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Newborn awake at night for hours

8 replies

INeedABeer · 19/11/2016 04:10

I have a 12 day old LO who until past 4 nights has had decent blocks of sleep at night - 2/3 hours at a time. He's now started being wide awake from 1am pretty much through til 10am with perhaps 4 x 20 min naps throughout the night.

He sleeps amazingly during the day and has no problems feeding daytime and is he most chilled relaxed baby.

At night, his feeds are shorter and he's way more fussy. Seems to need burped lots and has been pooing like 4-5 times throughout the night. He's been doing at least one large vomit too per night and constantly gets the hiccups.

He's clearly overtired but I'm trying to work out if something else is to blame too? DH and I are slowly becoming demented, and I'm getting to the point where I think we might have to stop visitors altogether for a while just so we can sleep during the day.

I know this is supposed to be normal, but it doesn't seem normal for such a small baby to be awake for up to 3 hours?

We have swaddled, play white noise, have dim lights, don't speak to him or speak in whispers, carry him in his carrier (often will fall asleep for 10-20 mins after putting down) he has a co-sleep crib so is right next to us and can smell us.

Just don't know what else to do?!!!

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LBOCS2 · 19/11/2016 04:55

Are you breastfeeding? Might be easiest to get him into bed with you and let him latch on.

What are his naps like during the day? Babies that age shouldn't be awake for longer than about an hour really, so if he's not sleeping that much you need to put him to sleep (this was a revelation to me, I always assumed they'd fall asleep if they were tired. Not so much). If he's doing decent naps it should help with nighttime sleep.

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INeedABeer · 19/11/2016 06:00

LB0CS2 he sleeps for 2-3 hours during the day and awake for very short periods to feed then asleep again. He will happily be put down next to us on sofa and sleep so it's not like he'll only sleep when in mine or DH arms...

I am breastfeeding, have fed him a few times in bed lying down but generally he's just wide awake or stops feeding as he needs to burp/fart/poo!

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PoloZolo · 19/11/2016 07:09

Sometimes babies get a build up of wind and it's worse at night, could you try something like infacol to see if that helps. Just a thought

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YokoUhOh · 19/11/2016 07:14

Babies feed more at night in order to boost supply. If he's going quite long periods without a feed during the day, he'll feed more at night.

Perhaps feed him more often during the day and see what happens?

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Pocketsizedpixie · 19/11/2016 07:27

I don't know if it's possible with a bedside cot but could you try raising the head end slightly (check the instructions to make sure it's safe for your model of cot) and see if that helps with the wind/stomach stuff?

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INeedABeer · 19/11/2016 09:35

After more reading, it's sounds really like wind. His tummy makes funny noises when feeding and we seem to struggle getting a burp up.

I also read that babies are commonly sensitive to dairy. I have had a fair amount of dairy past few days, especially for dinner. Going to try giving up and seeing if it helps.

Have him lying on me just now sitting a little elevated and have bought some infacol to try. Hope it works as it's awful seeing him so unhappy and we're both zombies Confused

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ChristianGreysAnatomy · 19/11/2016 09:41

Sorry to be gigantically unhelpful but at 12 days, nothing he does will make any sense. Shut the door to visitors and just roll with the madness.

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FATEdestiny · 19/11/2016 14:36

Try a swaddle. Great for calming and soothing a newborn.

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