how does your babe sleep at night?

[jsh7809]

Just curious what is "normal" for a newborn (I guess they're not newborns anymore?!). Mine is a pretty great sleeper but I know that could change at moment's notice...
Here's what seems to be her "schedule" for the moment:
fussing on and off from 5 or 6pm
8ish - sometimes starts falling asleep with fakeout cat naps that get us thinking she's ready for bed
9ish - mellow time, nursing, burping, cuddling. diaper change (she wears disposables at night so I can go without changing for a long time)
swaddling, rocking, shhhing, etc.
between 10 and 11pm she usually falls into a deep sleep, then we put her in her crib in her room. she typically wakes up once or twice and has to be resettled for 15-20 minutes but usually by 10:30 or 11 she is out.
2:30/3am - cries but doesn't seem to fully wake up (eyes are closed) - I nurse and burp her and she typically goes back to sleep within an hour (though burping can take a LONG long time cause this is a gassy baby)
6am - cries to be fed, sleeps through the feeding again but almost always wakes WAY up when she's done. then I take off her swaddle blanket, help her fart and poop (I think this is why she wakes up, cause she can't do it easily yet) and burp, change her diaper. by this point she is way awake and cooing (or screaming) and ready to play and have me move her into various positions to help the gas come out...
then I try to calm her down, snuggle up in the futon bed in her room, nurse her some more as needed, hope she falls back to sleep, and if she does, I will sometimes reswaddle her (those arms wake her up a LOT), rock and shhh her back to sleep and occasionally get her back to sleep in her crib again.
this takes an hour or two or sometimes doesn't happen till I give up, get up and start my day. then she's usually out within half an hour
if I can get her back to sleep in her crib, she's typically up around 9am.

so, when it all works out, I can get a good 7 hour sleep out of those windows...

but last night she slept from just before 10pm to 3:30am without waking up!! I heard her start to make noise at 3:30 and got up to nurse since I was going to explode... then she fell back asleep by 4 something and woke up at 6 for another feed and the diaper/ cry/ coo/ hang out thing, but was back to sleep by 7am. and it's now 9:30 and I've heard her making sounds for a half an hour but she's STILL ASLEEP!! She's only 5 weeks! We did go to an outdoor wedding yesterday so I'm assuming she was just exhausted.
But is this is normal and ok for a 5 week old. I am trying so hard to let her be unless she cries, which I think helps me get more rest and also gives her time to process and develop and so on. I tend to jump at her every noise while DH lets her hang out and she often likes that.

I know that the only thing I can "expect" is for everything to be unpredictable and change constantly. But, what is your LO sleeping like? And when did they start waking up only once or twice in the night to nurse? Should I ever worry if she sleeps longer than 6 hours?

[rhiOrion]

She usually screams for several hours at night... and finally quiets down sometime between 11-1. Usually I go to bed at about 11 and DH bounces her until she finally falls asleep. Then he brings her to me. If she's still screaming after about midnight I'll get up and and bounce her so that DH can sleep (since he works full time). So, sometime by about 1 am she's usually finally asleep and we are both in bed. She sleeps on my chest and various different positions. Sometimes she even sleeps sprawled out on her back, arms and legs every which way, and looking freakin' adorable.

Then she usually wakes up to nurse once or twice during the night, and at about 6 am she starts the squeaky grunts. Those are usually accompanied by the sleep flail of her legs. I wonder if swaddling at this point would help that. Either way, she sleeps through it, but makes it difficult for me to sleep.

She's gladly stay in bed for a long time, as long as I keep putting my boob in her mouth. This morning we stayed in bed until 10:00, but I wasn't really sleeping. But even just being still is nice.

[jolesh]

last night huck woke up every 90 min like clockwork between 10pm and 8am.

change diaper.

eat.

back to sleep.

takes about 20-30 min.

but he grunts instead of crying in the night when he is unhappy or wants a cuddle.

[dogretro]

DD2 only gets up twice to eat now. She falls asleep at some point that is v late & I go to bed between 12-1am. For now I cannot get ready for bed until she is asleep b/c she will cry if I set her down & dh goes to bed w/ dd1 at about 10pm, which is too early for us. DD2 wakes during the night to eat & then falls right back asleep. Gets up again around 7am to eat & falls back asleep. I also potty and change her when she wakes to eat. DD1 wakes when dh gets up for work, which is too early, so dd2 and I get into bed w/ dd1 and we all go back to sleep until, ideally, 9am. DD1 will often get up before that, like 8-8.30, get out of bed & go play by herself.

[Knitting Mama]

Thankfully, Cecilia is giving me a good 4-6 hour block these days. When she wakes up from that, typically between 3 and 4, we generally get out of bed, nurse with the supplemental nurser, then go back to bed around 5. When she gets up in a couple hours after that, if I'm still tired we'll side-by-side nurse and nap, or if I'm not we'll get up for the day.

[Shazer]

Keep in mind my first child slept maybe 8-10 hours per day when a month old. Really, I was a walking zombie for two years. I actually feel well rested with this baby.

Lysander goes to sleep for the night between 8-10 and will stir a few times to nurse during the night. He wakes up then between 7-8 in the morning. He naps for a few hours in the morning and then kind of catnaps off and on for the rest of the day.

His bad time is between 6:30 and 9 when he needs to be constantly held. This is difficult as that is the time DD needs me for bath, bed, stories.

[jenfl]

Sprout's 7.5 weeks old. Our "routine" has only solidified over the last week, so I don't know how stable it is. But he goes to sleep between 7:30 and 8:30pm (trending closer to 7:30pm the last few days). If he didn't get a great nurse in before falling asleep, he'll get up around 8:30pm for a last snack.

He wakes up sometime between midnight and 2am to nurse and get a diaper change. If I'm very, very lucky (this has only happened twice), he'll sleep through until morning. Usually, though, he's up around 4am for another nurse. If I'm very, very unlucky, he'll be up at 6am to nurse again.

Always up for the day at 7-7:30am with the rest of the family.

[bubbamummy]

Molly is a month old and still sleeps A LOT during the day-to the point where im almost concerned as to what is 'normal' I STILL have to wake her to eat. I know people have told me that by this age I should let her decide when to nurse but she wouldnt get the 8 'sessions' per day in and id be concerned about my supply. Its frustrating as when I wake her to eat she never eats as well as she does when SHE decides. Which I guess makes sense but I just wish she'd eat more, for longer and more often. ANYWAY.. after that rant she comes to bed with me at around 10ish, she usually nurses sometime around then. She wakes usually at 1am(ish) 3am(ish) and then at 6am. I usually get up after the 6am feed but she sleeps pretty much all morning. If I didnt have a toddler id get a ton of sleep After she eats she is usually back to sleep within 15mins- she burps easily. Our nights are actually pretty great. Its the days when she likes to scream and fuss inbetween sleeping.

[silverspook]

DS2, who is one week old today!, is waking every 1.5-3 hrs to eat. Although tonight he cluster fed from 6-7:30, crashed HARD, nursed at 10, woke at like 2 or 3, but fell asleep as soon as he latched on, and then woke again at 5 and nursed well.

[ann_of_loxley]

He just comes to bed with me when I am ready for bed (he may or may not already be asleep before then). During the evening hours, he usually feeds every few hours - whilst during the day he goes 3-4 hours between feeds. He is a pretty 'awake' baby during the day though, so despite going longer between feeds he is still very much 'there'! lol
Feeding at night isnt a problem. I just roll over and help him find my nipple and then drift back off to sleep! lol
The only 'routine' I have noticed with him is that he seems pretty consistantly awake around 6AM. And will stay awake for a few hours whilst we all just lay in bed. I may or may not get sleep around this time. He is pretty 'content' as long as he is on me or next to me so hes usually fine with this. Then he gets hungry again and eventually goes back to sleep anywhere between 8 and 9 AM. This is when my day starts.
I havn't really noticed a pattern with him yet during the day. But am now starting to get to know his little cues and sounds as to what they mean! For him, it is usually 'I am hungry' or 'I am tired - help me to sleep'. Thats usually what its all about - he is nearly 5 weeks old.

[GreenTeaGinger61]

I really don't know times because I got a great piece of advice with my second..turn your clock around so that you don't see the time. It sounds crazy but if I'm not looking at the clock, I'm not always worried about how much/little sleep I'm getting. And also I think living in Mexico when ds was a baby helped. There the big thing is eating not sleep. Everyone is concerned about much a baby eats/weights and don't give a crap about how much a baby is sleeping. I worried much more about the sleep when I was constantly being asked about how much the baby sleeps (Oh do you have a good baby who sleeps such and such hours..drove me nuts with my ds who cried from 6-11 every night adn then would wake up every two hours to nurse).

Thus I really have no idea what kind of sleep schedule we're on...Rowena goes to bed with me around 11, and we usually have an hour of nursing and cuddling (she's awake but usually goes to sleep on the boob or cuddled up with me). We sleep for a fairly decent amount of time..maybe four hours (I only know because dh is usually up when she wakes to nurse). Sometimes she goes right back to sleep and sometimes we lay around for a while after she nurses. I can usually get back to sleep after this and we sleep for a couple of hours more.

[LenaC]

Leon falls asleep around 10-11pm, as in hard asleep for the night. I try to go to bed right as that happens. Sometimes my toddler is already asleep in his bed and sometimes he will stay awake for a little while longer with daddy, while we go to sleep. I think he wakes up at least once during the night to get on the boob. Is it bad that I don't always remember because I'm only half awake? The next time he wakes up is because he needs to poop around 5-6am. I get up with him and put him on the potty, and feed a couple of times. After about an hour, he will doze off again, and I either stay up for my quiet time, or go back to sleep for another hour or two until 8 or 9, when he wakes up again for another pooplosion. I love his awake morning time because he will stay awake for two hours or more, pretty alert, quiet and often smiley. Evening time is MUCH more fussy, as he sort of wants to drift off to sleep, but is still too awake. He sleeps descent amount during the day, but wakes up at least every half an hour, and then I either carry him in the sling or swing to put him back to sleep to get some more time, so I can actually get stuff done then. Once evening fussiness hits around 6pm, then I'm just not very functional. DH gets home around 9pm or 10pm, sometimes enough to spend a bit of time with baby, while I have half an hour to myself, but my toddler is also very demanding of attention around that time, so he takes care of him, while I'm soothing baby to sleep. Yup, that's our fun schedule It doesn't always go the same way, but generally, that's how it happens.

[jsh7809]

Glad to see we are falling in the range of what is "normal" though of course that can change night by night! I am just excited to have any kind of predictability at this point (BOY is that statement gonna bite me in the ass later)...
I'm jealous of you mamas who can nurse sidelying and fall back to sleep. We can but then baby girl still has so much trouble burping on her own that she ends up waking up and crying till I can bring up the burp.

[crazyeight]

R gets fussy around 6 or so. he's not sure whether he wants to be awake or asleep or what. i nurse him quite a bit and then let him play for about half hour at 7:30. i then get him changed, into a sleeper and wrapped up and then nurse him till hes asleep and very full. he's usually asleep in his bed by 9. he sleeps until 2ish and i side lay nurse him and set an alarm for half hour after and put him back in his crib when it wakes me up. he gets up again around 5:30 with the sun and he doesn't sleep very well so he stays in bed with me and i nurse him off and on to keep him at least half asleep. he usually falls asleep a little harder around 7:30 and i get up around 8 and he wakes up maybe 5 minutes later...grumpy.

[lobster]

Robin generally fusses a bit and takes little cat naps from 9-11pm-ish, and then falls asleep for good around 11pm and sleeps through until 9am. Once in a blue moon he might latch on in his sleep, but both of us almost never wake up through those rare nursing sessions.

My first DS slept 11-12 hours at night without waking, right from day one, and DD was the same unless she was teething, so I guess it's just how my kids are built. I never expected to have newborns who sleep through the night!!