Should I try to enforce wake windows?

[ifihavetomove]

I have a 3 week old and she's my first so I'm just figuring it all out. Generally I think she has a great pattern she's developed on her own, at night she sleeps from about 11-3 then we feed and change then sleeps until about 7, we get up and feed and change etc then she has another big nap. A few naps in the day too.

The thing is she is awake from around 6-11pm and gets a bit fussy in the last couple of hours. According to wake windows a baby her age should be awake for 90 minutes at a time, not 5 hours! She's brilliant the rest of the time and I'm happy with her night sleeping but should I be trying to make her nap during this evening time? If so how???

Just go with it - very young babies do go to bed late and it all sorts itself out by 3 months. Trying to enforce anything is futile. Babies are supposed to do a lot of things according to books but unfortunately babies can’t read

Have you tried walking her about etc? It was about 2/3 weeks I realised with my first that they can need help getting to sleep.

If she is getting fussy then she’s likely over tired. 5 hours is a long time for a 3 week old to be awake.
As for the how to get her to nap, can you not use the same method that you use for her other sleep? Or have you tried and it doesn’t work? She may be over tired if she is struggling to get to sleep after being awake for more than 2 hours since a baby her age typically does best with 60 minute wake window. Try putting her to sleep earlier and you can do that by trying lots of things and seeing what works best. I.e. dummy, sling, pram, bouncer etc