should I keep my baby awake in the day

[elliegirl]

My two and half week old has her days and nights mixed up.

Should I keep her awake as much as possible or wait for her to work it out on her own?

No i wouldn't, just follow her lead. It's really early days and she'll adjust in time. You can follow a simple routine keeping nights calm and quiet and day sleeps in a brighter area to help distinguish. If you keep her awake you'll both end up very stressed. It takes a few weeks for them to start distinguising the difference.

Sorry if this seems short, I'm in a rush.

i think most new babies do have them mixed up. my ds1 didn't work it out til he was 8 months old. ds2 is 9 weeks old and is now sleeping 8pm til 2am which is wonderful... i do last feed in the dark in bed, then transfer him to his cot, with tomy winnie the pooh lights and music thing, and after 15 mins or so of mumbling he falls asleep. HOWEVER, not sure if its this routine or just that he happens to be a good sleeper.

i think she is too early tbh. I started trying to introduce a bedtime routine with dd at 4 weeks with a bath and quiet feed with light off and putting her in cot at 7pm. She was pretty good at this a week later. I think it's par for the course for the first couple of weeks until they get themselves into day and night mode! Although my dd been asleep since 9.30 and she 13 weeks!

You can't, in my experience. Newborns need lots of sleep and it is perfectly normal for them to do this during the day for quite some time.

I'm sure there is something about them not usually staying awake for more than 2 hours, so I think you would struggle to keep her awake all day!

Just try to rest during the day when she does, then you will be more able to cope with the night.

And the advice of dinstinguishing between day naps and night sleeps is also good.

Way too early for this - let her do her thing for now. Much less stressful for you both to go with the flow, ime.

Also i used moses basket downstairs for day sleep and up in our room in the dark for night sleep.

meant to say, if you're breastfeeding it's very normal for baby to be more awake at night as this is when you're milk comes in. If you post on the bf'ing boards you'll get a better explanation.

PS first few weeks are trully exhausting but it will get better

Many thanks everyone. I'll see how it goes over the next few weeks.