sleepless nights :-( help!

[Mena1]

My 7 week old seems to think he's nocturnal. he sleeps most of the day and when he is awake he is fairly pleasant and does not cry much. come midnight and he is cranky as hell, screams the house down for roughly 4 hours then magically falls asleep , sometimes on his own sometimes whilst feeding.

is there anything I can do to help him settle better at night? would keeping him up during the day help? I'm at my wits end , hence the 1:45am plea!

I hate to say it, but he will just figure it out in his own time. Keep daytime naps bright & at night speak as little as possible, dim lights etc.

I remember it well so I do feel your pain, he will get there though

What wingebag said, sorry. Just get as much rest as you can when he is sleeping in the day. He will figure it out. Those early days/nights are tough though.

Wake him at the same time every morning eg 7am. Switch to bedtime mode at 6.30pm (low lights, low noises etc). Same for night feeds, keep it dull.

Daytime - get out and about if you can, especially early afternoon. I vaguely remember reading that exposing baby to daytime is the quickest way to get their days and nights sorted ( although obviously the weather is a bit grim!)

didnt want to hear that it will sort itself out! but I think you are right. my first ds went through the same thing but only for about a week. this little monkey has been at it for 3 weeks. I'm knackered! thanks for the advice will try a bit of everything. lets wish for less grim weather.

Reading back - the four hour scream sessions is what my first did. He used to get overtired easily, then crash, then sleep all day then it would repeat. Keeping him awake too long in the evening triggered the sessions. He also had silent reflux.

my lo has silent reflux. we were told to elevate his cot.

how long did the 4hr scream session last?

My dd was the same, I remember going to bed at 5am after a night of screaming only for my dh to get up at 5:30am for work. I used to be determined to wake her at 7am but on only a couple of hours sleep this was a struggle, I also remember trying ever trick I could find to keep her awake in the morning which didn't work either :) from memory she seemed to snap into normal wake sleep over night but I think it was a gradual. If it helps from about 16weeks she became an amazing sleeper sleeping 12hours having a sleep then going back to sleep for a couple of hours. Sorry not much help but I feel your pain

You need to do more than elevate the cot. We got medication in the end and I had to cut out dairy and soya.

They stopped at around 10 weeks but his sleep was dreadful until I got medication and tackled the massive overtiredness from the long screaming sessions.