Is this normal newborn sleep?

[Moonshine160]

DS2 is 9 weeks old. He only takes long naps in his car seat (which I know I can’t leave him in for long periods of time) or if he’s asleep on me. He will be transferred fine to his crib but wakes after 5-20 mins so it’s hard to get much done and spend time playing with DS1. He also wakes whenever his dummy falls out, which is very often. Doesn’t like the sling but maybe I should shop about for a different style.

He won’t go down for the night until 10-11pm and then he’s awake at about 7:30am for the day. He has 1-2 breastfeeds during the night but always goes straight back to sleep after these. If we try to put him down for the night any earlier than this he just treats it as a nap and wakes back up. His most alert and fussy time tends to be in the evenings. Will he just naturally start wanting to go to bed for the night earlier as he gets older? I really want to be trying to get an earlier night myself but I can’t when I know he will want a final feed at about 10:30pm. I suppose I’m just looking for reassurance that all of this is normal. DS1 is only 3.5 years old so it wasn’t that long ago that I did this but the first 6 months were just a blur and I can’t remember what’s normal and what isn’t.

That sounds normal to me, that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard though.
I’ve got a 4mo and a 2yo and keep reminding myself that this phase won’t last for long.
I spend half my day getting DS to nap and at the moment it’s either a contact nap on the boob or in the sling or a moving buggy (he will wake up if I stop walking) but DD was exactly the same and she’s so different now.
I just try to have really low expectations of what I can achieve in a day and then anything else is a bonus!

@SamanthaVimes thank you for the reassurance. Same here, I spend so much time trying to get DS2 to nap and it ends up being a contact nap, then DS1 will need me for something so I’ll risk putting DS2 down in the crib then bam! they’re awake again. It’s exhausting and very frustrating.

Sounds normal, I didn't really start getting cot naps until about 4 months with the younger two.

For DS1 I used to put him down in a baby bouncer and he would go right off, but I know putting them in anything other than flat isn't advised nowadays. I did sometimes let DS3 nap in a swing though so I could do things with DS2 as they were closer in age. I kept him in the room and kept an eye on him.

Completely normal - and pretty good I'd say! 10-7.30 with only one of two feeds is really good. My DS is 11 Weeks and still only contact naps.

Sounds pretty normal. In fact only two feeds a night and does straight back to sleep sounds fantastic to me.

Definitely normal, amazing that it's just the 2 feeds overnight at that age cause my DD was definitely more than that.
I would definitely suggest trying another type of sling, my DD used to hate being put in the sling but soon calmed down and fell asleep. It was the only way to get anything done.
I have number 2 due at the end of Jan when DD will be 18 months so I will be utilising the sling as much as possible.

That's amazing overnight sleep!

Totally normal!

What on earth would she need to see a paediatrician about @Flirtyandthirty ?

Completely normal, newborn babies are designs to want to be on their mum all the time! I noticed a big change at around 3 months. Especially in terms of when baby was happy to go down for the night

Do you have a strict routine in place?
I have a 7 week old and have been doing the same thing every night for 2 weeks which seems to be working - example of our routine;

• bath first, put a hot water bottle into her crib to warm it up (we used to have the same issue of being awake when put down, apparently the main reason of that is temperature change of going from you to a cold crib) changed into fresh PJs and put into sleeping bag (sleeping bag for night only, blankets during the day, again to regulate heat)
• feed around 9.30pm
• soothe her to sleep in a dark quiet room using white noise machine.
• transfer her with white noise to the warmed up crib.

worked instantly for us, I think it was the hot water bottle that really did it. But she went from waking every hour to sleeping 3 hours instantly. We’re now up to 4/5 hours on average so hoping it gets longer!