Day time sleep for a 5 week old

[alexx2]

Looking for advice please for my 5 week old (born early term and is v small, 2nd percentile) who will sleep well over night in 2-3 hour bouts but who I'm struggling with in terms of day time sleeping. He tends to get up between 8-9:30 and feed. We usually have some awake time before he wants another feed about 30 mins later and then is sleepy. However, all morning he seems to only sleep for 10-30 mins at a time, and usually more happily on me/someone than in his day crib and wants to feed every 45mins-1 hour, whereas overnight he can go 2-3.5 hours between feeds. In the afternoon I usually get him down for a longer nap, c.2:30-4pm but have to resort to a dummy to make this happen as I'm usually shattered by this time and need a wee test myself.
My questions are:
is short times between feeds something I should expect/accept during the day at this age?
Should I be trying to regularise his day time sleeps? How long should he be going down for, when?
Any tips on getting LOs to sleep in crib/Moses basket during the day?
Thanks for any help and advice you can offer.

If it's any consolation I have a similar situation myself. My 5 week old only sleeps in sling for any length of time in the day - pretty knackering doing 2 hr walks all day! I can get her down in crib with a dummy too but sleep is short and she screams if the dummy slips out. This is my second child and my first was the same except she loved the buggy - so still the same issue of walking all day! I think generally at this age they are awake an hour feeding etc and then need to sleep. Feeds are around two hours apart. You could try to build a little routine around this - following baby's cues too. It's hard - they need sleep but won't sleep! With the naps if you anticipate baby will need sleep an hour after waking you could try and get her in a dim room, rock and feed her a bit before and see if that helps her to go down? Sometimes works for me but mostly doesn't and I end up putting the sling on!

Sounds very normal, OP - short naps and frequent feeding are par for the course at that stage. Mine didn't sleep longer than 45 minutes during the day until she was 6 months old. And always in my arms 😞 A good sling really helps.

Thank you to you both for reassuring me. Am worried that I'm responding to his cries by too quickly offering a feed. Having read a bit of the baby whisperer I'm now worried I'm missing some other need he has. Tried the EASY routine today - I.e not feeding him to sleep. He got into a light sleep twice by walking and rocking him but woke up v distressed and I've just caved and fed him. now he's happily asleep in my arms!
Cel982, did you have difficulty transitioning your LO to sleeping in cor once 6 months? Guess I'm worried about building up bad habits. I feel so clueless!

I am a massive advocate of EASY but wouldn't consider it until 12 weeks or so, out of the newborn 'fourth trimester' phase.

Your baby is just getting used to being alive. Literally does not realize he is a seperate being to you. Milk is a natural sleep inducer and at this tiny age all baby does us just eat and sleep, pretty much. You may have a little window of 20-30 minutes awake time, but mostly that will be taken up with feeding and napoy check anyway.

By all means follow a pradictable structure to your day, if this helps you. For example

Feed
Wind
Nappy check
Cuddle, play, awake time
Check if any extra milk is wanted
Swaddle, dummy, comforter (as required)
Gentle winding
Put down to sleep
Back to the start and repeat, repeat, repeat

But certainly don't stick to it obsessively or anything. Follow baby's lead.

FATEdestiny, thank you!! That's really reassuring to hear you think EASY should start around 3 months. I was worried I was building up bad habits, patterns with him and then wouldn't be able to get him into a routine later. I like your idea of a predictable rota of phases to go through but really want to be baby led and do on demand feeding so reassured to hear this is probably a good idea at this early stage.
Thanks everyone
X

OP just wanted to say that I found 5 - 6 weeks a really difficult time, especially with naps. Babies tend to go through a mix of some quite major development at this point combined with a growth spurt. For my DS this led to a very difficult couple of weeks! Not hugely practical but still comforting to know!

Thanks sandsnake,is comforting to know others have experienced similar. Will just try to relax and enjoy him!