Newborn sleep advice please

[shadesofcool]

Just looking for a little advice please! DS is just over 3 weeks old and is so unsettled at night. During the day when put down to sleep he sleeps no problem at all. We also talk/have TV at normal levels, use the hoover and get on as normal not trying to be overly quiet or anything. Then at night we usually take him to bed with us between 9-11 depending on when he stirs for his “bedtime bottle” and we change him, put him in his grosnug, feed him his bottle, wind and cuddle and then put him in his Moses basket to bed. During this “bedtime routine” lights are off/low, quiet talking voices etc to try and show that it is night time.

He will then sleep for about 40 mins and then wakes up crying and seems very unsettled. We try to soothe with a dummy, cuddles, rocking, pacing the room, check nappy and change if needed or feeding again (when he is showing cues he is hungry again). Then as soon as he is out back into his basket he will stir again after about 5-10 minutes. This goes on from bedtime until about 3am most nights.

I totally know that this is so normal for babies to have days/nights mixed up and I have read up on the 4th trimester too which has made me understand a lot more! I was just hoping anyone may have any advice for what else we could try? Or even some examples of your bedtime routine to see if we are going wrong anywhere. We also have a snuzpod which he just will not settle in at all so having to take Moses up/down stairs every morning and night.

Thanks!

[Aquamarine1029]

I think you're doing everything perfectly right. It's amazing how these little bundles of joy completely rule the roost, isn't it? This phase shall pass and then you will be on to the next one! My advice is to work together with your husband, take turns getting the bit of precious sleep you can, and enjoy these days as much as possible.

[Victoriasponge2]

Play some white noise quietly. It reminds them of the womb and settles babies. I didn't know about it till my newborn kept me up all night. I've used it for the last 4 months and it works. Just Google white noise for babies. I also play soothing rain sounds for my baby and it relaxes him and puts him back to sleep.

[Aquamarine1029]

Excellent idea from @Victoriasponge2. Do you have an Alexa? I play thunderstorm sounds at night and it's lovely.

[Victoriasponge2]

happiestbaby.co.uk/blogs/baby/white-noise-for-baby-sleep

Hope this helps X

I would recommend youtube or there's plenty of white noise apps on the app store.

[shadesofcool]

@Victoriasponge2

Play some white noise quietly. It reminds them of the womb and settles babies. I didn't know about it till my newborn kept me up all night. I've used it for the last 4 months and it works. Just Google white noise for babies. I also play soothing rain sounds for my baby and it relaxes him and puts him back to sleep.

Yes we’ve tried white noise and lullaby’s which do really help to settle to sleep sometimes but then it’s a matter of time before he starts stirring and waking again!

[Margo34]

Keep doing what you're doing, 3 weeks is tiny. Their sleep cycles are around 35-45minutes and they'll wake after each cycle until the day/night confusion clears up when night sleep cycles last around 2 hrs but even then they'll continue to wake after each cycle unless they can self-settle back to sleep, certainly if the environment they fell asleep in has changed. This is my understanding from extensive late night reading and researching of newborn sleep! 11weeks in here!

But that aside - could baby be hungry or waking because its a touch too cold/hot? They're very sensitive to temperature changes I've discovered! Mine would only nap on me during the day from about 5weeks - very frustrating until I realised it had got colder weather wise generally and I'd left the thermostat upstairs so it was 1 degree warmer upstairs than downstairs and baby was cold when I put down to nap in the day.

In terms of routine, ours is feed in a 'nighttime feeding space', change nappy, cuddle and lullaby, then bed. Baby goes down drowsy but awake (a phrase I wanted to ban from our household until about 2 weeks ago) about 8pm,sleeps until 1030 when I feed again and then stays asleep until around 230/3 for another feed and again around 6 (EBF baby here tho).

Just go with the flow of what bbay needs, it won't last long (another phrase I wanted to ban).

[rykar]

We are having a similar issue with my 3week old girl..

We think its the moses basket.. she will sleep in her pram, bouncer, or on us for 3-4hrs but as soon as u put her in the mose basket 10minutes later shes screaming... we check the usual things and rule everything out.. only thing we can think of is she doesn't like it as she can't see us if she wakes up because the sides are high, and shes quite long so I think her arms hit the sides etc when shes stretching out so doesn't have enough space.. so we have a new bed coming today to see if that rules it out.. she slept in our bed for 4hrs this morning straight away with no problems..

[lcdododo]

Honestly, there isn't any advice anyone can give you that'll stop your baby doing what they're doing.

They're a newborn.
They're behaviour is normal.

[Autumnismyseason]

Sounds like babies being babies. I’d just pop him on the boob and watch a film. When he naps in the day have a nap yourself. Once they get a bit bigger (12 weeks onward) they can fall into 4 hour waking and feeding pattern if you are lucky. Don’t worry about it and don’t get bogged down in all these crazy ideas that you can sleep train a 3 week old. Just give in and enjoy the cuddles.

[FizzingWhizzbee123]

Could be trapped wind making baby wake quickly. I thought it would be useless but Infacol is helping a bit here. Worth a try.

[Respectabitch]

Tbh, I responded to this issue by cosleeping, which worked a charm. In my experience most newborns are like this and prefer to spend their nights snuggled up to a person. But I was EBF which made it safer.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. This is just what newborns are like. Their natural rhythm is to take most milk at night in the first weeks. You could try swaddling and a dummy if you aren't already. Mine were very happy swaddled and it stopped them waking themselves up with the Moro reflex. If you are really struggling with lack of sleep, planned cosleeping in a bed is better than accidental cosleeping, but I would take every possible precaution if I considered that - and if either of you smoke for instance then I think it would have to be ruled out.

[shadesofcool]

Thank you for the advice. DS doesn’t like to be swaddled as like to sleep with his arms up. He has been demand feeding quite a lot today I think he could be having a growth spurt/cluster feeding! Hopefully this will settle in a few days

[Respectabitch]

DS doesn’t like to be swaddled as like to sleep with his arms up.

You could try the Love2Dream swaddle bags which hold their arms in place above their heads. Suppresses the reflex but also allows them to hold that natural position.

[Pipperleen]

Congratulations on your little one! I have an 11 week old and realised at about 5 weeks that I was putting her to bed too late. She was going to bed around 10ish but I sometimes couldn’t get her down until gone 12.
Asked for advice on here and ended up consciously trying for a nap at 6/7pm. This very quickly and naturally turned into bedtime and she’s now staying down for much longer stretches.
All babies are different though, but maybe worth a go. Good luck!

[lcdododo]

@shadesofcool

Thank you for the advice. DS doesn’t like to be swaddled as like to sleep with his arms up. He has been demand feeding quite a lot today I think he could be having a growth spurt/cluster feeding! Hopefully this will settle in a few days

The ergopouch is a great swaddle