1 month old sleeping pattern - should I be worrying?!

[picklesrule]

my one month old has got into a bit of a routine whereby she will sleep for much of the morning and afternoon (particularly if we are out) but will then be awake for a stretch of 6-7 hours in the evening.
She does then go down to sleep about 11.30pm for approx 4 hours, feeds, sleeps again for 4 hours which is great. My worry is whether she should be awake for such a long time in the evening or whether I should be trying to space her daytime sleeps out into the evening?
She is usually ok for some of the evening but crys for quite a bit of it although not inconsolably, a bath or a lot of walking/jiggling will keep her calm...
I am wanting generally to sort of follow her lead but having done WAY too much reading about routines etc while pregnant I am a bit worried that I am not actually doing whats best for her! Any advice gratefully recevied!

Try not to worry, as these first few weeks are really all over the place. I think I read somewhere it's about 8-9weeks old that they start to be able to distinguish between day and night.

For your sanity, I would suggest introducing a bedtime with a little routine in a few weeks - you could try whatever time suits you and see how it works for your little one.

Fwiw, I would be SOOOO pleased if my DS had ever slept as much as yours does, it sounds pretty normal based on my extensive reading about sleep (yawn) .

Personally (and probably quite controversially on mumsnet) I would give up following the books to the letter, after all the baby can't read! Instead I would let the baby sleep and eat whenever she wants to because she is just following her instincts to get what she needs.

The crying in the evening sounds like she is a bit colicky, if you haven't already I'd give Infacol at try.

PS I'd also be thanking God that the 6-7 hour stretch of being awake doesn't start at midnight

PS could she be hungry in the evening? It is common certainly for BF babies to feed pretty solidly in the 7-11 slot for at least a little while.

Sounds pretty normal tbh. She's still very little, and you should just follow her lead for the time being. She's too young for a routine per se, although you can start a bedtime routine to help with sleep association and relaxing before bed. A daytime routine will evolve over time, you can't force it but you can encourage feedings and naps to happen in certain time wondows if you see what I mean?

Is she colicky? Lots of wee ones are very unsettled/cry in the evening. I would recommend you do whatever works to soothe and comfort.

Sounds totally normal to me too! I would second the idea that she might be hungry in the evenings. Until she was about 2m my DD cluster fed practically all evening and would finally drop off at about 11pm to midnight. I also read somewhere they don't learn the difference between day and night until about 6-7 weeks. At that point it's probably worth trying to introduce a bit of a bedtime routine - feed, bath, pyjamas, another feed in dark room etc and seeing if bedtime can shift a bit earlier.

wow thank you for such speedy replies! I think she is pretty hungry in the evenings she does seem to feed on and off a lot so have just been sat with her attached to my boob most of the time which is fine! I have ttried infacol but keep forgetting to give it to her pre feed - will try and be more organised as I think it works better if given regularly is that right?
will stop worrying about it then and carry on following her lead..

Oh, the infacol, I remember it well. Yes, they say that it works best given regularly. I'm not sure it helps for every baby, but mine definitely seemed to get worse when I tried to wean him off it about 4 months, so I kept it up until almost 6 months in the end I think.

Congratulations by the way!