Newborn with super long wake windows?? Should I be concerned?

[jonathan787]

So my LO is almost 3 weeks old. She sleeps really well at night generally. She’ll start going down after feedings around 7pm and wake up every few hours to feed until 6 or 7am. But then she’s a w a k e. I know newborn wake windows are supposed to be like 30-45 minutes apparently but that’s certainly not the case with my baby. She’ll usually go down for a nap in the afternoon for an hour or two but that’s after fighting it all morning and getting fussy I assume from being overtired from being awake for 6 hours lol. I try to take her upstairs and make it quiet, ect but she just fights sleep during the day. I mean it’s nice she sleeps well at night I just feel like she should be sleeping more than that at 3 weeks old. Is this normal?

 

[katrina2017]

@jonathan787 This is my boy exactly. He's 5 weeks old- we brought him home at 3 weeks from the NICU and this has really been his schedule since he came home. Even if he has a rough night and wakes up more than his usual 2 times he is wide awake at 7:30-8am. And he might nap once or twice for like 30 minutes if we're lucky. We really have to try everything in our power to have him nap for a few hours during the day. He just loves being awake. As long as baby is eating well, not running a fever or anything I'd imagine it's fine. You may want to ask your pediatrician if your concerned but sounds pretty normal.

 

[treythan123]

@jonathan787 My baby was the same. I tried EVERYTHING for months, then gave up and accepted that he just didn't need as much sleep as the guidelines suggested. He was always happy, rarely cranky/showing tired cues, and growing very well. He's now 19mo and still has longer than 'normal' wake windows, short(ish) naps, and usually only sleeps 10-11 hours at night. Our lives got a lot happier & easier when I stopped trying to force him to sleep and just relied on his cues.

 

[daughteroftheking89]

@jonathan787 My 2 week old is doing something similar. I noticed that once he wakes up in the morning at like 6am, he’ll be wide awake until like 11am and then will finally nap for maybe 45minutes-1 hour and then will start sleeping longer in the afternoon and night. I’ve also been trying to stick to wake windows but in the morning it just doesn’t work and he’ll get mad when I try to put him to sleep.

 

[angelicawoods]

@jonathan787 Our little one went through pretty much the same thing. We were becoming very concerned about how large her wake windows were...but the problem has generally resolved itself over time. During her first month she was having wake windows as long as 4-6 hours and would just refuse to sleep. Now she is approaching 4 months old, she has a very consistent bed time and she will grumble up a storm as soon as she has been awake for 2 hours demanding to have a nap.