6 week old doesnt sleep much. Is it a problem?

[embarrassedmama]

I am embarrassed to have only recently realised that my 6 week old sleeps so little. I know that he has never slept well but have only recenlty started counting up the sleeping hours and there are not many!

For the first 4-5 weeks he spent most of his time feeding (bf) which I didnt mind as I enjoyed spending time with him. During this time I suspect he was lightly sleeping while feeding as he would come off his feeds half asleep, although he wouldnt stay asleep long once he finished feeding. I would usually cosleep with him in the afternoon while he fed and although Im not sure if he slept I could sleep this way for 1-2 hours with him. If he hadnt slept much during the day I would put him in his pram around 4pm and get him to sleep for an hour or so. If he did have the odd day nap it would be for around 10 minutes or so. He would never sleep in his cot during the day.

For the past week or so his feeding marathons have come to an end (he now feeds for around 20 mins every hour or two) and now I am actually very aware of how little he sleeps during the day. He feeds and then I put him down on his playmat or swing where he will be quite happy to spend 15-20 minutes awake and alone looking around him. He wont sleep in his cot. He will lie down with me and cosleep with my during the day while feeding but I dont know how much sleep he is getting, this now doesnt last very long either and he will start to grumble after half an hour or so.

His night sleeping routine has always been the same. He goes to sleep around 10-11pm and wakes for an hour around 1.30am Then he wakes for a shorter time around 4am. He then wakes again at 5am and then co-sleeps with me until 6-7am. I am embarrased to say that I only recently added this up and he is only sleeping a maximum of around 6 hours and possibly another hour during the co-sleeping part.

I worked out that yesterday he slept a total of 4.5 last night (possibly another hour co-sleeping) and only 2.25 hours during the day---a total of 6.75 hours!!! If I added on the cosleeping time it would be 7.5 hours.

Today he has napped 1.75 mins and went down for the night at 10pm.

He is generally a happy baby. He doesnt cry as much as he did earlier on and when he does cry he settles down once he is comforted. He grumbles and fusses and needs attention fairly regularly but is not clingy. He had some problems with wind but this seems to have settled recently as well. When he hasnt slept for a while he does grumble more but apart from this he is not too unsettled.

I am very confused as I dont have much experience with newborns and am wondering if I have low expectations. I expected to be sleep deprived and spend a long time feeding. I have never really needed much sleep and have only felt sleep deprived a few days since he was born...........But should I be more concerned about the lack of sleep. Will it be affecting his development? I am embarrassed to discuss this in real life with others and would really appreciate some advice.

Hi there, afraid I can't offer too much help, just to repeat what GP said to me, "some babies just don't need that much sleep!"
As long as he is getting the opportunity to nap throughout the day and doesn't seem unhappy I would not worry too much, I know it's easier to say than do!
Have you tried swaddling and putting to sleep a maximum of 1.5 - 2hours after he gets up in the morning? I found with my LO (also my first) if I manage to get her to have 1st sleep the day always goes a little smoother and she seems to want to sleep more.
I would experiment a little, Swaddle and feed to sleep at 8am ish, close curtains and create relaxed environment before feeding. If this works then try again within 2 hours of next waking etc. I would also try & get your LO to sleep for the night around 7.30 - 8pm. I'm sure there will be lots of wakings, however it is starting to create a pattern/bed time routine, which is needed for your sanity too!
My LO doesn't sleep much during day & doesn't really complain, however if I try hard I can get her to nap. Today she had slept for approx 1/2hr until 3pm (wasn't grumbling but looked a little starry eyed,) so I took her up to bed, fed and swaddled and bounced her off to sleep and she slept until 6pm! Threw the whole evening off as she usually goes down at 7pm for the night. She would not go to sleep until 9pm!
She is 19 weeks now and sleeps much better than she did as new baby, I noticed a real difference around 10 - 12 week stage with her sleep patterns.
All you can do is try.

Last night he slept from 10pm to 1am. Then woke for 1/2 hour. Back to sleep from 1.30am to 2.30, then up for another 1/2 hour. Then slept from 3am til 4.30am, up for 15 mins and then up at 6am---I co slept to feed him from then till 7am. So that is 6.25 hrs sleep. He is now next to me on his swing happily looking around.

I will try to put him to sleep in his cot at 8am. I have never really tried to get him to sleep early on in the day as I didnt think it was a problem so maybe if he has an early nap it will make a difference to the rest of his day. I will also go out with the pram at 10 this morning so even if the 8am nap doesnt work the pram has always been successful at getting him to sleep. I really need to get more organised and take him out every day in the morning as well as the afternoon.

It is such a strange realisation that most newborns sleep every couple of hours! I have become so used to him always being awake. I guess it is a bit like a frog in boiling water situation.

I forgot to add up the total sleep for yesterday (and last night)= 8 hours!

Your baby is keeping almost exactly the same hours as mine! (7 weeks)

Yesterday she napped for 30mins at 9, 12, 2 and 6pm. She napped for about 10-15mins at 8pm. I took her to bed at 9 (I am sleep deprived and suffering) but she didn't sleep til 10.30ish. She woke to feed for about 30mins at 12 and 2, and was up for about an hour at 4am. She woke for the day at 6.30...

This makes a total of 6 1/2 hours at night and 2-3ish hours during the day... so 8-9 hours total

Dont know if this helps, but she seems happy with this amount of sleep, and I am relieved to hear that she's not the only baby not needing much sleep (even if her mum does!)

Im relieved to know that he is not the only one!

I fed him at 8am put on white noise and swaddled him and put him in his cot. He didnt cry which is good as he alwasy used to cry in his cot during the day! He lay in his cot quite still for about 5 mins with his eyes half close, then he started stirring a bit and broke out of his (velcroed) swaddle. He then did a big poo (leaking all over his swaddle as well!) about 15 minutes ago so I got him out and changed him and then put him back in the cot just wrapped in a blanket. He is still in there quite happily, so I will leave him to it and see what happens. At least I now know he doesnt mind being put in his cot during the day, that is progress.

Hello again, how has today been so far?
I was just thinking back to my LO in the first few months & I was convinced she didn't need much sleep, not a great sleeper, hence the conversation with GP! The breakthrough came when someone advised me to try & get an early nap sorted. Then the 7pm bedtime happened not too long after. The rest of the day is still a little hit & miss as she doesn't sleep well if out in pram or car seat, as soon as movement stops she wakes up.
Just hang in there and try and look out for sleepy signs.
I found it really funny at first putting my LO down so early after getting up but it seems to work.
Another tip, it may take three or four attempts to get your LO over to sleep. The long sleep yesterday happened after she had 30 mins and woke up, I picked her up burped her and bounced her back to sleep & put her down for another 21/2 hour sleep!
Also you might have to rock or bounce or feed to sleep for a few more weeks, I think my LO started to put herself over to sleep at 14 weeks.

Hello! Well I think we've been having some beginners luck as although he didnt nap at 8 oclcock, he fell asleep on his swing as I was getting ready to go out at 10 oclock. He then slept the whole time we were out from 10.30am and he woke up just a few mins ago at home. He woke at 11.30am for a quick 15 min feed but went straight back to sleep when I put him down. So that is at already almost 3 hours of daytime naps!

I feel very guilty about his poor sleeping habits though as Ive not done much about helping him. I think the fact that DH and I are not very routine oriented is why we didnt consider it much of a problem. I will put him down for a sleep at 3pm and if that doesnt work take him out in his pram again. Thanks for the tips!

Just found this old post old post of mine and wanted to update as reading this seems like another life and I feel like a terrible neglectful mother who must have left all common sense back at the hospital.

It is so strange to read about how ignorant I was back then and shocking to think that he slept less than 7 hours in total over a 24 hour period.

Compared with how much sleep he has now I must have had a severe case of baby brain to not think it was a serious problem! If he had less than 7 hours sleep now I would be straight down to the GP!

Counting his sleep today just to compare: He had 10.5 hours last night and 3.25 naps. A total of 13.75 almost double the amount he had when he was 6 weeks!!

Anyway to update fully if anyone is interested : Between 6 weeks and 12 weeks DS had to be actively put to sleep for all day time naps (buggy, swing, rocking etc) but we finally got there and his napping got much better after 12 weeks as he started sleeping in his cot.

The length of naps also lengthened. He basically started needed a nap 1.5 hours after his previous nap. This continued to around 6 months and then the gap lengthened to around 2-3 hours between each nap, and then this naturally became 2 naps a day of around 1.5-2 hours each.

He is now 11 months and is gradually having a later morning nap each day (beginning to move into a midday nap I think). Depending on the time that this nap end means he may need a shorter cat nap around 4-5 pm. If the morning nap ends around 1.30-2 he quite often skips the afternoon nap altogether. If he has had an unsettled night however he does still have a good length morning and afternoon nap. If he has a cat nap he still manages to get to sleep at 7-7.30 so it doesn't affect his bedtime

Night times are another story however! Still waking too frequently for my liking and we are working on self settling etc.