Baby sleep advice needed

[Diannam]

My baby loves to stay awake frequently for periods of time around 4 hours. He is only 2 weeks. He starts to doze off in my arms and usually as soon as I put him down he starts to fuss. Is 4 hours too long to be awake? Any advice to get him to fall asleep not being held?

 

[ElmaWG]

Four hours does sound like too long, I think.

Try waiting till he enters "deep" sleep before laying him down. If swaddled, you'll likely be able to lay him Down just fine. Takes about 20 minutes of "light" sleep after falling asleep to reach deep sleep (there are technical names for these types of sleep but I forget.) In light sleep, baby's eyelids move, they may make facial expressions, and breath deeper. In deep sleep, eye motion stops and breathing is slow and shAllow.

Hope this helps!

 

[Teri7489]

Hey, yep 4 hours is too long for a new baby to be awake usually. Like pp said, have you tried swaddling? A lot of newborns don't settle well unless snug as they become scared. They are used to being all snug and tight and all of a sudden are thrown into this huge world which can be very scary. My dd slept on my chest for the first 3 weeks and wouldn't settle otherwise. I swaddled my ds from day 1 and at 3 months can self settle as long as he's snug xxx

 

[MindUtopia]

At that age, we just held our daughter or wore her in a wrap. I think she might have slept in the moses basket once for 20 minutes? From around 6 weeks, she would sometimes sleep in the swing as I needed to pump in the morning during her nap. Otherwise, she was held or worn and that worked well, and helped a lot with nighttime sleep. We started to put her down for sleep around 4 months and that was a smooth transition, but I didn't see any real reason to do it before then. I just made sure I had a drink and a snack and the tv remote within reach if she was tired. Swaddling is another option, and some people hold them til they are in a deep sleep and then lie them down (you can do the arm drop test, if you can pick up an arm and drop it, without waking them up, they're in a deep sleep). The thing with lying them down asleep is that the backwards falling motion triggers a natural startle instinct (it's supposed to protect them from falling off something). So if they aren't deeply asleep and even sometimes if they are, they'll startle as they go backwards. Sometimes lying down on a bed together and then shuffling over into a co-sleeping cot - so moving sideways rather than backwards into a sleeping space - works better.

 

[Diannam]

Thanks everyone. I will try your suggestions. He does love to suck on his hands for comfort though making a full swaddle difficult. He fusses when his hands aren't free.

Of course last night and today he's been a good boy and he is letting me put him down to sleep when I couldn't for the last two days.

 

[RaquelDee]

Can you try a swaddle that allows him to have his arms up? We used a Love to Dream Swaddle Up and it significantly improved my bub's overnight sleep, previously she used to escape swaddling to get her hands out, and then startle herself awake. We've just transitioned her out of it at four months now that her startle has gone away, but it really helped a lot before that.

 

[k4th]

I agree with the others that four hours is too long. Ds can stay awake for 2-2.5 hours now & he's 19 weeks.

Glad he's managing to have a couple of naps elsewhere for you. We put ds down for one nap a day from the beginning. Much as I love snuggles with him, he's learned that he's safe when he's in his cot too. He sttn & can settle himself to sleep with no tears & no sleep training. And he can still nap in his cot or on me - best of both worlds.