Newborn sleep what is normal!

[DisneyGirl2387]

Please fill me in on your experiences with a newborn. What is normal? Is there such thing as normal?

My LO is nearly 5 weeks old and has reflux (we think). To feed him change him and settle him can take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. This is the same in the day and the night. When he is asleep at night he is so noisy! He grunts, cries out, wiggles, snorts and wakes himself up. He seems to love cat napping rather than sleeping for a long stretch of time. He also loves ginormous poos in the middle of the night. Some days and nights he won't settle between feeds so is awake from one feed to the next.
I feel like he is a puzzle that I'm trying to solve. Sometimes he screams through a feed, sometimes not. Sometimes he is so sick when feeding, sometimes not. He cries and I don't know what he wants!

I was exclusively pumping but just stopped as it was making me ill. I feel better mentally but am still exhausted and emotional.

All my washing is being done by my Mum. All we can manage is ready meals and the house is a mess.

Help!

[SnowmanDrinkingSnowballs]

I don’t think there is a normal but if you keep putting one foot in front of the other it will get better. The newborn stage is full on but relatively short.
In terms of nighttime just keep making sure things are dark/quiet etc and baby will learn that is when he sleeps. Equally try to make sure daytime is bright and noisy so he is tired when bedtime comes around.
I wouldn’t worry about the house and the ready meals as in time your energy levels will increase and you will both be able to do more.

[MonkeyPuddle]

Sounds just like my DD who’s 5 weeks old as well.
They have no routine, I just feed her responsively and sometimes she sleeps for hours, sometimes she doesn’t

[DecTheTreeTime]

Sounds normal to me. I remember DD feeding at night. Would poop. Need feeding again to get back to sleep. Then poop again. Was an endless cycle. The early days are so hard. But thankfully they do fly by.

DD is 17 months now and I'm due no.2 in spring. So couldn't of been too terrible. Or I've just blocked it out 🤣

[Thatwentbadly]

There has been a lot of research into infant sleep by Durham university

www.basisonline.org.uk/

[SnuggyBuggy]

Trying to figure anything out at this age is a waste of time, anything goes, they are too young to develop habits and change so much. Just get through it, accept help, eat ready meals and takeaway and tell yourself things will get better in time.

[1990shopefulftm]

We ve got a 4 week old and his sleep doesn't have much of a pattern to it. He's settling better since we switched him to comfort milk and are using infacol and gripe water could be worth trying those and getting advice on the reflux?
he also has had oral thursh which didn't help.
But honestly, we re treating this time as surviving the best we can, doesn't matter if the house is a bit messy.

[Superscientist]

Mine was very much like this at 5 weeks. She has reflux too which had been greatly improved my medication.

I can't remember exactly but sometime between 5 and 8 weeks she stopped pooing overnight which meant that we could reduce some of the night nappy changes and then go down to not changing overnight at all.

I started feeding her lying down which helps and became reluctant Co sleepers. When she is being cuddle she sleeps much quieter and doesn't grunt and whimper as much. Most of the time I try to get her back in the crib after each feed until its clear that she won't settle. Sometimes after her jabs or if she needs her reflux medication dose adjusting.

[Ihaveoflate]

Sounds normal in my experience. The constant night pooing stopped at around 8 weeks and things started to improve generally at around that time.

The first two months were hell and just a phase I had to survive. I can't honestly remember how, but I do know I didn't cook a meal for the first 3 months and I got a cleaner after 6 weeks of living in a state.

It does get better and things change very quickly at that age, but my god it feels like an eternity when you're in the thick of it!