One month old not sleeping much during the day

[Sterla]

My DS is a little over one month old. He sleeps fairly well at night, usually having a 4-4.5 hour sleep, waking for a feed, then sleeping for another 3 hours. But during the day he just doesn't seem to want to sleep, or at least not for very long. He will fall asleep on me and I'll put him down in his bassinet, but it never lasts long - 15 minutes sometimes, an hour at most if I'm lucky. He generally doesn't act overtired, but I just thought that a newborn baby would sleep more than this. Is this normal, and is there anything I can do to get him to sleep for longer? Or do I just have a baby who doesn't need as much sleep?

[[M]umma[M]ia]

have a look at the Karitane website, it has a thing on there with how much they should be sleeping at what age.

My understanding is bubs have 40 min sleep cycle, so i have always been told to try and re-settle if the sleep is longer than this. Easier said than done i know.

[Shanti]

Sterla, my bub is the same. She hardly sleeps at all during the day and she's 6wks!! Some days she will sleep 2hrs at a time but that's rare.... it's hard sometimes like today she hardly slept unless she was in my arms. I try all different types of settling.... I wrap her, hold her, rock her, swing her in the swing, and some days she just doesn't want to sleep!

Whoever said newborns sleep 16hrs out of 24hrs is wrong!! My DD never has!! although night time she is pretty good.... I'm happy about her night time sleeping. Can sleep for up to 5hrs straight sometimes.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

[Olive]

how long is he up for before you put him back to bed????
bubs this age only last around an hour and that time included feeding,burping, changing ,settling.
maybe try putting him down earlier

[2CheekyMonkeys]

just keep perservering. DD was the same, i got all stressed out trying to make her 'conform' to what babies are 'supposed' to do. one thing that i learnt from that time is things change. you will find that you just get him into a good pattern that you are both happy with and for some reason or another it will change again. this baby time doesnt last forever and you will get through it.
:-) oh, one thing that i realised also about my DD is that with all her awake time she had more time to practice and learn and so was quite quick in reaching all those milestones.

[~Trish~]

how long is he up for before you put him back to bed????
bubs this age only last around an hour and that time included feeding,burping, changing ,settling.
maybe try putting him down earlier

Yep, my DS2 could only handle 45 minutes of wake time at this age (and yep, that included feeding, etc), as soon as he showed tired signs I'd wrap him and put him straight to bed. It felt like I barely saw him!

DS1 was a poor day sleeper unless I held him so we bought a baby hammock and it changed our lives! I could put him in it and bounce him off to sleep and he would sleep for much longer in it.

[DANNIIM]

My DS is also like this! He only really started doing it from the 6 week mark onwards though. DS does sleep from 8pm-5am normally so i can't really complain, i feed him and put him staight in his cot awake around 8pm and he self settles and do you think he would do the same during the day....nope! To make him sleep during the day i normally lay down with him in my bed for a breastfeed and he sleeps that way for a couple of hours at least!
Oh try not to force the situation too....sometimes bub will sense you are tense and will in no way co-operate!

[Shanti]

Trish - that hammock is great!!!! DD loves hers! She quite often will fall asleep on her own in it as we put her in when she's sleepy but not quite asleep.... and she'll lie in there awake for a bit and then fall asleep... its so comfy for her. She's growing so fast though now it looks so small for her and she looks huge in it even though she's only little

My DD wakes at say 2pm for a feed and feed time takes say 40mins including burping and then she won't settle again until 330pm sometimes 4pm! And by the time she's settled it's time for her next feed again.... so sometimes its hard. But like her parents, she's a VERY alert and active bub. I think that's just her nature.

[~Trish~]

I would classify my DS1 as a very alert and active bub Ren! He came out that way and has never changed . The hammock rocks doesn't it? I wonder how big your one is? The Amby ones are quite long and DS1 slept in his until he was almost two . I couldn't get him out of there, he loved it LOL!

[Sterla]

I have to laugh . I posted this thread yesterday after many days of DS not sleeping much - and today he's been sleeping heaps and not having much wake time in between sleeps. These babies are so unpredictable .

[Olive]

so very true hun!! glad he's sleeping better for you!

[2CheekyMonkeys]

just be prepared for the change.. :-)