I’m a FTM so by no means am I any kind of expert but I posted yesterday about being worried about 6 week baby sleeping 7-8 hour stretches. I posted anonymous because I know sleep can be a sore subject at the minute.

I was mostly concerned because I hear things about low blood sugar etc if they sleep too long but after speaking with my health visitor, she’s gaining weight well, she’s content during the day, good amount of nappies so it’s not a problem to let her lead me as to when she’s hungry.

Last night she did 8 hours so I’m really thankful she likes her sleep and for those asking I thought I’d jot down what I’m doing, I’m sure a lot of us do the same things anyway I think it is down to the baby ultimately, my sisters kids were the same as my LG at 6-7 weeks and our mom said we were all sleepers too (no difference on formula/BF - I’m first one to BF). Its been on my moms advice that I’ve fallen into the following routine/pattern that we have at the minute.

- day time naps are downstairs in a Moses basket in daylight, I don’t swaddle her but I do wrap her lightly in a blanket. She will only sleep 20-30 mins tops for these naps though but I won’t wake her if she goes a bit longer. No limit to the number of naps, just as and when but they normally fall after a feed. She generally naps 3-4 times a day in short bursts.

- I offer the breast every 1-1.5 hours on a morning after she’s had a long stretch of sleep until about midday, she wakes about 6 to 6:30am. Sometimes she will drink away happily sometimes she won’t be quite as interested but i offer regardless of cues then the remainder of the day she’s happy to go 2 hours but we don’t often go more than that.

- evening, I feed about 9-10pm and about 40 mins later offer an expressed 2oz bottle, sometimes she will drink the lot sometimes she will take an oz but I think this acts as a pre bed “top up” so I know she’s got a full little belly.

- bedtime is then a swaddle, dark room, cuddles, shushing and then down in crib. A bit more shushing if she’s not quite asleep.

I hope this helps, she still has nights where she can wake throughout the night, especially on days where I can’t follow my pattern the way I’d like to (ie we go out for a while etc as she might have a BIG nap, especially if we go out in the car) but for the most part this is working out for us at the minute so I thought I’d share x