How many hours does your baby sleep?

[Famatigia]

In a 24 hour period, how many hours and how old?

[coldandsleepy]

My little guy is five weeks old. It's hard to say exactly how much he sleeps in a given day.

At night he sleeps one 3.5 hour stretch and then usually two 2 hour stretches. So 7.5 hours there. That's almost always the same these days.

How much he sleeps in the day time seems to depend on whether or not we leave the house. If we're out and he's in the Moby, he'll basically stay asleep the whole time except for when he's eating. Not so if we're at home. :P

He's usually awake and alert from about 5 p.m. until midnight. Sometimes he naps in that period but never for very long... half an hour here and there.

[2boyzmama]

Hm, I don't know!! He and I are in bed sleeping/nursing about 9 hours at night, then he has an awake period for a while, then usually a nap for about an hour, but if we're out and about it could be up to 3 hours even. Then he's usually awake/feeding for several hours. Then sometime in the afternoon he'll have another longer period of sleep, usually an hour, but again can be up to 3 hours (he even did 4 hours yesterday!). Then the rest of the night he's usually in his fussy time, either feeding, burping, or fussing to be fed or burped.

So I don't know...15 hours of good sleep, plus little catnaps here and there.

He's 4 weeks old.

[JordanKX]

Rowan is 7.5 weeks. He normally sleeps 11pm-8, with two 20-minute wake-ups. So 8.5 hours. Then another 2hr nap in the morning. A few cat naps in the afternoon. And another 2-4 hours in the evening.
So.... 12-16 hours. Something like that.

[KayleeZoo]

Camry turned 8wks yesterday (she was born at 37wks) and sleeps one chunk at night for 3-3.5 hrs then is up every 1.5-2hrs after that. During the day, she'll sleep in 20-30min increments, or maybe 1-2 hours if someone is holding her. My other 3 kids were crappy sleepers, too, but esp. DS. I'm hoping to influence her sleep habits in a couple of months to help her establish good sleep patterns. My DS didn't sleep through the night till he was 18mos old (heck, he was up every 45 minutes for most of those months) and he was a miserable child. I don't want her to be that unhappy now that I know that crappy sleep was what caused it for him.

[Julia24]

Mmm, well, she sleeps from 7/8pm until 7/8am with usually 1 feed in there and is generally up for less than 1/2 hour - so 12 hours there... Then, she typically eats, is up for about an hour or so and then goes back to sleep until she's ready to eat again...usually about 3/4 hours later....and is up for probably 2 hours solid in the evening before bed...

I'd say a good estimate would be between 18 and 20? And she's 12 weeks old. She'll be three months on 11/18 - I agree with Kaylezoo, crappy sleep makes for crabby babies and kids, so I try to avoid it. It's miserable for her AND I!!!

And if anybody wants to read an interesting book about the science of sleep - provided you realize that you have to ABSOLUTELY discard the mans theories on 'sleep training', read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby. He's brutal - basically says to shut as many doors as you have to between you and baby (poor baby ) and make that baby sleep - BUT, the research on sleep is pretty impressive, worth checking out, imo.

[ElliesMomma]

glad to see this thread. i've been a little concerned that my son wasn't getting enough sleep, but i see that he's pretty much in the norm. i get both of my kids to bed before 8 p.m. little one is ready before then, and i make every effort to get him to sleep earlier, but he doesn't seem to let it go and really shut his eyes tight until his big sister is also asleep. they are in the same room (with me, too) overnight. tonight i started the going to bed process at 5:30 p.m.! i nursed him real good, let him stay on until at least 6:30. started him in bed by 7 p.m., but i had to read 3 yo a book and this kept him somewhat awake. however it was lights out and both kids sleeping by about 7:45, so thank god!

anyway, let's go with 8 p.m. b/c that's when the "good sleep" started. he will wake before 11 p.m. for his first night nursing (which is an awesome feed. he gets his dipe changed, then nurses the left side, gulp gulp gulp for about 10 minutes, he pulls off. i sit him up on my chest, big burp. hold him upright for a short time. then i put him back down to triple swaddle him, which usually wakes him back up a little. so we return to the nursing chair, and nurse the right side. when he's done there, he's usually back to sleep so soundly that i just put him back in the bed and he continues to sleep). we repeat this process when he wakes the second time, somewhere between 2 am to 3 am. he usually wakes a third time between 5 am and 6 am. i get up and out of bed with him each time, b/c he is still a small baby, born at only 6 pounds and was slow to gain due to reflux for the first five weeks... so he's making up ground now and i know he needs all the calories he can get. he nurses more effectively with me sitting up and him in the "football hold." somewhere between 6 am to 7 am, usually coinciding with this last feed, my 3 yo wakes up and she's just so full of energy first thing in the morning. however i am so tired, so i take little one back to bed, leaving 3 yo with PBS and Disney channel programmed on the remote, and all of her toys to play with, and instructions to wake me if she needs to pee or poo (she nees help with getting on the toilet and wiping). and i procede to stay in bed with baby, and he continues to sleep/suckle until about 10 am. so that's a good 14 hour chunk, give or take a few short breaks.

when we finally go downstairs for the day, after some play time involving both kids upstairs, i nurse him again, and he is ready for either daddy time (DH is home in the middle part of the day) where he holds him and baby falls to sleep pretty easily in his arms, and/or going in his swing. depending on various factors, this nap can go anywhere from one hour to two hours or even longer, up to about three hours. afterwards, he is up from say 2 pm onward... and it can be tough to get another nap in. i do wear him in a moby wrap, once in awhile that works to get him to sleep if, say, we take a walk around the block with 3 yo. but afternoons are usually not so good for napping, and i wind up having to hold him all afternoon, whilest entertaining 3 yo and making her dinner, etc. hence, i am more than happy to start the going to bed process at 5:30 p.m.!!

so long story short, i would say his total sleep hours are generally somewhere between 15-17 hours, usually on the shorter end, like 15+ hours. he does some catnaps, too, where i wish he would sleep deeper. but i have to be grateful that overnights are going as well as they are.

[pastrygirl]

My baby sounds like KayleeZoo's, except he wakes every hour after that first chunk in the night. I have to hold him during the day for him to sleep, and he sleeps with me at night. I can't wait til I can put him down and get some "me" time...

ETA: he's 9 weeks old. My older son was similar, and turned into a fabulous sleeper starting at around 9 months... I hope I'm that lucky again!!

[Famatigia]

I worried Jocelyn sleeps too much, but she sleeps 18-19 hours at nine weeks, so it seems okay!

[JordanKX]

OK - posting again here. Last week we were getting on a great schedule of 2.5hr morning nap, awake most afternoon, and another 2-4 hour nap in the evening.

After 8 days of this "schedule", yesterday he decided not to go down in the morning. And cat-napped, 20 min tops, all day. And then slept 16hrs last night, barely opening his eyes to nurse. Same thing today. Even Less naps, and it's now 6:30 and I'm crossing my fingers that this current "nap" will turn in to either a lengthy night nap, or a full evening sleep.

Yeesh. Is this right? That schedules change so abruptly week to week? Maybe he's having another growth spurt.

[darcytrue]

DD also sleeps a 2-3 hour chunk when first going down, usually, and then wakes for feedings every 1-2 hours the rest of the night. It's very tiring. I'm still trying to get used to sleeping with a baby again. It's been so long. I rarely get any sleep because I'm worried about her and keep checking on her.

[confustication]

Heh- sleep? He catnaps when I'm home.

I'll start off with the morning though-

We get up at about 4:30- he'll nurse until about 6:30 (during thisperiod he will not tolerate side-lying nursing.)

He'll sleep from about 6:30 a.m. until 9 a.m.then nurse for about an hour.

He'll sleep again from 10am-noonish, then nurse again for another hour or so.

In the afternoon, he'll sleep from about 2pm-4pm, then he'll wake until about 10 p.m.

I finally drag him to bed at about 10 pm and he sleeps until about 11 pm. Waking at 11 pm he ll nurse until about 2-3 am, half the time he'll do this sidelying, the other half the time he demands that I sit upright with him, so we're on the couch watching discovery channel... lol.

Somewhere between 2am and 4 am he falls asleep- and we begin again.

So... adding that all up... he sleeps 10-12 hours a day- if I'm being generous. More realistic is about 8 hours a day. This happens to be a child who Will Not Sleep. I keep chanting 'he'll learn to sleep soon enough' and when I hit the wall in terms of exhaustion I pass him to his dad for a bit, and sequester myself in my room for a nap.

I've never met a child who slept so poorly... thank goodness he's not my first or I'd be a complete wreck. I have enough experience to know that this will pass all too soon. I may as well enjoy the endless snuggles while they last.

On the upside, if I wear him he'll nap for a good hour or two.

[LilaQ]

you ladies are lucky!! My son sleeps well at night (9 to 3 and then until 6) but only cat naps during the day. It's rare that he sleeps more than 45 mins. He totally fights sleep during the day!!

[StrongFeather]

as posted in my other thread..

Sam USED to sleep a good 4-5 hour chunk, and then a good nap during the AM, and a good one in the afternoon, with cat naps sprinkled in there.

Lately a good (1-2 hours) nap in the AM and good nap in the afternoon and then only catnapping the rest..at night we are fighting sleep.

Sam is 12 weeks.