How much should a 4 week old sleep?

[whizzy1980]

My DD2 is 4 weeks old on Monday and she is a big sleeper. To the point that I am now wondering if I should be doing something to get her more awake. (I know, I know I should enjoy it whilst it lasts!)
DD1 was terrible at sleeping from day 1 so this is all new to me and not sure how much sleep is normal/too much?
Today for example DD has been asleep, other than feeds and nappy changes from about 1.30pm and is still snoozing now 7 hours later.
She is waking herself to feed and has really decent amounts, so I'm not worried about it from that point of view.
I wonder if she has got her day/night really back to front? She is a bit more awake post 10pm usually. If this is the case how can I change this? DD1 is a pretty noisy almost 3 yo so it's not as if it's quiet during the day!

DS slept 20+ hours a day until he was around 5 months old. DD didn't sleep at all ever

Congratulations.

My 7 week old is just starting to have awake time during the day. She was at her most awake at 4am every single morning and I just made sure I got out and about in the afternoons each day and spent most of the time near the windows so it was bright and then night times as dark as possible and it seems to be working at switching day to night.

Yeah it's loads as I recall. They basically wake to feed, get clean a bit, and do a little bit of face staring.

I don't think you should worry if she's rousing herself for food.

For the first 6 to 12 weeks basically it is just a case of wake for enough time to have a feed, nappy check and maybe a quick cuddle then straight back to sleep.

Many newborn sleep problems are actually caused by an over-enthusiastic parent keeping baby awake far too long and not allowing baby to get the rest needed in the 'forth trimester'.

The evening awake time is normal too, often from a desire to cluster feed.

Thanks all. I thought that you were going to say that, but it's all so different from first time around that I was doubting myself!