Is it madness to wake a newborn?

[Sunflower999]

I've got a couple of friends who used to wake up their newborn babies every 2 hours during the day for nappy change and feed and to help them learn the difference between night and day. My daughter is two and a half weeks old and I've been waking her during the day but not sure if this is the right thing to do; maybe its better to let her sleep as long as she needs?

I never woke mine. They always woke themselves for feeding, nappies, etc. However, I did try to get them outside every day so that they started to understand the difference between night and day. I also played with them when they were awake and kept things noisy and bright, and then quiet and dark at night.

Daytime is the loud light chatty time!
Nighttime is dark quiet and boring!
Unless your baby is prem and u have been told to feed them so frequently (I was) then I just left them to sleep!

MADNESS. I totally got the twitches if DD was sleeping a long time but they will wake when hungry etc so I wouldn't worry and taking them outside in the day and keeping them in the dark at night time will teach them night or day. They need so much sleep when they're tiny

I read somewhere not to let them sleep for more than 3 hours in the day (fat chance with mine) and lots of daylight, even if they're asleep.

I tried to follow the contented little baby routine when my ds was a newborn. That sort of involves waking them up..... It drove me mental as my ds was virtually impossible to wake!!
Didn't last very long..... Let them sleep!!

I did when they needed a bf. Didn't like them sleeping for more than 3 hrs in the day in the early days. I had more energy to cope with bf and getting them latched on in daylight.

I remember my midwife saying my newborn should be woken to be breastfed. I can't remember if it was every 3 or 4 hours. It was for the first 6 weeks.

I would take your baby out and about a lot.

My second got the difference a lot more quickly and I'm convinced it's because she was out more as I had a toddler to entertain. I didn't deliberately wake her, her day sleep was just more disturbed as I had to move her around from pillar to post.

Whereas with ds (my first) I just let him sleep. I should have got him out more!

I woke mine to feed during the day. I figured if they didn't get at least six feeds in between say 7 and 7 there was no chance of them going for longer stretches at night. It worked, they both slept twelve hours by twelve weeks (and one of them by eight weeks.)

For normal levels of sleepiness I would say let them sleep, they figure out night and day soon enough.

I had an excessively sleepy newborn though who was almost impossible to rouse for the first couple of weeks, and we had to wake him by whatever means necessary (running feet under cold water!), including during the night.

Thank you so much for all your advice! I had been taking her outside a lot during the day and with a two year old there's plenty of noise around. Today she wouldn't go to sleep anyway so there was no shall I/shan't I wake her up! Once the school holidays are over it will be back to mummy and baby groups etc so she'll be carted around a lot more, and I guess sleep will have to fit in as and when, rather than everything revolving around her sleep. Ahhh blissful sleep - have forgotten what it feels like! Thank you again X