how much wakey time is "normal" / to be expected?

[Peace+Hope]

hey ya'll....

charlie just turned 7 weeks today, and he is sleeping a LOT! i thought he'd have more awake time now, but instead he seems to be sleeping more... he is asleep from 9pm-9am, of course eating in there a lot (every 2-3 hrs), but generally in his sleep or awake only for a few minutes. then during the day, he has a couple of 1-hr wake times most days, MAYBE 3.

this is coming off of a fussy period of a few weeks when he was awake a lot more. also, he had been cluster feeding in the evenings and being awake from 5 or 6 til 9 at least. but he seems to have stopped doing that for now...

should i be worried? what are your babies doing, and what would you do if you were me?

btw, if there's nothing to worry about, i certainly don't mind...

[sanguine_speed]

[ivymae]

Becky's a pretty drowsy baby. I would say she's fully awake 4 hours a day, and half-awake (aka sisters are loud and poking her) another 2 hours. Then she wakes up every 2-3 hours at night, just long enough to latch on and then we both fall back asleep. She's meeting all her other milestones, so I don't even think about her sleep.

Note: she'll only sleep this much if I have her in the sling/nurse her every hour durig the day when she wake up. If I try to keep her awake, she just cries and fusses until i pop her into the sling/lay down with her and nurse.

[rhiOrion]

So what do your babies *do* while they're awake? Because pretty much if L is awake she's screaming. So she might be awake for 6 hours a day, but most of that is spent screaming her head off. She's only quietly alert for muuuuch less than that each day.

[sanguine_speed]

[jenfl]

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

So what do your babies *do* while they're awake? Because pretty much if L is awake she's screaming. So she might be awake for 6 hours a day, but most of that is spent screaming her head off. She's only quietly alert for muuuuch less than that each day.

I'd really suggest doing what we're doing -- trial a reflux medication for a week. It's not going to hurt your baby, and might help a lot.

(When we got Zantax for DD, it actually made her symptoms worse. We switched to Prevacid, and things improved tremendously. We're still starting with Zantax for Sprout, because it's the most used, best known, etc. But if you sense things aren't going well on whatever medication, feel free to stop it and try a different one.)

[lobster]

Robin is pretty sleepy. He's only awake a few hours a day maybe 3 to 4?, quietly alert nearly that entire time. Some days he's awake more than he's asleep, but those days are maybe once a week.

[snoopy5386]

Kelsey is awake for maybe 2-3 hours a day over here at 4 weeks.

[jenfl]

Sprout is 6 weeks. He's awake 1.5-3 hours in the morning, increments of 30 min-1 hour through the rest of the day, and 2-3 hours in the evening.

[rhiOrion]

Zantax and prevacid are both Rx drugs, right? I wonder if I should wait until my appointment next week, or if I should call them tomorrow to discuss.

She is having more and more alert and not screaming time, but it's still far surprassed by the amount of time spent screaming, sleeping, or nursing. I had thought it wasn't reflux because it didn't happen during the day. But I'm starting to think that it was just because she was asleep more during the day.

But she pretty much sleeps through the night, which is what confuses me. I mean, she nurses several times, but she rarely cries once she *finally* stops screaming and falls asleep. And she'll even sleep on her back on me.

Also, she usually can be comforted. Like, right now she's awake and alert, but I'm also bouncing up and down on an exercise ball. If I stopped for even a second the screaming would probably commence.

I'm so confused. I wish I knew what "normal" babies were like.

P&H - I'm so sorry I hijacked your thread!

[ivymae]

When Becky's awake, she wants me to lay in bed with her and talk to her the entire time. Which is sweet, but the older kids will burn down the house if we do that 4 hours a day. So she hangs out in the sling, in her bouncy seat, or on the couch with her sisters. She fusses (since mama isn't talking to her) but also just sits and looks around. She does have a screamy baby time in the evening, but for the most part if she full out cries during the day it's because she is tired/hungry/wet or Alice poked her in the eye.

I'll plug cranial sacral for screamy babies. If you find someone who is good, they can often feel where baby is having discomfort and either help baby resolve it, or give you a direction to go in. If you were local I'd buy you a session with my friend Gretchen - she has magic hands.

[GreenTeaGinger61]

Rhi: It's not normal but it does happen. As I mentioned my ds did this for about a month and then it was over as if nothing happened. As I mentioned before I think its worth checking out for reflux but just figured I'd add our story.

P+H: My dd2 slept ALL THE TIME. It was scary at first but she was fine. I think for the first seven weeks of her life she was awake for maybe 1-2 hours per day. Rowena is more alert but she still sleeps a great deal. I'm thinking she's awake for about 2 alert hours and then she's kind of half-awake off and on.

[GreenTeaGinger61]

Oh yeah serial posting:P What does R do when awake: She really just checks us all out. If I'm not super busy, I sit with her on my lap, and we talk to her. We being the kids and I. DD2 reads to her a lot. We have started to lay her on the floor and play with her a bit.

[crazyeight]

r is awake about 1.5 hrs in the morning and 3 total hours MAYBE in the afternoon evening. he looks around and loves to be on his back so he can move his arms and legs freely. he loves to be outside i think but i don't have a safe place to really put him out there yet.

[sanguine_speed]

[Pepper44]

Ada is awake for about 30-45 minutes at a time 3-4 times a day. Then she gets tired and goes back to sleep in my arms or in the sling. She's 3 weeks old, btw.

When she's awake she likes to sit in her bouncy seat for about 5 minutes at a time. Then the crying starts. She'll also lay on the bed for about 5 minutes sometimes. Otherwise I'm carrying her around. One thing we do a lot--I sit on the couch and put my feet on the footstool so that my knees are bent and she leans back against them and stares at me and stares around the room.

DD1 loves to talk to her and try to show her toys. Ada is starting to smile every now and then when DD1 comes into her line of sight! She also turns her head to see where DD1 goes when she walks away.

[nikirj]

DD is 4w old and is awake up to 12 hours a day with some 6 hour days. That is not usual, IME, that's more awake time than she should be having at this point. It's kind of making me flash back to my (perfectly healthy) now-5yo who would sleep just 8-9 hours/24 as a toddler, which drove me just about over the edge since I like to get 9+ hours myself. Damn DH, he is good after 5-6 hours a night, that's got to be where these super awake kids are coming from.

DS on the other hand was rarely awake at this age.

BIG range of normal at this point.

When "sleepy baby" is a warning sign, that's aimed at babies that actually don't want to wake up, not so much at those that sleep a lot and wake themselves up every 2-3 hours to eat.

[jenfl]

Originally Posted by sanguine_speed

Yes, Rx. Prevacid (at least here) has to be compounded at a compounding pharmacy and is only fridge stable for up to one week (so you have to go back often).

When we got it, this wasn't the case. We got the orally-dissolving tablets and just dissolved them in water when DD was little, then gave them to her directly when she was older.

Rhi, I'd call. Since reflux is common, they may give you the prescription over the phone.

[rhiOrion]

I love mornings. I never thought I'd say that. But she wakes up all smiley and cute. And she has been awake and NOT SCREAMING in her swing for about 15 minutes. I had her in the vibrating chair while I peed and she fell asleep, but a minute later she started screaming so I picked her up and nursed her for just a minute. Then she spit that back up anyhow, so I don't think she wanted it. But them my waffles were ready so I put her in the swing thinking I was going to have to shove the waffles down my throat while she screamed. Nope, she's sitting there wide awake. I suppose this is what the rest of your babies do. It's nice. I like it.

I'm sure it'll end very soon.

[Knitting Mama]

Hah...if only Cecilia would give me 15 minutes! I get 5 if I'm lucky. I feel like I could be a whirlwind of productivity if I had 15!