How long should my 4wk old be awake for at at time?

Question

At this stage I am feeding her approx every 2 1/2 to 3 hours and she awakes from sleep hungry. When I feed her, she drifts off to sleep again without much wake time and other times she stays awake hours at a time and gets very upset because she becomes over tired? How long should wake time be and does this include the feed as well? I understand she is still learning as she is so young, but is there anything I can do to help her have a better wake and sleep cycle?

Answer 1

At 4 weeks old, she'll probably only have about 45 minutes of waketime including eating at a time. We used the book On Becoming Babywise to help us establish a flexible schedule with both of our children. There's some controversy surrounding the book--which I never heard until I'd successfully used the method twice--but you may want to glance through a copy at a bookstore to see if its something that might help you. My baby is now 6 months old and she's still not awake more than 2.5-3 hours at a stretch.

Answer 2

sounds like she's perfectly normal and as far as i know there's not much you can really do to improve things. all babies are definitely different and at 4 weeks old most have no sleep pattern whatsoever other than hopefully sleeping more at night than during the day. as long as she is alert shen she is awake, you have nothing to be concerned about. by that i mean, you should be able to engage her in some way for a few minutes but, not necessarily anything more than that. you will probably see a big change over the next couple of weeks. by 2 months old, many babies are "taking naps" as opposed to just sleeping most of the time and eating most of the rest of the time. they will develop a more predictable schedule of sorts. i remember when my son was only a few weeks old, he stayed up for like 5 hours in a row which i was amazed at and then about 2 weeks later he increased it to 8 hours in a row! this only happened once, most of the other times he would stay awake for an hour or two at a time. My daughter, at 2 months old, would alternate between tired days and awake days -- she'd go for a day having about six 20-minute napsand that'd be all. then the next day she'd have two 3-hour naps to make up for it. By the time I got to know the pattern, it changed of course. at that age that's just about how it works!

Answer 3

Your baby will sleep as long as she needs, and other times will have long periods of wakefulness, both are normal

There is a very well respected pediatrican T. Barry Brazelton, long retired, who had a show called "What Every Baby Knows" He is a strong advocate for allowing babies to learn to settle themselves even at such an early age. Sometimes it hurts emotionally to let them fuss at all but its a mommy and baby learning period. You can both learn from each other and let your baby teach you how to be the best mom.

Answer 4

small babies spent 80% of the time asleep. Their bodies are going through changes and it really takes it out of the sweetie. The older the baby gets, the longer she will be awake. Give your babies a light and gentle massage, they bond to you and really benifit from it.

Answer 5

They will go to sleep when they feel like sleeping.

Remember, these are not dolls. They do not break. ;)

I am the proud father of seven healthy children.

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