Worried I'm not doing enough...

[fonxey]

I have a 6 week old and I'm aware they don't do a great deal but I'm just worried about bit doing enough and when do the days get more structured?

At the moment i just let her do her thing. Probably just getting daft.

We wake up, she feeds had a nappy change and we play for a little bit then she goes to sleep. I have a shower and quickly get breakfast and then she'll want feeding, nappy... And then often she'll go straight back to sleep again until her next feed is due. And when i say sleep i mean ww3 would not wake her.

By her next feed she might wake up sufficiently to play afterwards. But not for long and back to sleep.

She sleeps so much. I know i shouldn't moan! But will she ever wake up? Her awake periods are purely based around feeding and a small amount of "play". Her favourite activity is looking over my shoulder at things and sticking her tongue out.

When will things become more structured? Should i be waking her up after an hour to play with her?

I put her on tummy time and she falls asleep. I just wonder if she'll ever do anything other than sleep!

I've asked the hv and she said I'm lucky which i guess i am!

But when will i have a more active routine during the day? I'm worried sge's going to sleep through her entire life and that i shouldn't let her sleep as much during day.

She's going not little, just carry on as you are and relax.

The whole world is new to her and she needs sleep to process what she's taken in and for her growth and development.

As for your question about when this period will end and there will be more structure - that's impossible to say because every baby is different.

For now just enjoy the cuddles. When you have a three year old charging around you'll look back on these days and wonder why you worried haha

Sleep is absolutely vital for her neurodevelopment. Every time she is awake her brain is working overtime absorbing new information. She needs the rest. Please don’t wake her up.
Waving a ribbon in front of her face is playing. Listening to you chat to her is playing. Listening to music is playing. Read to her, walk around the house with her showing her things. Let her feel different textures. All of these are hugely stimulating.

That sounds spot on for 6 weeks. I found my boy started to wake more around 12weeks but at almost 5 months he can still only go a max of about 3 hours before needing to sleep. Don't let it put you off going to groups etc as no one will mind if she's asleep

She sounds like a very contented baby - my 2nd was like that and I worried there was something wrong as he was so different to my 1st! He never cried, ate well, slept well.

Your doing a great job, relax and enjoy your little girl - and save your energy for when she’s walking!

Omg enjoy! I have a 6 week old and I’m sat here wired on my billionth coffee of the day trying to make it through! X

Hah, thanks guys. I just feel sometimes like she's missing out.

Today we didn't do anything at all she pretty much slept all day bar feeding.

People are always talking about nap/wake routines and i just don't know when that happens or how I'll know to out her in one.

I loved the sleepy stage - especially when DS would just sleep anywhere at the drop of a hat! Was a bit annoying when you needed to go out though.

I'd say from about 10-12 weeks more of a pattern emerged for us and there was more of a definite nap/awake time.

Nah it sounds like you're doing fine!

I never worried about routines until I felt I needed one - which was much much later than six weeks. About a year with my first baby and younger with my second, but neither of them ever had a rigid routine. Just a bit of predictability. Even the real routine fans reckon the first 3-4 months are totally random.

Newborns can't really manage being awake for very long. Sleep is how they process what they are learning - and they have to learn absolutely everything about the world. At the moment she's learning about light - how to discern shapes (and later, she'll work out that she can touch things, and start to understand what she is seeing are actual physical things) and sound, how to make sense of all the different sounds she can hear. Your voice is comforting to her because it's one of the only familiar ones, so is your heartbeat. She is learning to feed (hopefully she's quite good at that one by now) and that doing so will fill up her tummy and make the hungry feeling go away. She is learning to release her poo when she needs to - and if she's anything like mine she won't be very good at this yet. They get confused between the need to strain and the need to relax at the same time and often spend more time straining with no results, that's confusing and tiring for her as well.

Yes most newborns do sleep through life. It's one of the lovely things, holding a sleeping newborn although I do know what you mean about thinking they are missing everything! Don't worry. She'll be awake and active most of the day soon enough. What I found useful at this age was a list of "happily awake time" which you can find online and it increases as they age. Basically a newborn can cope with about 45-60 minutes of being awake at a time, and it's normal for them to spend most of that feeding, maybe getting a nappy change, they might have time for about 10 minutes of looking around, and that's it! Doesn't seem like much to us but it is a huge amount to them. Then they sleep so their brains can sort through all this new data and make sense of it. I would not worry about playing yet. Newborns don't play because they are too busy looking at everything. They like it when you show them new things like a wall with stripes on it or a light that makes a circle on the ceiling. They like it even more when they get to see the new things they liked again :o She won't be able to see little details very well yet, so things with high contrast and simple patterns are the most interesting to her. She will also like it if you make faces at her, talk or sing to her and stroke her back, tummy, legs or hands/feet. I find the curiosity of newborns and their ability to be exhausted by such simple things so fascinating - enjoy it :) And take plenty of videos of her. It's lovely to look back on them when she's older.

Later, you can download an app called Huckleberry which I found useful. I would recommend to ignore all of the tracking options (feeds, nappies, etc) except sleep and after you have done this for 3 days, as long as your baby is over 8 weeks it will start to suggest "sweet spots" for naps. This seems to work like magic at suggesting a time they will be sleepy, and over a week or two it sort of shuffles their nap times slowly into some sort of routine. If you like predictability that is helpful. As I said personally it wasn't useful to me until much later. Either way it doesn't matter too much.

Today we didn't do anything at all she pretty much slept all day bar feeding

This stage is BLISS. Get some good box sets on the telly and bloody enjoy it. She is so tiny and soon you won't be able to finish a hot drink or go for a wee in peace.

If you need/want to go out but you're worried she's going to fall asleep, try putting her down in the pram or car seat while you get ready. If she does fall asleep in there, she'll be ready to go. If she's upset you're not holding her, talk or sing to her so she knows you're there (but don't worry overly - a few mins not being held/moved while you get ready is not a problem.) And always get your nappy bag filled, emptied and ready to go in the evening when your partner is home if you have one, so that you're not held up trying to replenish supplies in there if you decide to go out on a whim.