8 week old daytime naps

[Gigitree]

Hi
Should I be waking my 8 week old from her daytime naps or just letting her sleep as much as she wants? I see so much conflicting info about what is best.

Typically she will have a short nap in the morning depending on when her nighttime wakes were. Then she will have a really long afternoon sleep of 3 hours or more. I’ve not idea how long she would sleep for if left but we typically wake her after 3.5hours as she has normally then gone 4+ hours without a feed and I want to make sure she’s getting enough feeds in through the day.

Then in the late afternoon/ evening she will probably have a couple more naps anywhere from 1-2hours.

Should I be gently trying to get her into a nap routine or should I let her just sleep as much as she wants whenever she wants.

Typically her daytime naps are on me, but sometimes in her car seat/pram or occasionally I successfully transfer her to her sleepyhead.

For example today:

5.30 - 8am sleep - snuzpod in our bedroom

10 - 13.10pm sleep - partly in the car and partly on me. woke her after 3 hours from this one for a feed

14.20 - 15.05 - car nap

16.25 - now - sleeping on me.

Am I over thinking this? Should I just let her sleep as she needs to? Or should I try and stop her napping so much in the day and see if she’ll go longer at night?

Thanks

At 8 weeks I personally would just go with her flow, well as much as possible as it’s not always possible 😊.

Thank you @OverTheRainbow88 I think I’m just overthinking everything

It’s a minefield isn’t it! I must say I found it much easier when they drop to 1 or 2 naps as it’s easier to fit into the day!

You’re doing a fab job during a ridiculously hard time 😊

My eight week old was like this and I started waking her to try and get some decent awake periods during the day. However I did this because she was up every 1.5-2 hr at night and I wanted her to try and do more night sleeping and less day sleeping. So I think it depends how the night sleep is.

Thanks @Seventytwoseventythree
She’s ok at night, normally does a 3 hour stretch followed by 2 2 hour stretches.
She deffo does sleep longer stretches during the day though.
Did waking them in the day help with the night time wakings? How long did you typically let them nap for in the day?

Thank you for your kind words @OverTheRainbow88 ❤️

My 8 week old also sleeps longer stretches in the day than the night too. I generally let him sleep as and when he wants.
The exception is if he's been asleep for more than 4 hours, then I will wake him otherwise it seems to massively impact his feeding schedule.
It's really hard but I think at this age I'm just going to follow his lead and worry about a routine when he's a bit older.

Yeah I think you’re right there @Rosebel
Some babies seem to fit nicely into a routine and others don’t, so I think forcing one too soon is just going to cause more anxiety than it’s worth x