How much daytime sleep for 6 week old?

[Tinkjon]

DS still seems to be in the sleepy newborn stage - he is often only awake for a few hours in the daytime and has sleeps of 4 or more hours at a time. Does this seem normal? I thought they'd outgrown the sleeping all day thing by this age? It doesn't seem to affect his nighttime sleep - he's a nightmare to settle, regardless of how much sleep he's had during the day!

Sorry, I should have added that he'll be 6 weeks old on Thursday...

Bumpity-bump...

Tinkjon - congrats on your little one. Many babes at 6 weeks still need lots of sleep. DS during week 7 had about 4 days of being awake for about 6 hours per day max ... growth spurt I think.

Any other reason to be concerned about DS? If not, enjoy as, to use a MN phrase, its just a phase and will pass.

Iwansmum, I was wondering if less daytime sleep would mean he'd be easier to settle in between feeds at night. The one day he did stay awake a lot he was still no better that night though...

DD slept (what seemed like) all the time until she was about 3 or 4 months old. People used to ask if she was real! There was nothing I could have done about it anyway and like you ds if it's not affecting nighttime then yes it's normal!

Oooooooooh I hate you all!

Somebody told me that at that age, they can only stay awake for 2 hours maximum which I always found useful in helping recognise what DS wanted.

My mum always tells me that my brother, when he was a baby, would literally wake up to feed and then sleep for hours, then wake up to feed and then sleep for hours etc - so he just slept all day and all night from what I can gather.

So I guess they are all different.

Tikjon - I don't think it makes much difference to nighttime sleep(though I'm not an expert) providing a baby does sleep during the day. Otherwise a baby gets overtired which makes nighttime sleep harder. DS (now 17 weeks) varies all the time in how much sleep he needs though generally sleeps ok at night (though woke 5 times earlier this week which didn't impress me much as he typically only wakes once or - on a bad night - twice now). Somedays daytime sleep is clearly for wimps in his way of thinking but does still have some.

One thing I did read was that babies who are taken outside for part of the day, especially if between the hours of midday and 4pm (though not necessarily for the whole time) were twice as likely to sleep better at night. This doesn't guarantee your baby will sleep better at night but the odds are more stacked in your favour.

The (up to) two hour rule ceebeegeebies mentions was one of the best tips I read as well, though DS doesn't always agree with it .

the 2 hours awake rule has always worked for me...and at this age its often less.

DD is now 18 months but she would be ready for a nap 1.5hours after waking. and as she fed for an hour at a time, it meant there was little awake time inbetween. DS is 4 weeks and exactly the same

in one book - i think its called "healthy sleep, happy child" (or something like that) by dr marc weissbluth - he claims that babies who sleep well in day are more likely to sleep well at night. makes sense....nothing harder to settle than an overtired baby

enjoy it....at about 12 weeks their sleep patterns often shift dramatically

Thanks everyone, good to know it's not that unusual then!

Iwansmum, that's the 2nd I've heard the thing about taking them outside in the afternoon - does it matter if they are asleep in that time though, I wonder?! Common sense would tell me that they need to be awake then, to experience the 'daytimeness' part of it, but DS would go to sleep as soon as he was put in a pram.