How much quiet alert time does your baby have?

[renaissanceed]

Mine seems to have none. He's 2 1/2 weeks old and he spends all his time nursing, sleeping or spending 5 minutes grunting and squawking and then pooping several times a day.

Quite literally when I think about it, he maybe has 3 or 4 periods of time throughout the day when he is quiet and alert and these last about 2 minutes. And then it's more boob required.

I thought that he might start to have a few longer (say 10 minute?) periods of being quiet and alert by now. Or am I just forgetting how DD was?

What is everyone else's baby like?

[GinaRae]

Lachlan is 9 days old and he has just started having two wakeful periods a day.

Usually in the evening before bed (except tonight he's bucking the system) and that helps him sleep better (thank goodness!!!) the first part of the night. Otherwise he was using me as a pacifier from 9pm to 2am.

The other is in the morning.

This is where he keeps his eyes open for a while and just sucks on his hands, passes gas, acts like he's hungry but happy enough, etc. Sometimes it can stretch on for 1-2 hours with him going between dozing and eyes open.

But the rest of the time he's dead asleep and even breastfeeding is with his eyes closed and me stimulating him to finish eating.

Sooooo 1-4 hours out of 24 he is fairly awake and reactive to his environment.

[cheeseRjedi]

DS is a week old today and has just, in the last 2 days, had about an hour and a half of awake alert time per day. In the morning for 30-45 minutes, in the afternoon for 30 minutes and then before he goes down for the night. The evening alert time is the longest - maybe 45-60 minutes.

[scheelimama]

Piper is 10 days old and maybe for the last 3 days she has started to have alert awake time, increasing a bit each day. I'd say she has maybe 3 periods of very awake alert time where she's not searching frantically for something to suck on, for maybe 10-20 min. each.

ETA: She also cluster nurses in the evening and will be awake for a few minutes in between each nursing for a period of probably 2 hours total (with nursing).

[maisiedotes]

Mairaed seems to either be eating with one eye open (we have started calling her Popeye), sqwaking with her eyes closed, or sleeping. She does wake up to scream when we are changing her.

I am really glad you asked this because I was (as is the true nature of me) worrying that she was sleeping too much. My parents and sister are up and she has barely had a moment that she was not in someone's arms.. being passed around from arm to arm with the frequency of a HAM radio..

[scheelimama]

Originally Posted by maisiedotes

My parents and sister are up and she has barely had a moment that she was not in someone's arms.. being passed around from arm to arm with the frequency of a HAM radio..

My in-laws (mom, dad, and 2 brothers) were here this past weekend and Piper has been held almost constantly too. I only get to hold her when she's fussy and needing to nurse. They left this morning. She's trying out her new swing this morning for the first time.

[melissakc]

Edwina, my baby is the same way as yours!

[renaissanceed]

Glad to see such a range. Of course as soon as I posted this, Silas decided to have some 'loud alert' periods where he would cry for 45 minutes. I think he was really gassy. The bouncy ball was my best friend last night.

And this morning he was awake, alert and not crying for half an hour!

[Curlita]

Conrad had a record 45 minutes of quiet awake alert time this morning. He's two weeks old. Before today, he would be happily awake for maybe 10-15 minutes before going back to sleep or screaming for the boob. He'll find something high contrast to focus on and ponder it for a few moments.

[Isaac'sMa]

Not much here. He was awake for an hour at our two week check up with the MW. That was a record. He barely opened his eyes for the first week.

[chrysalis]

i think at about 2 wx megh slept a LOT, nursed a LOT and didn't have much alert time...most of the pics i have she is sleeping. after about a month she was much more alert and looked around, etc. like at christmas...but i think this is totally normal. i wouldn't worry.

[kathteach]

I was just going to ask this question! Desmond is 7 weeks but almost 2 weeks adjusted age, and he mostly sleeps and nurses all day.

Is it possible to swaddle a newborn too much? Is that why he's sleeping so much, or could it be his prematurity I wonder...

[*Lindsey*]

Hazel and Lucy are 4 weeks old now (!!!) and they have a few 10-20 minute periods during the day when they'll sit in the swing/bouncy seat/or lay on the floor and chill out.