Newborn up every two hours

[toodalooo]

And then needs to be winded for an hour or so, before she settles down:

I'm exhausted. When does it get easier ?

With my first, she never woke up this much and by 5 weeks she slept through pretty much. Maybe one feed.

I am
Exhausted

It's very normal for the first 6 months for breastfeeding at least. Then it should slowly change to 3, 4, 5 hour stints. My children took until 9+ months to start having more than 6 hour stints of sleep.

Yes. This was normal in my experience, and particularly awful for my middle child.

it is a good thing they grow up and you blank out some of the worst memories…
but it does get better. I’m sorry it’s so hideous.

An hour or 2 of winding feels unusual in my experience.

How old are they?

Oh mate. Yes, this is it. It gets easier in a few weeks. Just sleep when you can, get fresh air every day, keep your energy up with decent food, drink plenty of water, and I promise you it gets better.

This sounds completely normal to me. It didn’t get any easier until they were all at least 2 months, by 6 months it was much better. Very short stretch of your life but I appreciate the sheer exhaustion, I fell asleep standing up once.

I can't say when it gets easier as both my kids were in the worse end of sleeping so wouldn't want to use them as examples! But will say however long it lasts you can get through it. There was a stage my baby woke up every 30 minutes and was breastfed so I did all the nights. I am still here today! It won't be forever and just focus on that.

An hour of winding seems a lot but waking every two hours for a newborn isn't unusual. Take every opportunity for sleep no matter the time of day!

Oh yes.. I remember this feeling. It WILL get easier. By about 4 months things had settled down a bit.

4 weeks. Just won't settle after feeds. Lots of spitting up and lots of grunting and crying and just not settling after feeds.

Maybe has reflux? Have you tried putting their cot on an incline? You can buy a special mattress for this or just prop the end legs on stilts (or books as I did with my first!!) just don't incline it too much or you will find them squashed at the bottom of the cot 😳

Have you considered colic/reflux? Could be worth a trip to gp or mention it too midewife/hv. This is based on the hour to wind not the two hours (that is normal) if it's reflux gaviscon, rinitidine and tilting the cot helped us. Also had a dairy allergy so things improved when that was cut out. To get through it we basically tag teamed. I went to bed straight after a feed at 7 dh had lo and gave a bottle feed (expressed) around 10. He then dealt with lo until around 12. Then I got up and he went to bed. I was getting around 5 hours and got about 6.5 as he was working.

Was also going to say sounds like reflux . Luckily my health visitor witnessed the noise DD made after a feed and told me it was reflux . Was also told to slightly incline cot and was put on special milk . From that point onwards she was much happier . It's worth checking it out.

My ten month old still doesn't sleep longer than two hours at a time. We're still taking wake ups in turns aside from bf. We're used to it but looking forward to the day she can link sleep cycles and sleep!

Ah. Sounds like you unknowingly had an easy baby the first time. This sounds pretty normal to me re: the waking and it’s likely that she has colic (which was also normal with mine). Infacol helps a little bit and you can try different milk formulas when she’s not breastfeeding any more. It’s also possible that she’s intolerant to something that you’re eating. I think dairy is the most common culprit in that scenario so you could try cutting that out of your diet and see if it helps. But yeah, unfortunately the waking every couple of hours is normal for a lot of young babies. I didn’t get a full nights sleep until mine was 3 years old (although it did slowly improve on small steps from waking every hour or two to waking once a night).

Oh yeah I was aware my last child was an easy baby. I'm not breastfeeding anymore as the feeding was too relentless. My last one also wasn't breastfed for long.

They both had reflux. I called the HV who was unwilling to help, as there are no signs it's serious enough. With my last one, she had gaviscon in her milk from quite early on.

Hi OP, these are the things that kept me going.

1. The baby is a human being. It’ll get tired eventually and sleep. WHEN THE BABY SLEEPS, YOU DONT DO HOUSE WORK. You sleep.
2. Pump milk and get your partner to do one feedThat way you get 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I used to sleep at 7pm, my partner at around 11pm. I got 4-5 hours. It’s hard to fall asleep at 7pm, if you try , you get used to it in a few days. Getting 4+ hours of uninterrupted sleep changed my life
3. when the baby grows, he/she sleeps longer and it gets better. When the baby starts solids at around 6m, it gets a LOT better. Hang in there

My baby is no longer breastfed. Please can people stop assuming this is the default. It doesn't work out for everyone.

Hey, sorry - just saw your other messages. Ask if there is a “paediatric gp” at your surgery. That gp understood things and prescribed special formula when one of my twins had the same problem. The crying and throwing up disappeared from the first feed!

My twins were not breastfed too, it’s not for everyone. I totally understand x

Are you sharing the load with your partner? X

No I am on maternity leave and he works full time and at weekends. He has had one day off since the baby was born.

Seen as the baby isn’t breastfed hand them to your partner. It’s totally normal, but it will pass soon hopefully. We used infacol drops and kept DS upright for atleast half an hour after feeds and it helped a little.

Why didn't he take paternity leave!? If you're not BF there's no reason why he shouldnt be doing at least a couple of night feeds a week, even if he is working.

@MolliciousIntent he's self employed. If he doesn't go to work, there's no money. It's as simple as that unfortunately. So no paternity leave or time off.

I thought SE people could still claim SPP?