Sometimes, babies may sleep too much because they are not getting enough to eat. They may get dehydrated, lose too much weight, and even experience a failure to thrive.
The amount of sleep an infant gets at any one stretch of time is mostly ruled by hunger. Newborns will wake up and want to be fed about every three to four hours at first. Do not let your newborn sleep longer than five hours at a time in the first five to six weeks.
Newborns who sleep for longer stretches should be awakened to feed. Wake your baby every 3–4 hours to eat until he or she shows good weight gain, which usually happens within the first couple of weeks. After that, it's OK to let your baby sleep for longer periods of time at night.
Put baby skin to skin to smell the breast. For the first few days you may need to wake them to feed if they are still sleeping by 3 hours from the last day feeding and 4 hours at night. If baby still won't eat, allow baby to sleep another hour and try again to wake and feed them.
Don't worry, baby will ask to be fed as usual as soon as his stomach feels empty again. Your baby may be constipated and appear less hungry than usual, however once this passes everything will go back to normal. Or it may just be that your baby was enjoying the sleep and took longer to wake up.
Newborns should not go more than about 4–5 hours without feeding. Signs that babies are hungry include: moving their heads from side to side. opening their mouths.
As a guide, many babies sleep 14-20 hours a day in the first weeks. By 3 months many are settled into a pattern of longer sleep times – perhaps 4 to 5 hours at night. When a baby sleeps about 5 hours straight, this is considered 'sleeping through the night'.
If your baby is older than 6 months, and/or weighs more than 15 pounds, then barring any medical issues, they are absolutely capable of sleeping through the night (11-12 hours) without needing a feed. But this is only true if they are able to take in their entire caloric needs during the daytime hours.
Most babies are able to sleep through the night – or sleep for at least six hours without waking up to eat – sometime between 3 to 6 months of age. Healthy babies who are born full-term are generally able to sleep through the night without a feeding starting at 3 months of age or when they weigh 12 to 13 pounds.
Generally, newborns sleep about 8 to 9 hours in the daytime and about 8 hours at night. But they may not sleep more than 1 to 2 hours at a time. Most babies don't start sleeping through the night (6 to 8 hours) without waking until they are about 3 months old, or until they weigh 12 to 13 pounds.
Many babies will start sleeping through the night (six to eight hours at a time) when they are about four to six months old and weigh at least 10 pounds; however, if your baby is not sleeping through the night by then, don't be concerned. Every baby develops their own sleep patterns and cycles.
In general, you can expect your baby to sleep an hour per week old they are, starting about 5 weeks old. So, a 5-week-old may be able to go 5 hours, a 6-week-old may be able to go 6 hours, and so on.
If your baby is a stellar napper with upwards of 4-5 hours of daytime sleep, he may only be sleeping 9-10 hours at night. If your baby is napping more like 3-4 hours or less during the day, you are probably seeing 10.5 – 11.5+ hours nights WITH 1-2, perhaps even three nighttime feedings.
Your baby's age. Full-term babies who are younger than two weeks should be fed every 3 hours until breastfeeding is established and they've regained their birth weight. A baby under six weeks should not sleep longer than 4-5 hour stretches.
Your 6-week-old baby's growth
Feedings should be spread out to every three to four hours or so (and maybe even more spread out at night), though demand feeding is still generally the way to go, especially for the breastfed set.
“Most babies can sleep six or hour hours at night at about 3 months of age, but some learn to do this much sooner, some as early as 6 to 8 weeks.”
Babies that are less than 4 weeks old will wake up when hungry at night. Till they turn 6 months of age, they will be needing at least one feed at night. Newborns are very sleepy in the beginning, and they might need to be woken up for feed if they don't do it themselves.
Because of their tiny tummy size, newborns need to eat frequently to get the nourishment they need. Even though it can be tempting to let an extra sleepy newborn keep snoozing, if your baby isn't waking on her own to eat often enough, you'll need to rouse her.
What makes a baby sleepy? Recovering from birth: In the first few days, some babies are sleepy or uninterested in feeding. It's especially true for small babies, after a difficult labour or birth, or if you received drugs for pain relief during labour. Jaundice or an infection may make a baby sleepy.
A baby occasionally sleeping for longer than usual is not a cause for concern unless there are other symptoms. In general, it is uncommon for a newborn to consistently sleep through feedings or to sleep for longer than 19 hours per day unless they are ill or are having feeding difficulties.
Newborns usually sleep in short bursts of 2-3 hours each. Some newborns sleep for up to four hours at a time. Newborns wake frequently to feed because they have tiny tummies. Your newborn might go straight back to sleep after feeding or they might stay awake long enough for a short play.
Feeding Baby At Two Weeks Old
Feedings should occur every 2-3 hours and hopefully every 4-5 during the night. Feeding should take about 30 minutes. If bottle feeding, a ballpark amount is 3-4 ounces.
From two weeks to two months of age, they'll sleep an average of 15.5 to 17 hours total, broken down by about 8.5 to 10 hours at night and six to seven hours during the day spread out over three to four naps.
Most newborns need eight to 12 feedings a day — about one feeding every two to three hours. While waking up a sleeping baby might seem like a bad idea, frequent feedings early on are important for a couple of reasons: Crying is a late sign of hunger.
Once your child is about 6 or 8 weeks old, he or she should start to sleep for longer periods at night and shorter periods during the day. By the time your baby is 8 weeks old, night sleep may last six hours or more, and by the time he or she is a few months old, sleeping through the night is possible.