8 week old deterioration in sleep

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This is my first post (and first experience of an online chat board!), however I often read the threads and I'm always impressed by the wealth of knowledge out there.

So I'm looking for some personal advice now! My DD is 8 weeks old and her sleep pattern appears to have deteriorated significantly over the past week.

She was going to bed at about 10pm sleeping 4-5 hrs, waking for a feed, sleeping for 3hrs, waking for a feed then sleeping a final 2ish hrs, getting up between 6-7AM. She was doing this since 4weeks old.

However she is now not settling til 11pm, sometimes later and awake 2-3 times in the night. I'm then unable to settle her back down if she wakes later than 5! As a consequence she seems to be sleeping much more during the day, often all afternoon only waking for feeds.

DD has also gone from being very content and enjoying various play activities to being cranky, crying more and disinterested in playing :(

I don't think there is anything physically wrong with her but have concerns I may be missing something.

Any advice is welcome, even if it's just to reassure me this is normal for her age!

By 8 weeks they're a lot more alert, more aware of their surroundings and taking more of an interest generally. I think a little frustration can creep in when the usual things aren't entertaining enough but they can't crawl/roll/reach the thing they really want. As they get bigger and more active they need more to eat... that can explain the increased feeds.

What are her naps like during the day? Plenty of daytime sleeps affect how settled and happy they are, and also tends to knock on to the night time.

Thank you Chil1234 for taking the time to reply.

I definitely think frustration plays a part as she likes lots of variation in her playtime, but then people tell me to worry about over stimulation...you can't win!

She is very active and loves kicking about on her playmat so that may explain the increase in feeds. She rarely goes longer than 2hrs during the day between feeds, so maybe it's too optimistic of me to expect her to go longer than 3hrs now she's more active.

As far as her daytime sleep goes, she's always slept well. She gets tired after about 2hrs and then naps for up to 2hrs. However this past week she has gone for a nap then woken for a feed and wants to go straight back to sleep again, which is what she normally does at night. When she's awake she's alert but keeping her awake is a non-starter at times.

Is she starting to mix up her days and nights? How long do you let her sleep in the day. If you read through the 'my baby won't nap - sign here' and 'newborn sleep nightmare' threads you will see that daytime sleep affects nighttime sleep. Also, you may be putting her to bed too late, most babies want to be in bed by 7ish and funnily enough this seem to improve their sleeping and help them sleep for longer (don't ask me why!)

Wake her up after 2 hrs (yes thats' right - wake the baby!) she should be able to stretch to nearer 3 hrs between feeds some of the time so aim for this (roughly).

Good luck!

I thought about trying to put her to bed much earlier i.e. 7.30/8ish but didn't know if this would be too much of a shock to her system.

She's been used to a bedtime routine for several weeks now and it was working nicely until the beginning of this week when she has been taking longer and longer to settle.

I definitely think she's sleeping too much during the day but it's sometimes impossible to keep her awake! Any tips would be very gratefully received!I do wake her after 2hrs but sometimes it's a real struggle to keep her awake.

I guess perseverance is the answer!I'm going to try putting her down earlier and keep my fingers crossed

MM - how did it go?