Do day sleeps affect night sleeps yet?

Rachel - posted on 05/20/2011

Hey Vuyiswa- I wrote back a long response but I guess it didn't post :S
My son has an older sister (who's 26 months now) to lpay with so she is always talking to him, showing him toys, all kinds of stuff and he stares at her, taking in everything she does :)
To keep him busy and most importantly alert! durng the day I take him outside in the sunshine for fresh air but not in the stroller as most babies will fall asleep. Tummy time is great for getting excersize for the baby and tiring them out at the same time. I sing, dance really just involve him in everything I do during the day so he is watching and curious. If I have to do paperwork, I put him in his chair and have him face me and I talk to him the whole time to keep him active and awake. I also have wrist rattles (its a small rattle often sold as characters, a multi-coloured strap with a sun or w.e on it, or a yellow one with a duck etc etc 100s out there i'm sure! but they are velcro bracelets with a character on them that rattles when they shake their limb) So whenever your child is moving around a lot in their chair, these rattles are great! they also have mitten ones and booties too! The baby is facsinated by being able to make sounds by themselves, stimulated by their own movement so they can play for a long time! (you'd be surprised!) Its also great for calming a crying/ cranky baby! unless something is actually wrong ie: dirty diapers, spit up, gas or hunger etc. The baby often just needs to be distracted! They will forget what they were fussing about and focus on the rattle and their ability to make sounds :)
Otherwise I do a lot of tummy time as i said (there are interactive mats sold all over the place with toys, mirrors- a favourite with most kids! and tons for them to do) 10-15 minutes at least a day is good for a baby, before they eat to avoid spitting up of course, but its great excersize- they learn to scoot along and support their heads very quickly with regular tummy time excersize :)
I have a ton more suggestions but not much time with the 2 kids so I'll post more later when I can remember what I originally typed :P

Vuyiswa - posted on 05/18/2011

Guys what am i doing wrong my 2month old baby refuse to sleep in her cot during the day and night. she only sleep in either me or daddy's chest you put her down she wakes up. Rachel what do you do to keep the little 1 entertained

Emily - posted on 05/17/2011

My son is eight weeks as well and is still sleeping a lot during the day. He has two sometimes three awake times that are substantial in amount, but the rest of the day he's sleeping. He's awaking once in the night for a feeding.

Ariane - posted on 05/16/2011

Ah it's already here Liz! why oh why was I caring! embrace the sleep! Felix is def more aware now and sleeping through the day - not so easy!

Liz - posted on 05/13/2011

My son was always a catnapper, taking frequent short naps -- so consider yourself lucky!



It's totally normal for 2 month old to sleep a lot during the day, and to not be able to stay up more than 1-2 hours. (If he was 8 months old and taking a 3 hour nap in the day, I might say wake him up after 1.5 hours -- but not a 8 week old.)



Sleep is when they grow and develop, and there are just so many growth spurts and little milestones at that age.



Enjoy it while it lasts because at 3.5-4 months, there's usually a horrible sleep regression.

Rachel - posted on 05/13/2011

i know that babies are more acctive now, smiling etc, so being up more in the day usually comes naturally. I let my little one sleep when he needs to but i try to kepp him up rather than wake him up from sleep. now he's up 8-10 hrs a day and sleeps from 9 p.m-1 a.m, 1:30-5, 5:30-9 so in 12 hours he wakes twice but feeds just before and right after. He is up most of the day and cooing and smiling most of the time (6.5 weeks old) i thin that he sleeps well at night and not just 8 hours, a solid 12 hr block of noticable sleeping, i think its because around 7 when he statrs to dose off, i keep hi entertained until 9 in the evening and it pays off :) I've been doing this sinc ehe was 4 weeks and its working well so far. So i dont think waking the baby up is totaly neccessary but keeping the baby awake alert and entertained will help! :)

Rosalie - posted on 05/13/2011

My baby just turned 8 weeks old yesterday. He slept alot during the day in his first 4 weeks but slowly started sleeping less during the day and more at night. Now he goes to bed between 7 anf 9 pm and will only get up once during the night, like between 2 and 3 am. I'll feed him at that time and he goes back to sleep right away. He'll then wake up around 6am and stay up most of the day. They are still too young...let him get as much sleep as possible. But do try to interact with him as much as possible during the day. This will make him more tired during the night nd he will sleep longer. This is very helpful especially when ur a working mom like me...I go back to work on monday :(

Elisa - posted on 05/12/2011

I agree Jennifer. I was reading something not too long ago discouraging interupting the baby sleeping during the day. They said that it will not make them be able to sleep better at night, but worse. I'd let them get the rest, thats what babies do. :)

Jennifer - posted on 05/06/2011

I don't think so, not yet at least. At this point he's still at an age where he needs a lot of sleep. When my younger daughter was that age she used to sleep for four hour intervals. She did this at night, too, until she started not being full enough, then I had to give her baby cereal lol but that's another story.