11 weeks old and very short day sleeps

[tenar]

I'm wondering whether DD needs to have longer sleeps during the day than she is doing, and how I can help her to do this.

Her night sleeping is excellent at the moment. She goes to bed for the night between 8 and 9pm usually, wakes up for the day around 7-8am, and has one feed in the middle of that (3.30-5am, generally). Her times aren't the same each day, but that is the general idea.

During the daytime she has been feeding every two hours. She feeds, then we play until she seems tired (her first tired sign is either a yawn or rubbing her eyes), then I put her down to sleep. She sleeps for 30-45 minutes, usually, then she wakes and gets more and more wakeful until she starts crying (if we get that far), and feed her again and repeat. Often she doesn't get as far as crying, of course. She always seems interested in feeding and often takes milk from both breasts.

I think her day sleeps are probably too short, but if we are indeed confined, for the time being, to feeding every couple of hours, I don't see how I can help her to sleep for longer. If I put her down before she seems tired she doesn't sleep, but gets bored and demands attention anyway.

Any suggestions? Should I worry about this or just go along with this kind of pattern for now?

[Ozziehoffy]

hi!! Haven't seen you about for a bit. You know, I think you'll find that to be quite normal for bubs at this age. Oskar did it and Elijah seems to do it too. It's not very often at all that he sleeps more than that at a time. It's how long the sleep cycle is - 40/45 mins. Some people seem to be able to pat bub back to sleep but not me, mine seem to think that awake is awake..lol. I feed every 2-3 hours during the day and he seems to want to sleep after being awake for approx. 1ish hours. We have a bit of play time then feed then depends... play then sleep or sometimes straight to sleep.

You might find a sling or carrier to be helpful ... just thought of that cos the other day Elijah was being unsettled and went to sleep when I put him in carrier. My motto with shorter sleeps during the day though is if they're sleeping well at night I don't really mind what happens so much during the day!

[Mumma2three]

DS is 4 months now and we still never get more than 40 mins day sleeps. We dont get much more than 40 mins at night either, so at least your little one is getting a decent sleep then. Sometimes I leave DS a while to try to resettle, other times I might use a sling, but mostly I just let him have about 4 short naps a day xo

[Arcadia]

Its perfectly normal for bubs to have shorter sleeps at this age. My DD did too and then started having longer naps again for a few months.

Now we're back to shorter naps. Just go with it...its easier than stressing about it!