8 week old and too much daytime sleep - what do/did yours do?

[MissusRabbit]

DS seems to sleep lots in the day so just wondered if this was resulting in his rubbish up every 2 hours at night cycle??

Today he was awake from 6am to 10.30am with only a rubbish half hour nap, then since 10.30 has been asleep, now for 5 hours and still zonked, (i woke him after 2.5hours for a feed and he went straight back). This is a typical day. Most days he'll be awake an hour or two before bed at 7pm. Sleeps til around 10now then up every 2 hours - I'm shattered! How can he sleep so well in the day and be rubbish at night.

I try waking him but it just doesn't work.

He naps in the day downstairs as i don't want the day/night confusion thing. I'll have to wake him again for another feed soon, but he has no problem waking me for a feed at night

Interested in a response as in a similar sitution...

could it be that he still hasn't properly distinguished between night and day?

Do you have a proper 'bedtime' routine etc? We implemented a bath, low lights, massage, story and bed routine this week and it has worked wonders!

We've done the bedtime routine with bath, quiet time etc since we brought him home. And as i say he naps downstairs with all the light and noise etc. In the middle of the night i use no lights, don't talk to him and only change him if necessary. His first part of the evening is normally good - anything from 3-5hours, then it goes rapidly downhill after that.

I;ve tried feeding lots in the day, made no difference,so today I'm trying to space out his feeds more and see what that does. He's BF but sometimes only feeds for a matter of minutes. The longest is 15-20mins.

DS2 is very similar (3 months old but was a month early so similar age really). I think he's going a bit longer between feeds. However don't take daytime naps for granted, a lot of babies find this difficult to do. Perhaps to make your nights easier could you sleep when he sleeps? I can't really do this as I have a toddler too!

How would he be if you tried to keep him awake after a feed? Does he get overtired very quickly?

My DS2 seems to be sleeping better in the day than at night - sounds very similar to yours at night but doesn't go as long for his naps. He usually wakes after an hour but will then be tired again half an hour later, so has lots of naps!

Have you thought about trying some sort of routine? Along the lines of baby whisperer, whereby they eat, have awake time and then sleep on a regular cycle. So if you feed him every 3 hours, you could base it on that. Keep him awake after his feed for around an hour and then let him sleep for an hour and a half at a time.

Hope that makes sense?!!

My DS slept loads in the day and rubbish at night. Then by 12 weeks he got his days and nights the right way around.

Be careful that your bedtime routine isn't too stimulating making baby overtired and wakeful at night. We interacted with DS more at bedtime by having a busy routine which I think made things worse until he was old enough to not get so overtired.

I'd suggest taking your baby out in the early afternoon - out in the sunshine, so walks in the park, coffee with friends etc etc. The times I did this with DS he slept better at night as he'd sometimes wake up to see what was going on (before falling asleep again!) At night he'd then sleep for 5 hours. I didn't notice this until I looked back at my notes (yes I was sad and kept notes!!). Paradoxically if we had visitors playing with him after 4pm this would overstimulate him, so he'd not sleep properly at night.

I have read that babies learn the difference between night and day (so you get the 5+ hr stretches at night) much quicker if they're exposed to the early afternoon sun...

I would have thought that at 8 weeks its pretty normal for babies to sleep lots during the day??

Thanks all...

I can't sleep in the day much due to DD & DS but have got some early nights in instead.

I know its normal for babies to sleep lots when they're newborn, i just worried that by 8 weeks he should perhaps do a bit less, and therefore help his nights. Don't want to get complacent and let him nap too much IYKWIM.

I tried routines with DD & DS1 and got a little obsessed and stressed about them, so was hoping to chill out a bit this time .