how much sleep....?

[starlover]

how much sleep should my 3 week old be getting?
he sleeps pretty well at night, usually only up once or twice.
He also used to sleep during the day between feeds, but the lat few days he has just stayed awake for most of the day.
Is this normal or should he be sleeping more?

sounds pretty normal. Not bad nights either. Relax and enjoy. The DT were like that. Lovely to have them awake in the day.

yeah, I enjoy him being awake in the day. he doesn't seem to be suffering from lack of sleep either!

Dear all, we are wondering if anyone may have had similar experience to us and might be able to help. Our problem is getting our 19 month old son to sleep in the evening ? he is just so full of energy and wanting to play or watch Winnie the Pooh videos! Left to his own devices he will wake up at about 7:30 in the morning but we try to wake him at 7:00. He will then start getting tired at about 1 PM lunchtime and this is where it can all go horribly wrong. Over the last 10 days things have developed such that now if we let him sleep for more than 10 minutes at lunchtime he will be awake in the evening until 9.30 ish. Whereas if we manage to keep his lunchtime nap to only 10 minutes or so we have a very grouchy toddler all afternoon. We are considering getting him up at 6.00 in the morning so that he gets sleepy earlier in the day and we can let him have a longer sleep to help with the afternoon but it is going to be a very delicate exercise to ensure that we also manage to get him down at a reasonable time in the evening. The other problem is that, last night for example, if he goes to sleep at 8.00 in the evening (which he had been happily doing) he now appears to be wide awake at 2.00 in the morning. How much sleep should a 19 month old need? Has anyone else experienced this and if so how did you handle it?

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why not experiment a bit. try and get him down for his nap at 12.30 - even if he lies there awake for a while and let him sleep as long as he wants. then get him down to sleep at night before 7.30. he may not go to sleep at 7.30 initially - but after a couple of nights he should drop off. Keep everything nice and quiet and relaxed after his lunchtime nap right through to bed time - don't let him get too hyper.

HappyMumof2, we really don?t know how long he?d sleep for in the daytime ? probably an hour or more. Do you really think he needs more sleep during the daytime? On the days when he has a 30 or 40 minute sleep in the daytime he doesn?t seem overtired in the evening: he?s happy and playful and just full of energy until he starts getting tired at 9.30. If we limit his sleep during the day then I think he is very tired and sometimes quite grouchy in the afternoon. I guess on those days he probably is overtired and obviously we don?t want him to have upsetting afternoons. It just seems to be so difficult to judge how long to let him sleep in the day such that we can still get him down ok in the evening. TracyK, we have tried taking him upstairs early, but when we are up there all he wants to do is come back downstairs and watch 'Pooh' (winnie the...) even though he's only just finished watching it! Even a Pooh soft toy isn't enough!

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Yes daddyactually we have been having this problem lately but with colds and illness you forget!! Our 17month old goes to bed at 7 the same time as his 41/2 year old brother.But recently has been singing shouting etc till 8ish!
He definitely needs his nap after a really early lunch and I am trying waking him after 1 hour. It does seem to be that if he sleeps longer he wakes and chats for 11/2 in the night sometimes! Also he is full of beans at bedtime.

My 18 month old has 1 to 2 hours sleep during the day. She sleeps from 7pm until 9am some mornings but still has her afternoon nap. Often she shows no signs of tiredness at all but we still don't hear a peep out of her once she is in bed. However she is never still from waking.

am at home now after afternoon from hell in the office! anyway, we decided to let him sleep for a full hour at lunchtime and he is in the best mood right now - very cute and extremely entertaining! My wife went to health visitor this afternoon and she said that videos before bed are just to visually stimulating to then try and get them off to sleep. we are going to try a whole new bedtime routine from now where we do video etc anytime now, then bathtime followed by stories milk and bed. we are going to try and not allow him back downstairs after bathtime and see how we go this week. we're not expecting him to go off straight away after a long sleep at lunch but we currently have nothing to lose so we'll just see how we go... Parker it sounds like you are facing exactly the same as us - good luck with yours! Harrie I hope we can get ours to do the same - 2 hours during the day for my wife would be amazing, not to mention some time in the morning as well!

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I agree with HappyMum. I have been childminding for 14 years, and have helped several parents with sleep problems(their childrens, not theirs!) over this time. Children of 19 months should have at least an hour of sleep after lunch, and still be in bed by about 7.30 after a very calming bedtime routine. No videos after 5.30 ish I would suggest, then as you've said, bath, milk, story (same quiet one every night to begin with), in to cot, say goodnight and leave. The last family I helped had 2 dds of 22m and 10m. Their mum was taking them out in the car every afternoon to get them to sleep, then spending a couple of hopurs every night lying down with them etc when they didn't want to go to bed. I showed them just HOW CALMLY to wind them down before bedtime, and they now both sleep in their cots every day for about 1.5 - 2 hours, and go to bed about 7pm every night, quite happy! So are their parents! It really is a case of 'the more they sleep, the better they sleep'. Sounds as though you are on the right track with your ds now, so GOOD LUCK and be patient. It should take less than one week from start to finish!.

I think some of our problem is that ds2 finds his bathtime too stimulating with his brother. Tonight I calmed him down while he drank his milk in his darkened room for longer and he seemed to settle much more quickly.He settles at nap time really quickly so that's why i think it must be the bath that's getting him going. I'll be interested to see how you get on daddyactually as i hour nap in the day is certainly not excessive.

So, we played outside in the garden, watched a bit of a video (MUCH less than normal), went up for a bath, stayed upstairs and did books, milk and bed. He was fast akip within one hour of going up! This was still about 8:40 but the point is that there was no fussing, tears, or wanting to play. he seemed really happy to stay in his room after bathtime and look at books and have cuddles! What a revelation! We are now going to stick with the new routine and try to gradually bring bedtime earlier until he's going down at 7.30 or 8.00. Thanks everyone for your encouragement - I know we're on the right track now. Parker, I'm glad to hear your boy settled well tonight - hope that continues for you. I'll try to remember to post updates as the week progresses! Right now, I'm going to bed as I'm knackered!

Probably too late to add my point of view, but here goes anyway. Have dt's 2yrs 3mnths. They can't get by all day without sleep, if they don't nap at lunchtime they fall asleep on the school run and then won't go down at night.(same thing happens if they sleep for 1.5-2hrs) They sleep for 45mins, I check when they've gone to sleep and then wake them after 45mins. Reasons.... read years ago when my ds (now 7) was a toddler(think it was Gina Ford) that babies go into a light sleep after 45mins so if you wake them during their light sleep, they don't wake up grumpy. It really seems to work. Hope this will help someone.

My dd is 21m and sleeps from 7 until about 8.30. I don't ever wake her, I've always let her sleep as long as she wants. She then has a nap at about 11/11.3ish, but doesn't have one in the afternoon. It seems to suit her and she goes to bed no probs and sleeps for 13+ hours.

OK, so he stirred slightly when we went to bed but other than that went all the way through to 7.30 this morning when he woke up by himself and by all accounts in a great mood! This is great so we will let him have another good nap today and repeat the schedule tonight. Can he do it twice in a row?!

Thanks for the advice toomanypushchairs. I'll continue with the shortened nap and see how it goes,it all goes out of the window when they are ill and need more sleep.Excellent work daddyactually-keep it up!

I meant to ask surfermum how long yours sleeps for in the morning?

I meant to ask surfermum how long yours sleeps for in the morning?

I meant to ask surfermum how long yours sleeps for in the morning?

sorry about that my son is on my lap and pressed return a few times!!

That's great Daddyactually. Well done to all 3 of you! Hope it continues for you. As you suggest, make it slightly earlier each day (probably about 15 mins a day) til it's the bedtime you want for him. Than you and dw will have a lovely peaceful evening! .

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Well things not quite so good tonight. He didn't go off at lunchtime till 1.30 - despite my wife's best efforts. Then he slept for over an hour and so really struggled to go down this evening. Did same routine as last night but he really fussed a lot this time. Managed to keep him in his room through it all though and he eventually went off at 9.00. We have just finished dinner and will be going to bed ourselves soon. We'll just have to see how he does tonight... We are hoping that tomorrow evening will be a bit easier as he has nursery in the morning so will fall asleep in the car at 1.00 on the way home. Think I still feel positive about this new routine and I guess we just have to keep going with it until we have a consistent breakthrough...