Newborn in a routine??

[Millthomp21]

Hi, so my boy is 8 weeks now but since he was born hes always stayed awake in the day, has a cat nap or sometimes a 1 or 2 hour sleep. As soon as 8pm comes around he's asleep, wether he's half way though feeding or full. He does wake for a couple of feeds but goes straight back down until around 6am. They say they don't know the difference between day and night but he really seems to be up as soon as the sun rises no matter what.

The routine is for you not for them.

Between now and a year he will change a lot. Sometimes eating and sleeping on what appears to be a routine, and at other times being completely at random.

The advice I was given and followed is don't force your baby to have a routine until they are older and you have to.

I do just let him sleep and feed when he wants to but he is so cranky all day from being over tired. He has done this since he was born, up most the day and asleep all night.

He’s having about 11 hours sleep in 24 which is way less than he needs at that age so that’s why he’s grumpy. Some babies don’t know what’s good for them and fight sleep 🤷‍♀️ Being baby led doesn’t really work for these babies!

Mine was exactly the same - I had to really fight to get her to nap, she was overtired and very irritable, we took lots of long buggy walks to get her to nap (even then she would fight it).

Have you tried getting him to sleep about 1.5-2 hours after he wakes up, that’s usually a good time. Then another one a couple of hours later… etc.

The first thing to establish is whether he has a sleep problem or whether he has lower than average sleep needs and the crankiness is caused by boredom or something else. If he is constantly yawning and rubbing his eyes then it is likely to be a sleep problem whereas if he looks wide awake then he is probably sleeping enough. Sometimes boredom can cause a baby to yawn but if he is yawning out of boredom then a change of scenery or a new game should quickly get him smiling and giggling whereas it is much harder to get a smile out of a tired baby.

My ds is a low sleep needs baby. When he was three weeks old he would sometimes go the whole day on just one fifteen minute nap and not show any signs of tiredness. At four months he was having regular no nap days. He was generally good at night, going to bed around 10pm and waking up around 7am with just a couple of quick night feeds. He is usually happy but he gets bored very quickly at home and it’s hard work keeping him entertained. He is very lively and early on all his milestones.

At this age you have to actively get them to sleep as most can't settle themselves. His night sleep sounds good. In the daytime he shouldn't be awake more than 90 ish minutes at a time post nap (including feeding time). As you get near to 90 mins it might be worth starting trying to get him to sleep through rocking, walk in push chair, bouncy chair, or feeding if needed - whatever works. Have you tried a dummy? This might be worth trying to help signal nap time as well. He probably isn't napping at the moment because he gets so overtired. Trying this loose structure might help - Google wake windows for more info.