How awake is your baby - nine weeks?

[Craftycakey15]

My baby is a lot more awake than she was a few weeks ago and I understand this is part of their development but I'm concerned that she is too awake now and not sleeping enough. She sleeps well at night with a feed,change and wind taking an hour or hour and half most (she has silent reflux so we need to wind more upright). During the day she is more awake and between her 10 am and 2pm feeds she could be awake for three hours. The same sometimes in the afternoon. The evening is not good. From 6-10pm she is most unsettled and will cry if we try to put her down or cry when she awakens from a nap. We have an evening routine of bottle, bath, lights dimmed, quiet story. I don't know what we are doing wrong or if this is quite normal or if it's reflux related or what? She wakes at about 2am and 5.30 am. I am concerned that we will never get her sleeping through the night if the evening in particular she is so not interested in sleeping? I have no idea if this is common or not?

[BaublesandBells]

My baby was like this from practically the day he was born. Would be awake for 6 hours straight and it was exhausting. He would only sleep a hour at a time also. The health visitor said he was clearly bright but that was cold comfort! When we finally got the reflux sorted (gaviscon, reflux formula, sleephead pillow and a raised cot) he slept finally. From about 14 weeks he then would be awake 2 hours and then have a nap and repeat. Sounds reflux related, however the wakings at night sound normal. I found just one night he went to sleep at 7pm and got himself into his own routine, that was around 12 weeks. Maybe see GP if you are worried. I know it can be exhausting and when my friends talk about newborns sleeping all the time, I am always amazed as my son was never like that.

[Anatidae]

Only two wake ups at nine weeks is good! Jeez mine is fifteen months and still wakes multiple times a night... you're doing fine, don't beat yourself up! At nine weeks we were getting tiny half hour snatches of sleep day and night.
Very common for them to be grumpy in the evenings at this age - doesn't mean anything is wrong. The gut flora is expanding and becoming more complex among other developments and they often get 'colicky' at that time. It will pass.

All the books etc say three hours is too long to be awake at that age, so you could try putting her down/sling/whatever works for a nap before that. Having said that Ds was easily awake 6-7 hours a stretch at that age (we used to read the stuff that said they can't stay awake with mild bemusement...) it didn't matter what we did, he never napped. Still doesn't.

[ThinkPinkStink]

I'm not an expert but I am the proud 'owner' of a 12 week old DD.

Nine weeks (or indeed 12 weeks) is still very little and really they are too young for a real routine (in my opinion). So we just see it as trying to teach her good habits.

I bet, if you added up the sleeps, naps and catnaps that your LO has during 24 hours you'd be surprised at how many hours it adds up to. It seems that no matter what the pattern is, DD always has approx. 14 hours sleep in 24 hours.

Being awake for blocks of three or four hours is not ideal because there's nothing sadder or more frustrating than an overtired baby, when we know that all they need to do is relax and shut their eyes and it'll all be okay. In my experience the baby refusing to sleep and getting overtired is very normal.

If she's overtired during the day; a feed, a walk in the pram and a dummy will quite often tip her over the edge into sleep.

At night, we put her down (fed, clean and PJ'd) lie with her for a little while (we have a cosleeper cot) and she shouts every so often - I just talk gently to her and reassure her when she shouts (trying to distract her before she gets too angry), when she's more asleep than awake we retreat to the living room and just pop back to soothe and reassure her if she cries, and sooner or later the time between her crying gets longer and she falls properly asleep. Then we hope and pray we can get ourselves into bed without waking her.

We found a bath in he evening was too much for her, so we bath in the morning and just top and tail in the evening. And a dummy when she's overtired is a godsend - it seems to distract her from her fury.

[Heirhelp]

Use gripe water to help with the wind.

[Craftycakey15]

Thanks for the tips. Glad we are not alone!

[Chlandy]

My sons 9 weeks old and only has 2, maybe 3 catnaps in the day (only whilst being cuddled too, or if we go out in car seat/pram)... He does then get himself exhausted and I have tried everything to try help him sleep... Thankfully he has started getting better on a night, will generally sleep 8-11 (being cuddled) have a bottle then sleep till between 5 and 7am! He also has silent reflux... Don't really have any advice, just wanted to let you know you're definitely not alone, I get nothing done in the day as my little boy is awake pretty much all day... When I feel I'm starting to struggle or need a break, I just remind myself these days aren't forever and one day I'll miss him being so small and wanting his mummy so much and will probably be thankful he didn't sleep that much and spent so much time with me in his early days :)! I'm sure you're doing brill xxx

[Craftycakey15]

Chandly thank you. Good to hear from someone else with a baby with silent reflux. I keep wondering if that is the cause for everything. Your baby sleeps very well at night! I can't wait for that time when she sleeps through as I'm like a zombie as I often can't get back to sleep between feeds!

[Chlandy]

He does sleep well at night, all be it whilst cosleeping so cuddling pretty much ha, but I do appreciate the sleep! I don't know if you already are, but my baby is bottle fed and had the number 2 tommee tippee teats (medium flow), anyway his reflux seemed to be getting worse and he was taking less milk and bringing more up, I've changed him to the slow flow teats and whilst I wouldn't say he's cured it's definitely a huge improvement! Just a thought in case you're baby is also bottle fed :) I just googled and it came up with loads of suggestions to try with different bottles and teats!

[ineedwine99]

Hi OP, my baby was similar at that age, also has silent reflux, Dr prescribed Gaviscon and within about a few days she dropped the 2am feed then a week or so later started sleeping til 6:30am, before Gaviscon her feeds were smaller (took around 2-3oz) as she'd be in pain after a few mouthfuls so needed more bottles. We roughly followed the Gina Ford routine for feeds (she's FF) 7am/10:30am/2pm/5pm/6pm/10pm dream feed. She's gone to bed at 6:30pm since about 10 days old, same bedtime routine you have, we let her dictate day naps but don't let her nap past 5pm so she keeps her bedtime. Good luck, maybe try Gaviscon?

[Craftycakey15]

ineedwine thanks for replying. We were told gaviscon was bad for babies' stomachs and prescribed ranitidine by a paediatrician. I don't know Gina fords programme; interesting to read her feed patterns. How do you feed at 5pm and 6pm? Aren't they full? It takes half an hour to feed anyway?

[ineedwine99]

I think she must must just have gotten used to it, we started her like that very early on so she expects it now, she finishes her bottles in about 5-10 mins.
The idea from the Gina book is to fill them up for the night, started her off on 2oz at 5/6:15, gradually increased them as she started taking more, she now has 4oz at 5 then 3oz at 6:15 and takes both feeds well, then 6oz dream feed at 10pm

[Craftycakey15]

We wind her a lot during feeding as we were advised to wind after every ounce so it takes longer. I don't really know if we are doing 'bedtime' as such as she sleeps before the 6pm feed too. The 6pm feed is always upstairs from then on but some of the day time feeds are too sometimes as I hate our lounge as it's draughty and all that I need for the baby is upstairs and I don't have to carry it all downstairs just to have a 'daytime' routine. Can't wait for my baby to sleep through.

[Craftycakey15]

What do you do between 5pm and 6pm then ineedwine? How old is your baby? Is it like you split a feed ? My baby would cry and want to eat more at 5pm I think?

[ineedwine99]

It is like split feed, we just wind at the end now, used to do it halfway through her feed but she got angry having her food taken away (like me)
She gotten herself into napping 12:30-2, tough if we're out as she's always been nosy, i bought a snooze shade from Amazon that fits over pushchair/car seat and its worked great, she then feeds at 2-2:15, when she was younger i'd try and get her to nap around 3 for half an hour then again at 4-4:30 for half an hour, now she naps around 4:15 for 30 mins, though i know thats hard as can't force them to sleep/stay awake.
I don't let her nap after her 5pm feed though so we play on the playmat/bouncer etc. 6:15 feed is done in her room, in pj's with her white noise and low light so she knows it's bedtime. She's 5 months old and we started this pattern at 10 days (was recommended by a friend)

[ineedwine99]

Don't get me wrong she's had her off days too, I guess we've been a little tough at times and i know MN isn't a fan but we've left her whining at times, if she's distressed we always go to her to stroke her cheek or cuddle her, but if she's just whimpering/moaning we tend to leave her to see if she settles, as a result she has learned to self settle which is a big help, again this is probably frowned on but the Gina book suggests at 5:30am giving water instead of milk so they hopefully learn its not worth waking for, we didn't do that as felt mean but gave her an oz or 2 instead of a full feed and after a little while she just stopped waking for it and instead started taking more at 7am

[Craftycakey15]

Thanks a lot for sharing. I'm going to try that

[ineedwine99]

Good luck, hope it all goes well and congratulations on your baby