Hello,

I find it hard to get my 3 week old DD to sleep during the day. I am still working out her tired signs. I try patting, rocking and leaving her to cry for a short time. She dozes off but than wakes up again, by the time I have tried to get her to sleep it is close to her next feed time. What should I do? How long should I keep her up after her feed?

thanks
Bella27

Don't beat yourself up to much at this early stage. I have just had my third baby and thought that it should be easy, but all babies are different. I seemed to hold my baby a lot in those first 6 weeks and I thought I was in for a real hard time ahead. But after those first 6 weeks he seemed to settle down to become a really placid good baby. Enjoy your time and just take each day as it comes. There is no right or wrong way. Have you tried your baby in a pram, prop baby up a little? It is good for you to get a bit of fresh air too.

I think at this age they are still learning how to go to sleep. I think if you are trying all the right things....putting them down awake and patting to send them off to sleep, relaxing music etc... you are setting the ground work for a good sleeper, self settler as they get older. Try to go with it at the moment and know that you are doing the right thing.
In terms of feeding, at 3 weeks old I wouldn't let her go past 4 hours without a feed during the day. This should set her up for some good stretches of sleep during the evening and night because she is getting enough calories during the day. However at 3 weeks you probably won't be seeing the long sleeps yet.
Congrats on your bub and keep up the good work!

At three weeks our uptime was one hour and that included the BF and bum change. Don't stress about setting up bad habits: if you have to pat your babe off to sleep, that's cool. I have an almost 6 month old and I am not doing the same things now I was doing at 3 weeks. I also have a two year old and I am also not doing what I was doing at 6 months old! Take this opportunity to go out and have coffee with friends and do brunch with your partner while your babe is more likely to sleep in the pram or someone's arms.