5 weeker routines?

[BabyCleo]

My baby is 5 weeks old, and is no longer interested in sleep-eat-poop-repeat. She has been an amazing baby, not really fussy and she is happy to eat then go back to bed for 4 hours. She is now sleeping mostly through the night (11pm- about 5am) but now she wants to be up more during the day I think.

Im so confused, yesterday she was up from 530am-noon. She had a huge meltdown in the evening (but I think that was due to being gassy) but she still slept really well last night.

What are your 5 week old babies routines? Should she only be having 2-3 naps during the day? Im also starting tummy time/playmat time and shes pretty happy to just lay on her back and coo so I can make a cup of tea/fold some laundry.

Advice? Im a new mum and so confused lol.

 

[LoraLoo]

Just go with it, sounds like your baby is lovely and content, I'd be in no rush to 'set' a routine as sounds like she's falling into one by herself, which is the best way imo. What a lucky mum you are 😊 x

 

[Loozle]

My dd is 5 months now but when she was that age she would stay awake for a maximum of an hour before needing to sleep again, otherwise she'd get overtired. Now she naps 3 or 4 times per day.

 

[BabyCleo]

Thank you! She looked overtired yesterday after that huge stretch of being awake. My mum was shocked when I told her. Shes gone back down now, maybe when she wakes up and feeds ill just see if she goes to sleep after an hour or two. I feel like she enjoys being awake more lol.

LoraLoo- Thank you, I feel lucky

 

[Kristalebear1]

My LG girl wakes 2 maybe 3 times a night still but she's breast fed. Usually she sleeps 3-4 hrs. We start settling her at 9, she sleeps from about 9-1, 1-4, 4-7 then she's up for a bit and back down around 8. She will sleep small stretches between an 30 mins to two hrs and be up 15mins- an hr in between. But she's up an hour max, maybe hour and a half but by then she starts getting really over tired and fussy.

Currently my LG is a mommas girl, she wants to be in my arms at all times, we co sleep as she wont go down alone and cosleeping makes breastfeeding a breeze, will only fall asleep in someone else's arms if she's nodding out when I hand her off, or if she's in her sling.

Dont worry about a schedule, she knows her internal clock. The only thing I'd do is watch out for tired cues, because if she's forcing herself to stay up past when she's tired you may have a cranky baby. I'd look for signs and start easing her to sleep if she shows obvious signs of being tired but not wanting to sleep.

 

[BabyCleo]

What would tired cues be? (I feel so stupid for asking that lol)

 

[Button#]

My DD only lasts about an hour and a half before needing to nap again, but all babies are different. Most of them get fussy in the evenings, that's pretty normal.

My baby's tired cues are yawning, eye rubbing and when her eyebrows go red.

 

[BabyCleo]

Thank you! Yeah her fussy time is now, 6-9pm ish. It just took my husband and I 3 tries to get her down, she was yawning like mad too. Thanks

 

[Julesillini8]

Agree with what others have said. I wouldn't worry about a schedule per say, like a certain time for naps etc. but there can be a sort of routine from when they wake, it is common for them to be up and alert for 1 hr to 1 1/2 hrs at that age. Then sleep, even if it's just a 30 min cat nap that's fine and normal. My baby is 8 weeks old and is awake 90 minutes then snoozes, sometimes 20 minutes ( I have two young, LOUD girls...) sometimes 2-3 hrs.... It varies. But from when he wakes up I feed him, then he has alert " playtime" then snoozes.. Then repeat. No specific times, just based in when he wakes up. I believe what I do is called the EASY TECHNIQUE.. ( eat, activity, sleep, you time! Or as I like to say YAHOO! Although I have two young girls now so not so much me time lol) Just thought I'd let you know what I was doing.. I've done it with all three of mine from about 4-5 weeks old and carry it on for a bit until the baby naturally falls into a certain nap pattern ( which mine have done around 4 months old, certain times when they would sleep for like 1-2 hrs mid morning, afternoon, and a little one in the evening).

 

[coz]

Im similar to above post, my baby is 4 weeks and i have noticed a pattern of when awake but he only sleeps for around 1 hour to 2.5 hours at the most then hes awake, during the night he does fall back asleep but sometimes its hard to get him back to sleep as he seems a bit grizzly or will only sleep on my chest then when i put down he starts crying again. In the day he will be awake for around 1.5 hours and then nap and just repeats this and again he can nap for 1 hour or a couple of hours . I just go with the flow x

 

[SarahBear]

The melt down was likely a result of being overtired. That's too long to be awake for a baby that age. And there are no routines with a baby that age...

 

[ElizabethK_]

To me it sounds like your baby was overtired with that melt-down.

She's a bit young to be having 2-3 naps a day. At that age they can stay awake for about 1hr and after that they seem so lively and hyper - but that means that they are already overtired.

My attempts to get a baby schedule took some time but basically the E.A.S.Y (Eat.Awake.Sleep.Your time) routine (from another website) helped me put things in order.

Basically you have to make sure that you find out (if you don't already know) what your baby's sleep cues are and make sure as soon as you see it (yawn, rubbing eyes) it's time for a nap!

Don't have too much of a schedule though, she's still young for something harsh. Just make sure she's eating well, and she's not getting overtired and your happy baby will continue being happy.

Also don't worry about her sleeping too much. I've read that sleep begets sleep so let baby nap as much as she likes!

 

[BabyCleo]

Thanks! I actually had no idea she was too young for a routine. Shows what I know!

Ive been really paying attention to what you ladies said about sleep cues and its working! The second she starts to yawn, I pop her down and begin to get her to sleep. Shes been much better. I don't really try to keep her up now either - she was really not willing to go down today for about 2 hours but then went down real fast when she was ready lol.

Thank you all SO MUCH for your help. Things are a bit easier now!