Do you keep your newborn awake so they will sleep longer at night?

My girlfriend tells me to keep the baby up so that he'll sleep longer through the night. But this is not always possible AND I read that a baby under 3 months old shouldn't be awake longer than 2 hours at a time or they get overtired and cranky.

What do you do? What is your newborns sleep pattern? Is it the same everyday or is it varying?

TIA!

Re: Do you keep your newborn awake so they will sleep longer at night?

Keeping the baby up later usually doesn't cause them to sleep any longer.

It is true that most infants will become tired after 2 hours of wakefulness. Each child is different, so you need to look for the signs - rubbing eyes, looses interest in activity, etc....

Nate is 4.5 months now and after 2-3 hours of being up he is usually ready for a nap even if it's only a 30 min one. We follow the EASY method (eat, activity, sleep, you) from the Baby Whisperer book. Also reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby also gave some good tips to get him on a schedule now. Our day usually goes like this

7 am wakes up, gets bottle, diaper change
9 am morning nap
11 am bottle
1 pm afternoon nap
3 pm bottle
5 pm late afternoon nap
7 pm bath, bottle
8 pm bedtime

The times when he's not napping we're doing some activity - tummy time (now rollover time), activity gym/mat, toys, baby einstein video.

Re: Do you keep your newborn awake so they will sleep longer at night?

I think that keeping the baby up is counterproductive. The baby gets wired and you get exhausted. Let the baby set the schedule for now!

At six weeks old my baby started to sleep a single five hour stretch fairly consistently. I did nothing to make it happen, she just changed when she was ready.