how much sleep for a 9 week old.

[topsy1]

i know this is my ds2 - but can't remember how much sleep they need at this point. sometimes he seems to sleep all day, and other days he doesn't - is he getting himself into a sleep/nap routine now. hes in a good feeding routine - every 4 hours. should i be incouraging him to have naps as opposed to sleeping when he feels like it. hes not bad at night - goes down after 10.30 feed, and wakes between 2 and 4 for a feed. what do other people do?

[youngmum21]

well i was told that they shud only stay awake for twohours at a time so i put my dd down for a nap every two hours 45mins in the morning am trying to get her to sleep for two hours midday and then 2 hours in the afternoon but thenagain some times she needs more then that so i put her down it wud be much worse if i let her get ova tired. she goes to bed at 8 has a feed at 10 then at 2 then gets up between 7-8.

hth x

[Mumpbump]

Don't think they have much of a routine at that age and if they do it changes anyway!! I think most babies tend to sleep between 10-12 hours overnight and then nap every couple of hours during the day. Some babies need more sleep than others (mine needed less!), but what youngmum21 says seemed to be true for most of my antenatal class. I used to start watching for tired signs after 1.5 hours and then put him down when they came... Getting him to sleep was another story!

[gingerninja]

I actually think 2 hours awake time is probably too much for this age. My DD has only just started to manage this and she's 18 weeks. If you lo isn't settling it could be because they're overtired. I'd watch for signs after and hour and aim to have them down 1.5 hrs after waking.