Newborn sleep - 3-week-old

[lbandrb]

My 3-week-old is not sleeping much - definitely less than the ballpark hours I have read about. This has just been in the past week. I was attributing it to the heatwave and need for constant feeding to stay hydrated, but today is much cooler and he is feeding less but not sleeping much. Think may have been windy and got overtired. In sling right now and that has sent him off for the moment. Anyone else experienced newborns who sleep little - tips and watch-outs welcome...

My first Ds didn't sleep much. Was tired but from the off struggled to get past the first 45 min sleep cycle. Also had strong Moro reflex which would make it hard for him to go off. Had to swaddle him always in his cot and always pitch black. Sleep got much better, now 3yrs and still has afternoon nap and sleeps 7 till 7. Still though it could be midnight driving for hours and he wouldn't fall asleep. He sleep in bed in the dark, that's it.

My DD slept less than books etc said she would pretty much all the time to be honest, some are just like that (but she did have really bad reflux which was prob why). However she's absolutely fine now (20mo) and sleeps better (albeit still worse than her friends, hey ho!).

At 3 weeks I'm guessing there's not much of a discernible routine yet so I'd just say keep trying what you're doing, slings, motion (pram/car), maybe have the tv/radio on in the background as white noise? To be honest you sound like you're doing everything right by making sure he's feeding/hydrated and sanity checking about the sleep... But if he's tired he will sleep so don't worry too much!

Good luck and congratulations (and apologies if I'm a bit rambly think I'm overtired ).

Thanks KatOD and tricksybaby200. After a 4-hour cluster feed with lots of screaming every time he wasn't on the breast last night (may have been a combination of wind, overtiredness and hunger, I think!) he then conked right out and had to be woken for a couple of mini feeds in the night. Every day is different...!