Newborn waking from dirty nappies

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Hello folks, my 5 week old keeps waking up at some point after filling her nappy ( either a wee or poo) and has done so since she was about 3 weeks old. She doesn't appear to have any infections and her skin looks ok - it's as though she just doesn't like sitting/ sleeping with a soiled nappy. Her nappy is changed before any her naps but we're often finding that she wakes up after an hour and every time it seems to be because of a dirty nappy. As it wakes her up by changing her I often feel like I have to start again with getting her back to sleep. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

I've only skimmed but don't think anyone has said yet - the pooing will slow down soon. Night poos stopped around 5 weeks for us. DD was doing 2 poos every second day for a bit. Much easier! (Although she currently has diarrhoea so frequent poos including at night are back which is rubbish! )

As it wakes her up by changing her I often feel like I have to start again with getting her back to sleep.

Learn the 'stealth change'. Done very quietly, no talking (maybe gentle 'shushing' or low humming) and as little noise and movement as possible. Use as dim a light as possible.

I used to slide a disposable or waterproof mat under the baby and change right in the cot (unless there's a 'blowout') so there would be the least possible moving around.

My DD was like this. My DS' weren't.

DD is 18mo and day trained, and primarily night trained. DS' both took a lot, lot longer to toilet train. I think not liking being wet contributed to DD toilet training early.

And yes, babies poo a surprising amount, don't they?! I'm still shocked at how much can come out of something so small!

Good points folks, thanks all

If a baby poops it needs changing. That is why your baby is waking. If you leave a baby sitting in its poo. It is likely to get a rash.

Babies typically nap/sleep in 45 min segments. My DS is 9 months old and rarely naps for more than an hour at a time, has never napped in his cot, and wakes every 1-2 hours at night. You may need to readjust your expectations of baby sleep a little.

Oh and he still wakes to poo most days!

Thanks Hestheoneandonly - we've not had any nappy rash/ redness etc as we change her nappy as soon as we're aware she's done a wee or poo. I was just wondering earlier if it was normal to wake after 20-30mins into a nap with a dirty nappy after being settled down with a clean nappy (only happens during the day) but it seems that it is, thanks - apologies if my first post was badly phrased.

I wish my 4 month old would have an hour long nap during the day 4x 30 minute naps throughout the day is all we get here. 3 hours at night is good too. We average 5 at night now but I'm sure he went 3 at that age and only 2 for the first couple of weeks.

You can leave a wet nappy on until it has become quite wet from accumulated pee. You really don't have to change after every pee. Poo otoh needs to be changed.

I was told by the midwife in hospital to change a baby's nappy every 3 hours up to the age of 12 weeks whether they need it or not. Is this still the case as this was 15 years ago?

I never heard that. I had my first DC in 1990, last in 2001. I always went by feel. You can tell when a nappy is pretty wet.

Quite often a baby will have a pattern of feeding followed by pooping a little later, and ime that would be a much better way to anticipate the need to change.

Nappies are a bit pricey to be taking them off and throwing them out according to the clock.

Sorry can't help, my DC were all potty trained in the womb.

Sorry can't help, my DC were all potty trained in the womb.

roland, really? Mine were potty trained at conception .

I'm still shocked at how much can come out of something so small!

Yep. Especially when we're told that a newborn's stomach is tiny! Dd is 6 days old and is just a feeding, pooing and sleeping machine. I'm sure ds didn't poo this much!

Feed her, wait for poop/pee, change her, put down to nap again. Wake/feed/toilet/play/change/nap.

Don't feed then put her down to nap, that's just asking for trouble.

*wake/feed/play/toilet/change/nap whoops! Wrong order in the other one 😂

I think waking with a dirty nappy is down to the individual baby. My DS1 couldn't care less about the state of his underwear as a newborn, just wanted a full tummy. If he pooed when asleep, he just carried on sleeping, I discovered. DD, however, always woke up if she pooed, or if she pooed after or during feeding, she had to be changed immediately, no peace until this happened. DS2, mixed bag. Startling amount of poo out of all of them, however.