do you just let them sleep

at 2 months old do you just let them eat and sleep whenever they want or try to keep them up as much as possible during the day?

 

I remember trying to keep them up, but if I couldn't, I would just let them sleep...I was still in "survival" mode and did whatever it took to keep the peace, as much as possible. Mine were 2.5 months premature, so they were still very small at 2 months and slept a TON.

 

I never tried to keep mine up, well, the one time we did it was a nightmare & did more harm the help
So we definitely let them eat/sleep when they wanted to at that point.

 

That was about the time I figured out their schedule. I found that at 1.5-2 hours up meant it was time for a nap. IF you wait much longer, it is harder to get them down due to them being over tired. I do now however wake them up. If they need their sleep, they need it (my son just took a 5 hour nap!).

 

At that age I nursed on demand and let them sleep when and as long as they needed.

 

At that age they were mostly sleeping and eating on demand. (Though we always feed both at the same time.)

 

We've recently got on a schedule.. [let's see how long THAT lasts, lol]. When they get up for the day 0630-0730, I'll keep them up doing activities. I'll put cartoons on in the background and play with them for a few hours. Usually they're exhausted by 1000-1100. Then they sleep for about two feedings, then we keep them awake for a few hours before bedtime [so they sleep better at night].

It seems to be working [for now]. They only wake up once at night [usually]. So in a way I let them sleep when they get tired and feed them whenever they want to eat - which is STILL 4.5 oz every 1.5 hrs when they're awake!! :wacko:

 

At this time they slept most of the time... Mine never had colic, just a few episodes a couple nights. I strongly believe that colic comes a lot from being overtired and parents trying to keep the babies up longer than they should... Heck mine are 7 months and still need to nap every 2-2.5 hour... At 2 months they were starting to fuss after 45 minutes and if I tried to keep them up longer than one hour I would have a meltdown.

 

i did everything on demand at that age too

 

I had to wake mine every 3 hours per the ped for the first few months. But, I was never a fan of keeping them up a long time. I finally figured out mine were cranky in the evening because they were over tired. Since then, I figured out they do best when they take a nap ever 1.5 hours. Much less cranky after I started doing that!!

 

At 2 months old we did 90 minutes awake/90 minutes asleep all day. After the 9 pm feeding we went straight to sleep.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice I won't try to push a schedule on them then......YET! LOL

 

I have mine on a 4-hr routine so every 4 hours, more or less, they eat. They can now stay up an hour-1.5hrs at most then I put them back down until their next feed. DD is a real sleepyhead and needs her beauty sleep. She cant take being up and active for more than an hour. I dont let them sleep for more than 2.5-3 hours at one time as it robs them of their night sleep. To be honest, they usually wake up themselves for food after that and are awake more and more playing in their cots. I dont keep them up either. They let me know when they´re hungry/tired. I know a routine isnt for everyone, but it works for us.