Need ideas to keep baby awake in the evening for a few hours so he sleeps between feeds at night

[aamia]

LO is 3 weeks old. He has a lovely habit of sleeping 6pm to about 2pm, then being wide awake, bored and creating if not played with until about 4.30/5am. Then he'll sleep until 9ish. Whilst in an ideal world I'd just go with it, DH has to get up at 5am for work so needs his sleep, and I'm getting so tired I have to just put him back in his cot and let him create or I'll fall asleep with him on the sofa by about 3.30am. Not good.

We have found though, that if we're busy in the evening (shopping, round a friend's house...) between say 7.30 and 9.30 or even a little later, he sleeps beautifully with just the usual wakings for feeds and nappy changes. Everyone wins that way - he's happy in his cot, we're happily asleep, and he settles straight back down after feed and nappy. Problem is, running out of ideas to keep him awake for those vital few hours. You can only visit friends so many times!!

I agree that 3 weeks old is too early to be bored, or need to be entertained, or be played with. Lonely maybe, bored no. In my experience (with DS1) overstimulated overtired babies look like they're having a great time!

But, my 11 week old has black & white contrast books in her cot and she spends a lot of time looking at them (it's partly to encourage her to sleep different on sides of the head). She can't really go longer than 1.5 hours awake until she needs to be in her cot where she chills out and then drifts off when she's ready.

So I would say do what works for you, but be wary of overstimulation! After about 6 weeks he won't just drop off whenever he needs to.