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Sleep

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Original poster

How do you manage newborn naps - wake them or let them sleep to prevent overtiredness

12 replies

Jellybabie3 · 30/10/2017 09:24

Curious as i have been given conflicting advice. Some say keep him awake to sleep at night, others say let him sleep during the day so he doesnt get overtired at night. I have a 3 week old ds. Atm i am aiming to cuddle him all day during naps and be led by him but sometimes it's difficult to not need to wake him ie answer door, going out (he wont be put down alone) so i wonder if these sleep interuptions are making him more cranky.

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Steeley113 · 30/10/2017 09:28

What's the reason you won't put him down for his naps? Surely that's a happy medium for you both? He can sleep as much as he needs and you can get on with whatever needs doing.

ownedbySWD · 30/10/2017 09:30

Sling naps were the order of the day at that age with mine. At about 4-5 months old they tended to prefer sleeping alone more and more.

Steeley113 · 30/10/2017 09:30

Oh I see he won't be put down. Swaddle him up, wait until he is fast off (at least 20 minutes) then put him down somewhere warm with one of your tshirts.

FATEdestiny · 30/10/2017 09:32

In this neonatal period (first 4 months) baby shoukd be sleepibg pretty much all the time, day and night. Wake ups will involve something like feed, wind, short (5-10m) floor time while you nappy check, back into swaddle, see if more feed is needed (or give dummy) and back to sleep.

So awake time is largely just feeding them back to sleep. This is over 24h a day.

For the rest of the newborn period (up to 3-4 months old) baby might have slightly more awake time between daytime sleeps compared to night. But it still won't be much, maybe only 30-45 minutes awake at a time.

There's no need to wake baby unless you have issues with baby gaining weight and need to encourage feeding.

FATEdestiny · 30/10/2017 09:34

Correction: neonatal is first 4 weeks (not months)

Original poster

Jellybabie3 · 30/10/2017 10:45

Ah ok so this is where we have messed up. I know yesterdsy he had atleast two spelks of awake for maybe two hours. One to take for a walk. The other to have a bath and some daddy play time (after a 2 hour sleep). I guess i need to squeeze on baths etc when hes awake.

He grunts and wriggles SO MUCH in sleep.....

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MrsBriteSide · 30/10/2017 10:51

Never wake a sleeping baby

At 3 weeks old all my DD would do was sleep, wake to eat and then sleep again. Letting her sleep in the day has never meant she's been awake all night. Even now at 6 months she can power nap at 5pm and still be ready to go to sleep at 6.30pm bedtime.

You do need to keep an eye on baby's awake time in the day, too long and they can get manic. If it's been an hour of awake time you really need to proactively get baby to go to sleep or all hell can break loose. I didn't realise this until at 6 weeks DD has been awake a few hours and she turned into a screaming mess where I had to rock and breastfeed her for hours in a dark room with white noise before she would go to sleep. Never made that mistake twice!

Original poster

Jellybabie3 · 30/10/2017 11:01

Yeah thats what happened to us last night which meant dh also went manic lesosn learned.....we just have to adjust all our times to his clock!!

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MrsBriteSide · 30/10/2017 11:05

It's awful when they get like that isn't it? I remember DH and I staring at each other in horror wondering what that hell had happened to our relatively chilled out baby. Then I came on this forum and found the advice about short awake times. Thank goodness we found that out!

I know some people whose babies don't seem to sleep at all during the day and they sleep through the night apparently. That doesn't feel right to me though. They're developing so rapidly they must need a lot of sleep breaks to process it all.

Original poster

Jellybabie3 · 30/10/2017 12:01

Yeah it was awful. Now i need to concentrate on getting him to nap and managing dh expectations when he gets home..

Ds seems to like being awake at times so this wont be easy!! Is it normal for them to writhe and grunt when sleeping? Hes noisy and seems constantly on the brink of waking.. Not easy to sleep myself when I'm listening to him. Bless him

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arbrighton · 30/10/2017 20:18

yes grunting and wriggling normal. Ds legs used to thrash up and down.

it gets better, he's now sleeping still and quiet for up to 4 hours at 4 months

Lelly0503 · 30/10/2017 21:07

My ds used to be so noisy, at night only in the day he used to sleep silently but at night it was like sleeping next to a farm. It wasn’t until I realised he was actually asleep that I left him alone. Aparantly it’s thier digestive system settling down. Now at nearly 8 Weeks he’s much quieter, he makes the odd sound but I actually find it reassuring, at first when he went quiet I would wake up in a panic and check he was still breathing!!

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