Help! Advice needed about resettling newborn after early morning feed.

[messylittlemonkey]

Hello

I'd really appreciate any advice.

We have an eight week old DD (and a four and a half year old).

The baby is currently in a moses basket in our room. She is generally in quite a good routine. Feeds well, naps well during the day etc... The problem we're having at the moment is that she wakes for her 'nightime' feed at around 4am and, for the past few nights, she hasn't been able to get back to sleep in her basket. she has ended up in our bed at around 5am as I just want her to get back to sleep so that the rest of her day isn't thrown off track. Obviously,I don't want this to become habit.

It is getting light now around the time that she needs to resettle and I don't think this helps. I'm going to get some better blackout curtains this weekend which may help.

I've tried sitting with her whilst she's in her basket, but she just takes so long to settle and as I said, I start to worry about the rest of her day.

Anyone got any tips? She generally settles pretty well at bedtime and after her 11pm feed, but just not after the early morning one.

Secretly, I'm hoping that as she pushes the early morning feed back, this will no longer be an issue, but I don't want her to get into any bad habits and to get used to coming into our bed to settle herself.

Help!

Thanks
MLM

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

I don't think there's any real problem of bad habits at eight weeks old, to be honest. We co-slept at that age, and just gradually moved ours back into her cot for longer stretches of time as she got older, and now she's 17 mo and I just kiss her goodnight and tuck her in with her teddy and she goes to sleep on her own.

Do you mean she wakes for the first time at 4am? That's pretty astounding for eight weeks. If it's not an inconvenience for you at the moment, I'd just go with it. Babies change so much so fast at that age, I think you just do what works that week and make changes when you need to.

[messylittlemonkey]

Thanks Tortoise.

I think we've just hit the point where the sleep deprivation is taking its toll and we're losing perspective.

Yes, she now wakes around 4am which means she goes approx 5 hours after her 11pm feed. She has done this gradually over the past few weeks moving back from 2am to 3am and now 4am. She is formula fed which must make it easier for her.

I don't remember these issues with my older dd, but I'm sure they were there!

[nct73]

I used to enjoying us dosing back to sleep together for a couple of hours after early morning feed. We all ended up feeling more refreshed as a struggle to resettle will leave you wide awake & unable to get more sleep even if they do. Don't be hard on yourself or her. Sounds like she got an ace routine going. Doesnt need to be in your bed for other sleeps so as she drops/gets later with this feed & it becomes breakfast, this will naturally put an end to this so no 'habit' worries.

[messylittlemonkey]

Thanks so much NCT, I'm sure you're right!

I've got into a bit of an over analytical state of mind recently. Looking for solutions to everything, even things which don't need solving!

We're moving her into a cot this weekend as she is too big for the moses basket so she will at least be more comfortable. As tortoise said, babies change so quickly at this stage, so just when one thing starts to work, something else becomes tricky.

I will take a step back and get a grip!

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

It's par for the newborn course, isn't it, this frantic conviction that you must be doing something wrong and there's a thing you can do to change it, because the universe can't possibly just be mean enough to make you wake up that often and there's nothing you can do about it.

I'll no doubt feel the same with #2 as well. I remember reading every sleep book in existence with #1 (who was MUCH worse than your #2!) and I'd have been so much happier just rolling with it.