5 week old awake in the cot but not crying?

[Rosiebun]

Hi all, FTM here so please no judgement 🫣

my baby is 5 and a half weeks old and generally sleeps from 10pm until around 1/2am, then will wake for a feed, nappy change and cuddle and I’ll put her back down once she’s asleep. We’ve encountered an issue the last few nights where she just wakes up again at around 3am and sort of just… lays there? She might kick her legs and fidget a bit, at first I thought it was active sleep but I think she is definitely awake. I think perhaps it starts as active sleep but then she’s waking herself up.

Now I know newborn babies don’t sleep through the night and I’m not expecting her to. But I’m unsure on what to do? lol. If she’s happy laying there, not crying, do I just try and settle her in the cot (she’s in a next to me next to our bed) and see if I can get her back to sleep? Do I get her up? Do I feed her again? Do I leave it a while and see if she soothes herself back to sleep? I feel guilty leaving her there if she is awake but also part of me thinks if she was unhappy, she’d let me know about it?

Leave her to it and see if she falls asleep again

For how long though? I think she would go on for ages if I left her 🫣

Leave her unless she’s crying
she’ll you know if she needs you

Another for just leave her, she’s just thinking probably! Congratulations on the new addition x

If she’s happy not crying then just leave her. She’ll let you know if she needs anything 😊

If she's quiet and not distressed then just leave her be and go back to sleep yourself.

If she’s not crying and seems settled then I would leave her be. She’ll let you know if she needs anything.

This is a good problem to have, just leave her and see what happens. She'll let you know if she wants you x

Like you say, if she was unhappy about it you’d soon know! Don’t worry. Mine used to stay awake the entire day at rest age - I used to hate people who said ‘sleep when the baby naps’. Some babies are just too interested in stuff to sleep all the time 😂

My DS does this, I always picked him up and fed him but the other night I thought, he's not even crying, completely relaxed so now I don't get him up until he needs me. Sometimes he falls back to sleep, sometimes after about 10/20 mins he starts to fuss and cry. I'm just going with the flow at the minute x

My youngest, now 4 months, used to do this. I left him to it. I figured it wasn’t very long ago that he was just floating around in the womb, so not that surprising that he would be content to lay in the cot just being, without needing anything.

It’s perfectly normal. Leave her be, she’s just fine.

My youngest did the same, and I was just so relieved after having had my eldest, who was either feeding or screaming whenever he was awake for months.

You've probably just landed yourself with a contented one.