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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask how you get newborns to sleep??

85 replies

FanaticalFox · 01/05/2017 10:56

Thats it really. Took our 2 day old home from hospital yesterday. She will not breastfeed so onto SMA pro formula (stayed with Sma as she had that in hospital) she cried and stayed away allllll night til 6am when i finally got her to sleep in her moses basket with ewan the dream sheep now i don't want a total repeat of this. ANY help or advice would be gratefully received, midwife is coming this morning to help us too! But mainly to look at breastfeeding which i already know is highly doubtful as they gave up in hospital.

OP posts:

Original poster

FanaticalFox · 01/05/2017 10:56

Stayed AWAKE all night not away!

OP posts:

user1488721675 · 01/05/2017 10:58

Has your milk even come in yet? It took 3 days with my first its worth keeping trying if that's what you want to do?

BertrandRussell · 01/05/2017 10:59

Do you want to bf?

Original poster

FanaticalFox · 01/05/2017 10:59

To add baby also seems colic-y to us she doesn't bump much or that easily and sometimes seems very uncomfortable etc so advice on bottles etc would be good thanks.

OP posts:

Original poster

FanaticalFox · 01/05/2017 11:00

I could only get colostrum from one breast and not the other and she will just not latch on at all to either breast - sorry if TMI. Yes i want to BF but mainly i just want a happy baby who can sleep etc!! So happy to stick with bottles if that works too.

OP posts:

Original poster

FanaticalFox · 01/05/2017 11:01

*burp

OP posts:

PeppaPigTastesLikeBacon · 01/05/2017 11:01

My DD slept well in the hospital at night but as soon as we got her home. Bam, no sleep at night. It was driving me INSANE until I realised that the hospital was never really dark but our house was at night time. We got a night light and she slept SO much better it was unreal. Still woke up but at least we had a break between wake ups

justinelibertine · 01/05/2017 11:03

Congratulations!
Er, I have no advice, your DD is so little and it's a huge shock being born.
I think a lot of it is luck. Keep cuddling and trying to feed and baby will sleep eventually.

LilacSpatula · 01/05/2017 11:03

The MAM bottles worked amazingly for us. They're anti colic and have small holes in the bottom so the air is displaced (but the milk doesn't leak from them). Magic. Small amounts frequently.

PeppaPigTastesLikeBacon · 01/05/2017 11:04

You have to tap the baby harder than what you think to get burps. Hold under the jaw with baby on your knee (muslin recommend) and then keep tap tapping away switching with rubbing up and down babies back.

We used nuk bottles and found DD took to them so much better than Tommee tippee. We switched back to tommee tippee when she was older as we had more of them than nuk ones.
I think Dr Brown ones are supposed to be good also (I think that's what they're called)

Helbel82 · 01/05/2017 11:05

The first night I took my newborn home she was awake all night wanting to be fed. This carried on for a good few weeks where she would only go to sleep around 6 am and only recently (she is almost 8weeks) has just settled in to some kind of a sleep routine at night. From what I've heard from other parents this is very typical of newborns as they have no sense of day or night yet. It's pretty tough with sleep deprivation but it does get better over time.

Trifleorbust · 01/05/2017 11:06

I would let her sleep on you for now whenever possible. Try swaddling. Do you have a sling? She will want to be as close to you as possible, as she will believe herself to be still inside you and the big noisy world will be very scary to her!

PeaFaceMcgee · 01/05/2017 11:07

It's normal for very newborns to feed every hour or two, regardless of feeding method. Congratulations x

Legma37 · 01/05/2017 11:09

It took some time for both myself and baby to learn to latch properly as it was new for both of us and my milk came in eight days after birth. The first night home baby was up all night breastfeeding and I was topping up with harvested colostrum. Justinlibertine is right - it's a huge shock for baby. Keep baby close for cuddles and skin on skin works wonders.

clown503 · 01/05/2017 11:12

I found that background noise helped as well as a night light. My baby barely slept the first night at home because it was so quiet compared to the ward. But j was in hospital until my baby was 10 days old so I don't know if that makes a difference. We put the radio on pretty much constantly!

Heirhelp · 01/05/2017 11:13

The no sleeping unless on you thing at night is normal. Read about the fourth trimester.

There is nothing wrong with ff but if you want to bf then contact LLL or ring the NTC breast feeding helpline today. You can also get a community midwife to come out and see you everyday until you are handovered to HV at day 10 but you will need to ask for it.

twinklehickorymoomoo · 01/05/2017 11:15

Mam anti colic bottles. Baby 1 was swaddled and baby 2 a sleepyhead. In fact he sleeps so well in his sleepyhead I'm dreading weaning him off of it!

BillSykesDog · 01/05/2017 11:16

Dr Browns bottles are great for colic plus the aptamil colic formula. They worked overnight for us. Plus when they are that small going to sleep in a bed on their own is tough. Try cuddling/rocking her to sleep in your arms then putting her down.

Sandsnake · 01/05/2017 11:16

It might just be her sleep pattern at present, though it will get better. If not then try white noise, as in really loud white noice (you can look it up on the internet). Helped massively with our DS.

Notlostjustexploring · 01/05/2017 11:21

We had that our first night home with our son. We worked out that he was crying because we were putting him in a crib (small, but still too big and draughty for a newborn) and using the "correct" amount of layers for the room temperature, so he was actually cold.
So he ended up sleeping in the pram bassinet with two layers of blankets, and he was happy. I couldn't sleep right enough because I was panicking about not following official guidelines!
I think we might have cuddled him until he fell asleep, then did a sleeping baby transfer.
Also, infacol was brilliant for him for trapped wind.
Congratulations!

Popskipiekin · 01/05/2017 11:21

Swaddling helped with both our DSs. That and a sleepyhead - godsend. Oh and not letting too long elapse between daytime naps (I think max an hour??). Sleep begets sleep and all that. Ours never slept well at night if they had been too strung out during the day. Try lots of different ways of napping during the day - sling, pram, just cradling her, cot, white noise (must be loud!), a dummy. I would always go for a long pram walk - or better still send someone else to do it and sleep!

Please please do ask for midwives to help with bf if you would like to, but your attitude is brilliant and ff/bf doesn't really matter as long as you and your baby are happy. Good luck and congratulations!

HopefullyAnonymous · 01/05/2017 11:21

When she was crying, was she in her basket or being held?

Cuppaand2biscuits · 01/05/2017 11:24

You can definitely still breastfeed if you want to. Stay in bed as much as you can with no top on, baby is just a nappy laid on your chest. All the skin to skin contact will encourage your milk to come in. The latch is something that can be learnt by both of you with the right support.
Babies do often take a week or so to adjust to our rhythms of day and night. Just try to stick to only 1 set of visitors a day so that you can sleep when baby does during the day.

Trifleorbust · 01/05/2017 11:30

I think it is unhelpful to say the OP will be able to breastfeed. How about saying may? Babies so sometimes take time to latch and it is very early days, but it is never a certainty.

Graphista · 01/05/2017 11:31

No objections to ff if that's what you choose but if you want to bf you can. It's extremely early days to say baby can't, your milk isn't properly in yet and it's a skill that takes time for you both to learn. Latching, positions, timings... My dd was in scbu tube fed for first week. I'd had emcs so milk took a while to come in but once home I had a fantastic midwife who came daily to get us breast feeding which I was able to do for 9 months. Unfortunately due to a medical condition my milk dried at that point so then went onto ff. Sma made her instantly projectile vomit, tried several different formulas until we found I think Milupa suited best (long time ago dd now 16).

Regarding sleep, little tummies so they feed little and often.

My dd also wouldn't sleep at night initially, midwifes theory was because she was born in daytime, they're so exhausted after birth they sleep immediately and then wake naturally so daytime born babies tend to do this. She recommended lots of light and noise in daytime plus tepid flannels to wake her then the opposite at night, must admit that plus swaddling which she also advised (but admitted she wasn't supposed to) sorted dd out.

Congratulations and good luck

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