changes every day a bit).

7am - wake up
7.05 - bottle
8.30 - sleep
11am - bottle (I wake her if she's not awake)
1pm - sleep
3pm - bottle (again I wake her - although if she went down later than 1pm I let her sleep a bit longer)
5pm - back for a nap.
5.30 - wakes up (usually - sometimes later)
6pm - bath
4.45pm/7pm - bottle
7.15/7.30 - bed

Sorry, should have said that when mine was 11 weeks - feeds were three hourly - so 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm. And she could only stay awake for about an hour. She pretty much slept all the time! And she only really easily went to sleep at 7pm when she was 13 weeks - before that it was 8pm like yours. And she was only waking once in the night.

Rones, I could have written the exact same post! My DD is 11 weeks and likes her sleep. She starts getting grizzly after being awake for around 90 minutes and she probably gets anywhere between 3 and 5 hours' sleep in the day (at the latter end if we are out and about in the pram). She goes to bed at 8:30 and wakes for a feed at 4:30 then is asleep until 8:30.

She tends to feed at 8:30, 11:30, 2:30, 5:30, bath then final feed at 8:30 before bed.

Other mums in my antenatal group are up three times in the night so consider myself very lucky indeed!

This is all great stuff - thanks for letting me know the timings, mine pretty much feeds every 3 hours too although some days it can be more like every 2 or 2.5 hours. I think it can vary a bit when breastfeeding. She goes down pretty easily for naps in her cot during the day (and if she does fuss then I do a bit of the sush/pat malarky and that works) but she can be really difficult in the evenings! What is it about evenings? I'm sort of doing my own routine now taking bits from Gina Ford and bits from the baby whisperer but things do vary from day to day. I think it's freaked me out a bit because I just did the Gina Ford thing with my first and never did anything else. The idea that there are other ways is new to me and I almost feel like a first timer again as there's quite a gap between my 2 dc's. Anyway, thanks both for your posts, they're really helpful! I'll try to stop panicking now

I could never understand how people doing GF could get their babies to stay up for two hours!! Was a total mystery to me! Otherwise I probably would have done her routines!

that's exactly why I gave up in the end lifesobeautiful! I tried really hard for about 7 weeks and then realised I had to try another approach.... and read the baby whisperer for the first time. It was a revelation that I could actually look out for my baby's cues and act on them accordingly rather than trying to follow a prescriptive routine. When you think about it, it's pretty logical really!

I read the Baby Whisperer for my first - and dipped it into again for my second. Great book I think. My DD (second baby) also took a while to get the hang of the 7pm bed time - but I just kept persisting (left her for a bit, went back in, shushed patted - like you) and now at 16 weeks she goes down happily (occasionally whimpers/chats for a bit but I don't even need to go in - she just eventually falls asleep). Your DD sounds like she'll be doing the same thing very soon!

Up to about 20 weeks my baby slept 18 hours ish a day. Now she's six and a half months and it's gradually reduced, I just follow her lead.

thanks lifesobeautiful - I hope she will be doing that soon and sleeping through would be even better! Mind you, my new mantra is 'expect the worst and hope for the best' which keeps me on a level (I think anyway!). However, today has gone horribly wrong and I feel I've really messed her up as I attempted a trip out with both dc's this morning which meant trying to transfer her from her cot to the car seat without waking her up (failed! although she did drop off again...) and then on the way back trying to transfer her from buggy (having been asleep previously in my arms) to car seat without waking her up and failed MASSIVELY! I had to pull up in the car and feed her and so ended up doing a split feed and giving her the other boob on the return home! She was so fractious when I put her down for her sleep in her cot at home and really difficult to settle and now she's woken up after 45 mins. Lesson of the day: STAY AT HOME AND DON'T DO ANY AMBITIOUS TRIPS OUT! I'm frazzled and DH not home till 9.30pm. Oh well!

Oh you poor thing Rones! Did you get back on schedule on Sunday? It took my DS (now 3) AGES before I could transfer him from carseat/buggy to cot - or the other way round. Seriously think it was about 18 months or so. Maybe they just don't do that as babies?! It's hard because you don't want to be stuck indoors (especially with a toddler) but you also want to have a good evening/night with them so don't want to muck up their daytime routine! But they'll soon be out of this stage and on an easier, more consistent schedule. (I Hope!) Like your mantra! I've learned to NEVER think - wow, I've done it. She now sleeps through/is in a routine. Because they just change all the time! Avoids disappointment!

Also I try and stick to either having friends over to my house, so she can sleep, OR going to friend's houses. And I also do all my grocery shopping on Ocado!

yes everything was back on track on Sunday but then all went 'wrong' again today! However, I'm trying not to get too fixated on the routine thing as she's still only 11 weeks old and things just don't always go to plan, with the best will in the world! I find that breastfeeding can make it really tricky to stick to an exact routine because it really is guesswork a lot of the time and no real way of knowing exactly what amount of milk she's getting.... I know she's getting enough because she's putting on a good amount of weight but for example today, she was only going about 1.5-2 hours between feeds sometimes because she wasn't eating enough at each sitting and there's no way I can force her to have more when she doesn't want it! Could also be a growth spurt? (if in doubt, it's a growth spurt!). In fact, she's now taken to having a feed from one breast and then smiling and giggling at me to say she's done! It's all very cute but not very conducive to taking a full feed and lasting 3 hours! Her naps were really strange too and she kept waking up after the famous 30/45mins when coming into a light sleep. She still slept about 4.5 hours though throughout the day so she should be fine tonight and even settled well at 7pm!

I too shop online for my big shop and it's such a lifesaver! I find that having a dishwasher is amazing too, which we got a couple of months ago when we got our kitchen done. I now realise how much time I used to spend washing up!

Thanks again for the tips & advice, it's good to hear what others think/do. I must say that I'm pleased I'll never be doing the whole being pregnant/childbirth/newborn ordeal again - it's too much like hard work. 2 dc's are more that enough for me thank you very much . To top it off, I now have a cold....being ill and looking after small children is really rubbish!