How much is too much sleep for an infant?

Question

My daughter is 7 weeks old. Of course for the first month she slept all of the time pretty much, but then she started to stay awake for longer periods. The past 3 days she has wanted to sleep off and on ALL day. I have tried many ways to stimulate her, talk to her and play with her, and put her in many different positions, but she just closes her eyes on me. At first I was worried about her not sleeping at night because of all the sleep she had during the day, but she seems to be sleeping ok, waking up to feed. Am I worrying for nothing?? Why do you think she is so sleepy? Any input would be greatly appreciated!!

Answer 1

Baby's sleep that's what they do....they are growing...the need that rest. Let your baby get all the sleep she wants..just remember baby's like routine....try and keep to a consistent schedule for her during the day and night time.
Enjoy her.....and don't worry...it's perfectly normal that she is sleeping so much. The older she gets the less sleep she will need.....

Have fun

Answer 2

Could she be feeling bad? Maybe the start of a cold or something? Or have you added something to her diet, such as baby cereal?
At 7 weeks she cant sleep too much unless she is missing feedings or if Diabetes runs in her family, then I would get her checked out. She is still pretty young to be staying awake for extended periods of time, but all babies are different, some sleep a lot more or less than others.
If you have a gas cookstove, waterheater or gas heat be sure to check that the pilots are all lit so no gas is escaping to make her sleepy. Also if you use gas, do you have a working carbon monoxide detector?
Has she had any immunizations recently? Or is she on any medication, including over the counter stuff?
Anything could be making her sleep more, but I would just keep a close eye on her and if she doesnt seem to feel well, take her for a checkup. A lot of flu is going around and I hope that is not the problem but its a good idea to keep her away from people as much as you can till the flu season passes.

Answer 3

She'll be fine. I have 3 children, and am now experienced. She's only 7 weeks old, so for now sleep is her best friend. Babies need a lot of sleep while they're young. At this time she's still growing, and needs a lot of rest. I'll say when she's about four months old you'll start to really notice your baby's sleeping pattern changing...Slowly but surely she'll start staying up for longer periods of play. Before you know it you'll be wanting her to sit still more. Especially when she hits around 15 months. No need to worry, but when I had my first baby I was the same way. Congratulations on your new baby girl!

Answer 4

My daughter just turned a month old today, it is perfectly normal for them to sleep as much as they do. Simply because they expend great amounts of energy in growing. Remember when you wanted to sleep all the time when you were pregnant? Its along the same lines as that.

You were incubating a baby, which in turn made you tired, because believe it or not your body was working up a sweat doing that even when you were sitting still. You daughter is doing the same thing, she is working up a sweat while she is sleeping or lounging around the house with you when you feed her play with her etc.

It will be okay I promise! Take this time of sleep in stride to get some much needed stress relief for yourself, as well as spending time on what you want to do, because before to long, you won't have two seconds to yourself!

Answer 5

Almost everyone is saying the same thing here and I agree. 7 week old babys can't sleep too much. Count your blessings on our first two kids we didn't get to sleep through the night for 3 years! No kidding. The third one seemed to sleep more.

Answer 6

Let the baby sleep...when the baby sleeps it grows.
Enjoy these times and sleep when the baby sleeps or u may be really stress out.
The baby will be more awake by 3 months old.

Answer 7

Very young babies need lots of sleep, it isn't unusual for them to be fully awake for more than 3 hours within a 24 hour period and that is because they are either hungry, wet or uncomfortable. As she gets older her periods of wakefulness will grow and she will become more social in her interactions with you and others.

I'm a mother of two young men and helped raise many other children, including 8 younger siblings and did a lot of babysitting.

Answer 8

Until my daughter was about 6 months old she would sleep 14 hours a night (7pm-9am) and then take a 3-4 hour nap around noon-ish. We asked our pediatrician about it and she just said it was just our baby's way. Also her daddy sleeps like it's an olympic sport and he's training for the gold so we figured it was just partly genetics.

Answer 9

my ped told me newborns shud not sleep more than 8 hrs(empty stomach).if your baby is feeding every 3-4 hr (bottle feed) or 1 1/2- 2 1/2 hrs (breastfeed) then its fine,. let her sleep as long as she wants. actually she is not sleeping. she just likes to keep her eyes shut and dream( like how even we adults do. laze around in bed, eyes shut.) my baby does that all the time, even at 9 mos. after 3-4 hrs i keep calling out to him, suddenly he smiles with eyes shut (its funny). i directly pick him up. initally he will whimper, when i quieten him he'll be bright awake and start playing and smiling etc. you can actually find out if your baby is genuinely sleeping or is just lazing when you call out to her or you nudge she will have a slight frown on her forehead. so just pick her up and either change diaper to wake her up or directly push the bottle or breast into her mouth, she will start sucking gradually. as moms ofcourse we shud worry. it is but natural, we have a huge responsiblity and no training. and there are no guidelines to what is right, what is wrong.

Answer 10

No such thing as too much sleep for a 7 week old. Let her sleep she obviously needs it. Trust me, you will be begging for her to sleep when she gets a little older. Babies that age usually sleep 18-20 hours per day. As long as she is eating I wouldn't worry.

Read this website http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sleep.html