Is my baby sleeping too much?

[citymama]

I know I shouldn't be complaining - I'm not. But I want to make sure it's OK that this kid sleeps like 20 hours a day! She's 7 weeks old, and sleeps (it seems) a LOT. She seems to sleep a lot more than I remember with DD1, who was way more fussy and colicky, but also (IIRC) had longer spells of alert, wakeful time.

Since the last few days, DD2 has started taking solid, long naps - 11 am - 3 pm, 8-midnight, and about 1.30 am-5.30 am (roughly these times - changes day to day). In between, she naps intermittently most of the time. Wakes up, nurses, naps, diaper change, alert for about 30 minutes, and then gets fussy and wants to nap again. Then we spend like an hour trying to get her to nap. So basically, she's either sleeping or trying to get there, most of the time, with maybe 3 hours of alert time in total during the day. Does this sound right?

[AnnieW625]

No I think that is normal. That was my schedule with DD1 until I started weaning at 3 mos. (and started getting formula at night); then she'd sleep straight through from 9 pm to 5:30 or 6:00 am.

FWIW, here is DD2's schedule:
first morning feeding is usually sometime around 5 and 7, alert for a little bit, maybe 30 minutes, unless it's 5 then she'll sleep again until 7 or 8 when it's time to eat again. Eats 2nd feeding and then sleeps till around 10 or 11. The middle of the day for us is pretty erratic but her naps are usually no more than 90 minutes (currently trying white noise, and the crib soother), however most nights she is asleep by 9 pm and sleeps until that first morning feeding between 5 and 7. So honestly I'd rather have the night sleep than the middle of the day if I had to chose, but I am still trying to get her to nap a little longer in the afternoon.

[c&j04]

I know they're all different but I'm willing to admit to a little jealousy:)
DS has been napping for a max of 4 hours total during the day for several weeks. He goes to sleep around 9pm, wakes at 2:30 or 3:30 for diaper and bottle. After that he wakes up every 2 hrs for bottles until 8ish. And his naps often are about 20 min maybe 2x before late afternoon when he can sleep maybe 2 hrs.
How do you keep a baby occupied that long when they can't do much of anything?? :)

[swissair81]

Wow! Enjoy the peace & quiet mama.

[Indianamom2]

Ds#2 was pretty close to that around that age. He was (and still is) a good, solid sleeper. I wasn't sure if it was normal or not either, because DD#1 was (and still is) a terrible sleeper.

Enjoy it. Cherish it. Revel in the beauty of a good sleeper! :cheerleader1:

[egoldber]

How is her weight gain? If she is gaining well, I wouldn't worry. But sometimes babies sleep like that when they are not getting enough to eat. This was what my older DD did.

[Indianamom2]

How is her weight gain? If she is gaining well, I wouldn't worry. But sometimes babies sleep like that when they are not getting enough to eat. This was what my older DD did.

Ah, Beth does bring up an interesting point. My Ds#2 had weight gain issues too, but not until a little bit later on.

[citymama]

How is her weight gain? If she is gaining well, I wouldn't worry. But sometimes babies sleep like that when they are not getting enough to eat. This was what my older DD did.

She's been gaining weight well so far - started out at 6 lbs and is now close to 10 lbs. But this sleep pattern of longer naps is fairly new, since the last 4 days or so, and I hope it isn't resulting in less milk consumption - I have no idea how much she's getting. Seems to be the same during the day, but less at night since I've been waking up engorged.

Why would insufficient food intake/ low weight gain result in more sleep? I always thought bigger babies slept longer and better, and that one of the reasons tiny babies wake up more frequently is to nurse.

[egoldber]

Usually, hungry babies do wake up to nurse. But sometimes hungry babies sleep instead of cry, because it conserves calories. My older DD would do this because she wasn't latched well and didn't have a strong suck.

It's less likely in your case, but this is what I would be concerned about. So maybe weigh her after a few more days?

[boltfam]

My 8 week DD went through a stretch like that for a couple of days. I was a little worried, too, but she's back to a more normal schedule now.

[JTsMom]

It sounds about right to me. We're 3 weeks behind you, but that's about what it's like here too. Every once in a while, we'll have a longer awake time, but it seems like the majority of the time we're doing the eat, get to sleep, sleep thing, and DS is packing on the pounds like crazy, so it's not a weight gain thing here.

How's your diaper count?

[KrisM]

DS2 did that for a while. I was worried about weight gain, but he was fine and kept on his curve fiarly well. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

my babies were sleepers. I had to wake them up to nurse. They never once woke up and cried to eat. It was as Beth said, when they were hungry they stayed asleep.

I woke them approximately every three hours to nurse for the first two months or more. By two months I was letting them sleep longer at night, maybe five hours. And I had to keep them awake to nurse by blowing on their hair etc. or they would fall asleep before they got enough to eat. And by the way, my son was 9lb 8oz at birth and my daughter was 8lb 6oz, so it wasn't that they were small. Even at that size, they still needed to eat enough.