Daytime naps at 8 weeks (part 2)

[milkmoustache]

I previously posted about this and have been thinking about everyone's advice - now I need a bit more please!

My 8 wk old sleeps brilliantly at night, but I think we need to get some more structured daytime naps, at least when we are at home, as she does sleep very well whenever we are out and about and always goes off in the car/papoose. She certainly gets grumpy in the afternoons but doesn't seem to want to sleep then, so I need your thoughts on how to alter her routine.

Currently she sleeps from 7pm till about 6.30, feeds then back to sleep till 9.30/10 am. She has about 6 feeds every day, ending with a couple of cluster feeds at about 5.30 and 6.30 to get filled up before bedtime. I have heard that it is inadvisable for babies to sleep after 3pm if they are to go to sleep at 7pm - what is your experience?

My main question is: should I be waking her up much earlier in the morning in order to fit in a proper long sleep in the late morning, OR should I be aiming at getting two short daytime sleeps in, say mid-morning and early afternoon? I feel completely confused... and sad at the thought of losing the chance of getting up and organised in a fairly calm way before DD is awake, though I guess I'll have to bite the bullet! Any thoughts would be appreciated.

at 8 weeks old your lo can probably not stay awake for more than 1.5-2 hours at a time without getting horrendously overtired - which does make them more unsettled and harder to get to sleep in the first place. (my dd was about 5 months old before she could stay awake for more than 2 hours at a time)

The 'not letting your lo sleep after 3pm' normally applies to older babies and toddlers as as they get older, too much daytime sleep can impact on nighttime sleep. p.s. my dd wasnt really affected by a late nap as she seemed to need a certain amount of sleep per day and it didnt matter what time of day she actually slept.

The only thing I can suggest is to have some calm playtime after the daytime feeds and to start heading for a nap no later than 2 hours after the previous nap ended. If you wanted, you could also use 6.30am as your lo's morning wake up time and start your day from there i.e. feed and let your lo stay awake for a short while before heading for naptime, rather than putting her straight back to bed.

Do whatever you and your lo is happiest with.

babies this age need around 16hrs of sleep, so from your query baby is sleeping 13.5 hours so she needs another 2-2.5 hrs in the day.

This can be 'structured'or adhoc, i tend to [in my job] put babies to sleep for a morning and afternoon nap so as she is having am sleep would look at 1-3pm each day and continue this nap to toddlerhood, but do wake at 3pm and her regular bedtime should remain the same.

hope this helps, i haven't read part1.

at eight weeks my ds was only awake for 2 hours at a time. So he would generally get up at 6.30am-7am, be awake until 9amish go back to sleep for at least an hour, then awake for another 2 hours and so on throughout the day. I wouldn't worry about your baby sleeping after 3pm.