How much sleep does a 7week old really need?

[Duckie]

Anna is 7.5 weeks old now and I was wondering just how much sleep she needs? I'm not really complaining, but she had a feed at 7.40 this morning then put her down to sleep at about 9ish - had to wake her up for a feed at 11.15 as she didn't take much earlier. She was falling asleep at the breast and then we went out for a walk at 12.00 - she slept the whole way and is still asleep now. Is this normal? I know she's still only very young, but I thought she would have longer periods of being awake now.

I expect she'll want feeding again in the next hour or so, but she's normally so sleepy after feeding so very often sleeps a few hours in the afternoon too. She's usually awake in the evenings or sleeps on us, as we don't have any real routine yet - we just put her to bed at the same time as us (about 10-11ish) and she'll go down nicely. I usually get up to feed her around 2am and 6am though several times this past week she's only woken once for a feed around 4-5am.

I should mention as well that she had a bang on the head a couple of nights ago - DH lifted her off my lap to put her in the baby carrier and smacked her head into the light fitting above me :-( . We took her to the hospital to get checked out and both the nurse and doctor we saw said she appeared to be absolutely fine. SHe's fed well since then and I haven't noticed any problems, it's just that she does seem to be very sleepy today. How much sleep did your LO's have at this stage? Thanks everyone :smile:

PS. I don't know anything obviously, but are these signs that we should start implementing more of a structured routine? We've allowed ourselves to be very much 'baby-led' up till now and things are settling down more into a pattern, but nothing structured at all yet.

[Azana]

Sounds normal tbh - S used to often do that. By now she seems to have some days where her naps are half an hour long (3 to 4 of them) but today she has had about 3 hours in total so far today (a one hour in the am and 2 hours midday).

Don't worry she'll be awake much more very soon!

[popinjay1]

I wouldnt worry. Quite often they sleep more when they are going through a growth spurt.

[Duckie]

She had 5.5hrs sleep since 9am - is awake now but looking very sleepy. How can she possibly be this tired :puzzled: ?

[S-J]

I can remember when Jack was 6 weeks old asking my HV about sleep - he slept loads! It seemed like he slept all day at that age!

[minigirl]

Lois used to sleep loads (still does actually) and at that age was probably only awake for 4 hours a day.

[glitterygirl]

Ollie still has about 6 hrs a day & he is 11 weeks old! I can't keep him awake!

[Madwife]

Sounds line to me. Some babies just need more sleep than others. Ivy sleeps sooo much :ellie:

[Duckie]

Hmm, I'll stop worrying then - I've just established that she only sleeps when I don't want her to, and when I want her to sleep she's absolutely wide awake :rolleyes: . She's not had nearly so much sleep today - just wanted feeding every 3hrs or less instead but that's a whole other story!

[choccy eating monster]

You are lucky she sleeps so much!

My LO only has a couple of short naps 1 x 30 min and 1 x hour in the day. I never get to catch up on sleep.

cem
xxx

[bisy backson]

they still need 18-20 hours sleep around this age (apparently) which means they've only got around 4 or 5 hours of waking time (including feeding) which isn't much really.

rem's only just really started settling into a pattern during the daytime and having slept 7-6 ish (not straight through mind) at night he'll still sleep 8-10ish, then 11-1ish, 3-5 and still be ready for bed around 7/8

often they can only be awake for 60-90 mins at a timeand that includes feeding

it sounds very normal to me

bbxx

[cherry fizz]

Toby still sleeps 5 hours a day now, and he certainly followed a similar pattern to what you described earlier - and you're right, its always when you want them awake they decide a nap is good :lol:

[tigger71]

Emily slept a lot for the first two months also - almost constantly at first, then she'd have awake periods in the morning and evening but sleep a lot in late morning/all afternoon. After that she gradually started to be awake more. Now she has a 30min nap in the morning and a longer sleep in the afternoon - anything from an hour and a quarter to 3hrs!

You'll probably find she spends more time awake during the day over the next couple of months (especially once she gets the hang of night-time) but at the moment I wouldn't worry......