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dinkyminky 
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 Topic: Awake time/ Play time for newborns
Posted: 15 June 2009 at 9:53pm |
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Just wondering how long your babies are awake for at a time, and at how old. Our girlee is only just 3 weeks old, and seems to love to sleep, and is quite happy to be popped into bed while she is awake. But I want to have some play time, but don't want to over do it. I tend to wake her for her feeds (formula feed) nappy change, cuddle and a chat, then back down to sleep. So from waking her to back to bed could be an 45mins to an hour depending how long the feed takes.
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Mamma2N
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Joined: 15 February 2009
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Posted: 15 June 2009 at 10:24pm |
If shes happy to sleep let her - I'm sure theres alot of people out there that are quite jealous! 
Perhaps giving her some tummy time and/or playtime under some toys (playgym) would be good. At 3weeks DD only lasted about 5-10 minutes doing this before she screamed, now at 11 weeks she plays happily by herself for about 45minutes.. When she starts to look tired, (eg yawning, rubbing eyes, grizzling etc) put her to bed... hope that helps a bit 
ETA - still at 11 weeks DD may only be up for 1 hour at a time, sometimes 1 & half, by 2 shes stuffed. So maybe just see if she can handle staying up a little to play each day, but if shes tired, let her sleep.
Edited by anna_bana
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BeLoved
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Posted: 15 June 2009 at 10:26pm |
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My DD was up for about an hour at the most at first and as her feeds (BF) started to get quicker it meant we got to have a little bit of more "play" time but she still went down within an hour to and hour & a half maximum. If your DD is happy to go down in her bed awake that is a good thing and will makes things a lot easier as she gets older if she can self settle. We started out that way and then with many well meaning but also interfering others we soon had a baby who had to be helped to sleep!
As they get older you tend to find they can manage more awake time little by little and before you know it they are fed with 15 - 20 minutes and awake for 2 hours or more.
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monikah
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Location: Wellington
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Posted: 15 June 2009 at 10:29pm |
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plunket told me a couple of days ago they should be up and back down within an hour and that speaking to them is fine for now instead of play. when they are a bit older apparently they can amuse themselves for hours just by looking at their hands. try to remember everything is new to them, staring around your lounge might seem really really boring to you but its all new and extremely interesting to a newborn. she also said always put your baby to bed awake and never let him/her yawn more than 3 times before putting them down. im finding its working really well for me at the mo. he wakes up, change, feed, i talk to him, read stories and let him stare at things til he yawns then he goes down again. all babies are different but this is just what i have heard and seems to work for us
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FreeSpirit
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Posted: 15 June 2009 at 10:33pm |
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That sounds like the perfect routine! At 3 weeks old, we had an hour tops for every awake time except the evening cluster feed/witching hour. Any longer and my daughter would be over-tired. Now she's nearly 11 months old, it's about 3 hours of awake time.
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Shezamumof3
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Posted: 16 June 2009 at 9:59am |
That sounds really good to me if she wants to sleep then let her, and thats great that she will happily lie in her bassinett while awake, that way she will elarn to self settle, which is what we did with our son and he is a great sleeper a year on.
With caden he was mostly only up for an hour at a time when he was that young, he slept a lot, fed and slept, and when he was awake he had cuddles and tummy time/floor time.
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dinkyminky
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Posted: 16 June 2009 at 11:33am |
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Thanks heaps guys,!!! good to hear what your babes are doing or done. I might have pushed her a little this morning, as now I have a little grizzly baby, but its on and off grizzel so think she is flighting to sleep now... naughty me, should have just been happy with a sleeping baby. I was just feeling guilty about puting her down when to me she didn't really seem to get to do much other that wake up and eat.Yeah see what yu mean Monikah about whats boring for us, is super amazing for them! xxx
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mummyofprinces
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Posted: 16 June 2009 at 11:50am |
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Yeah for you!!! Sounds perfect to me. Jake at 10 weeks is up for 45-90 mins at a time and sleeps for 2-3.5 hours at a time. At 3 weeks we would give Jake 5 mins on his playmate a couple of times a day and tummy time after every feed on mine or DH's chest (he is not a fan of tummy time on the floor or change table). Just remember at this age a nappy change is "play" time for them.
She will let you know when she wants more as she will start becoming more interested in her surroundings.
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hannibal
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Posted: 16 June 2009 at 5:36pm |
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Sounds good to me too - you learn a lot as you go along. I found this site great as a reference thesleepstore.co.nz
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Awake time/ Play time for newborns
