Realistically, is your newborn (7 weeks) going down for naps every 3 hrs after their feed?

[valerie22]

My 7.5 week old has been pretty good w naps so far. So good that in the beginning (first 3 weeks), she would even nap up to 5 hrs and I thought I hit the lottery..until week 4 where she started to cluster feed from midnight to early morning and I realized that her day and night was switched. Those two weeks or so was pretty bad trying to figure things out and I did successfully switch her day and nights by cutting her naps down to no more than 2 hrs each and going out during the day exposing her to sunlight more.

Well since then, I was expecting her night sleep to naturally stretch but we’ve had a few random 4-5 hr stretches but mostly it’s been 3-4 hrs or sometimes even 2 hrs for the second half. To the point where I’m feeding her still at 6am and gotta wake her between 7-8am (so we do it around 7:30) and feed her to meet the 3 hr schedule (next feeding is 10am).

I’m still pretty much waking her from her naps and with everything she ends up sleeping about 1-2 hrs each time. And her last nap from 7:30-9pm is also getting done but more like 8-9pm. Bath at 9, feed at 9:30 and 10pm sleep.

Last night, for the first time ever, she didn’t fall asleep at 10 and we had a hellish night where she didn’t sleep until 1:50am and that’s cuz I put her on the breast again (after dad fed her more than 150ml formula) and just slept w her in the bed. Even that was nerve wrecking worried she wouldn’t. Usually, she had zero issues going down at night in her bassinet. Almost seamless. She’s always drowsy after her feeds. Day naps I tend to wear her a lot to sleep these days.

So here’s my question. Realistically speaking, do you actually get to have them nap every three hours intervals and do you actually get to nap that last one before their actual bedtime? And did that lead to longer stretches at night?

I eventually want a 7pm-7am schedule and I’m still always wondering if she’s napping too much that it’s hindering long sleep intervals at night. I know it’s pretty normal as they say. But my first was doing 5-6 hr stretches starting around 8-9pm or 9-10pm by now (or earlier) and it wasn’t this much effort.

FYI I’ve been doing “12 hrs by 12 weeks”book initially (did it w my first) and then added Moms on Call schedule (the evening schedule mostly as u was already doing every 3 hrs but 1 hr forward) since week 6. But I want to settle back into the 12 hrs by 12 weeks schedule of feeding every 4 hrs starting week 8 as they say we can start but not sure I can at this rate. Please any past helpful experiences similar to mine and you were able to?

UPDATE: so turns out, she is going through the 8 week sleep regression. Just had the hardest time putting her to bed again tonight. But I also figured out that she’s ready to move on to rhe 8-16 week schedule cuz it turns out she was already doing it. But did not succeed in putting her down at 7:30 lol but at her normal 10pm but just took forever. Here’s a reference that fit exactly:

https://thebumptobabychapter.co.uk/melatonin-the-reason-babys-stop-sleeping-at-8-weeks/#:~:text=A%20baby%20doesn't%20start,the%208%20week%20sleep%20regression.

So producing her own melatonin now. A huge task. Ready to help her meet her needs. What’s a little sleep loss when this is happening.

 

[david03]

@valerie22 My son is 8 weeks and this is exactly where we are at in the mornings (waking up at 6 and then feeding at 8). I attribute this to him not getting a complete feed because he's still sleepy first thing.

I don't wake him for feedings. I let him let me know when he's hungry. His naps are as long as he needs. We're feeding about every 3 hrs in the daytime and every 1.5-2 hrs in the evening, as I think he's getting tired and cranky. I also give him a nightly bottle which usually gets me a span from 11-5/6 that he sleeps without feeding.

I think it's entirely personal decision how you approach it. Even as a clinician, I tend to think that babies generally know what they need (at least in terms of eating, sleeping, and play). So long as he's growing well and gaining weight, I'm going to continue to let him guide us.

Not sticking by a schedule and following his lead usually gets me a 3 hour daily afternoon nap followed by a nice few hrs of wake time in the evening, and he's ready again for bed around 9.

I will note that if he's asking for the breast and I notice he's just suckling for love, I'll let him for a few min and move him to the pacifier and cuddle him on my lap.

 

[valerie22]

@david03 Has he ever gone beyond 2 hrs? See I used to just let her be first three weeks and then she started to sleep past 2 hrs like even 5 which is why I had to take measures.

 

[david03]

@valerie22 For what it's worth, the recommendation to wake babies for feedings isn't always applied if they're gaining weight appropriately. They're doing a lot of growing during their sleep.

He's definitely gone longer than 2 hours on occasion.

 

[texfire316]

@valerie22 FWIW, every two hours would make my 5 week old cranky, we were told to wake him every three hours at most.

 

[christ_our_lord]

@david03 My 7 week old came up with his own schedule. He goes to bed for the night around 10pm and he usually demands a large feed (6oz), then he’s down until 2am, sometimes 3am. Then he eats another 5oz and is up at 7am. At 7am and throughout the day he eats 5oz, at about 3-4 hours in between feeds.

He typically naps at least once in between each feed, sometimes he sleeps right into the next feed and then sleeps again. The around 7pm he typically stays awake until he goes down for the night around 10pm.

I don’t ever wake him for feeds, I follow his lead

 

[bethlehempriory]

@valerie22 Nope. I just feed on demand. I nurse when mine wakes up and then nurse to sleep. Mine is close to a 7-7p schedule mostly by mistake. I'm following my toddler's schedule actually and the newborn is just here for the ride.

 

[amen247365]

@valerie22 My kid is 12 weeks and I've only just started trying a schedule. Previously we followed her cues on feeding and sleep. She started sleeping longer at night on her own around 8 or 9 weeks, and from 10 weeks she's quite consistently been sleeping from 10pm to 6am.

 

[valerie22]

@amen247365 Can you tell me what that looked like when you just followed cues? I’m sure you saw a pattern emerge..cuz I manually had to cap naps since she was doing more than 2 hrs usually

 

[ebuzi]

@valerie22 At 7 weeks I wouldn’t be worrying about sleep this much. I’m following cues this time around (second time mom) and it has relinquished a massive amount of stress. My postpartum experience has been SO much easier and enjoyable since I’m not stressing about sleep. If baby is tired/fussy then let them sleep. Mine is sleeping large chunks of the day, but waking up to nurse often and then dozing again. At 12-16 weeks I will start to implement some sleep stuff, but for now - following baby’s lead!

They are growing exponentially right now - sleep is so, so important!

 

[amen247365]

@valerie22 I kind of had the opposite problem, she usually takes 30 min naps so her total hours were always under the recommended number. Her feeding is more consistent, 2 hours apart, then 2.5, now moving towards 3.

 

[christianmarine442]

@valerie22 7 weeks. Not forcing any kind of schedule. Just meeting his needs as he asks. He sleeps 2-3 hours for contact naps during the day. We get a 5-6 hour stretch from midnight until morning. We’ve been trying to get him to start bedtime routine at 7. He unfortunately likes to be “active baby” as we call him and wants to fight bedtime between 7 and midnight. We usually get an hour nap out of him in that time and by the time he’ll actually go down for the night he’s over tired. He’s a major FOMO baby and I think because my husband doesn’t get home from work until about 6 he’s wanting to be awake with my hubby.

 

[texfire316]

@valerie22 French person in the US here, I think 7 weeks is too young for a schedule right? Focusing on making sure they know day and night, yes, but forcing a nap schedule during the day seems like hell to me.

 

[valerie22]

@texfire316 Well when I say schedule, I just loosely mean they are eating every three hours and I cap
Naps at 2hrs. The only thing I really got advice for was the evening..like when to consider it bed time and when to give a bath. But yes I’m flexible with it.

 

[jessicastone]

@valerie22 Baby is 19 weeks now so we do a fair bit more of capping naps and routine than before.
But we always used to cap naps in the day at no more than 3 hours. We also used wake windows as much as we could although honestly when baby is that little the wake window can sometimes be like 15 min, sometimes 40min, so I’d use sleepy cues more than anything else/
As for a feeding schedule no, we fed on demand though we’d loosely aim for every 2.5 hours. But he is EBF (bottles) so there’s not a really limit given for breastmilk I think

 

[justpassingyou]

@valerie22 What helped us get to the 7-7 schedule was following sleepy cues (more than 4 yawns, red eyebrows, fussing), and waking every 2 hours. We start our bedtime routine at 6-6:30 every night and make sure to get at least outside (could be the back porch for 5 minutes) everyday, and when he naps before 3pm all the curtains are open and we live like normal and make a lot of noise, after 3pm it’s curtains closed and a quiet space.

Every baby is different! This is just what I did from day one that helped our schedule!

 

[blessedjule]

@valerie22 You could use an app like huckleberry. It can be very useful to gage wake windows if their cues are not clear.

 

[mattgreen84]

@valerie22 TLDR; I don’t think you should wake sleeping babies as long as they’re above birth weight and gaining appropriately. Get your sleep. Ignore the schedule. My little is also seven weeks if that helps.

To be quote the book “precious little sleep “ :

Parents are often advised to wake Baby more often during the day to teach that day is for play, night is for sleep. But waking a sleeping newborn just leaves you with a tired baby who wanted or needed to sleep and now is awake and unhappy about it. Further, it doesn’t even resolve the night party issue... and may make it worse. So what can you do? For starters, have faith that the developmental process will happen: your baby is going to get days and nights sorted out, and that night sleep will consolidate just fine with or without your help… Over time, your long stretches of being awake at night will get shorter—not because of any mystical strategy on your part, but because as your newborn matures, so does their circadian rhythm… A Note on the Newborn Night Party and Too Much Napping. If you have a particularly snoozy older newborn (2 months and up), it’s easy to be concerned that your baby is up all night because they’re sleeping too much during the day. This is so rare that I hesitate to mention it. The odds are overwhelming that this does not describe your newborn. Most newborns sleep so much during the day because their body is developing at a fantastic rate, their circadian rhythm is undeveloped, and they need to sleep. If, however, your older newborn is napping vastly more than suggested by the guidelines presented in this book and is resolutely waking up and staying awake for long periods in the middle of the night, you may want to consider gradually shortening their nap duration.”