7 week old - sleep probs ( more for mum than him!)

[amijee]

My 7 week old ds is an active baby that feeds ( breast)frequently. The problem is - he doesn't sleep much at all, day or night. Bet 7am and 7pm he will average a total of around 2 hrs but not in a nice long stretch - usually broken up. The nights are the worst. We have managed to get him into a routine of going down at 7.30pm and he stays down until approx 11.30pm but then it goes down hill after that.

Last night for example, he woke at 2am ( for a feed) 3am ( for a cuddle) 3.50am for another feed, 4.15am for another cuddle but was diff to settle, 5.15 am for a feed, 6am for a cuddle ( diff to settle) then finally my husband got him up at 7am so I could get an hour's sleep!

This is typical of the nights I have been having for weeks and as he's not sleeping long stretches in the day - I am utterly exhausted. Partly, it's cos he's still feeding frequently but I think the sleep is an issue also. I am trying to get him to feed no more frequently than 2 hrly and not give it to him for dropping off in the day.

Any ideas? Or do I just have to run with this until he grows out of it?

Dear Amijee,hi there.

Your little one is still very young and at this age they seem to spend their life feeding.Babies also have a growth spurt at around 8 weeks and feed more frequently.As they get bigger the demand for feeds lessens and life becomes more bearable,honest!!It is good that you are trying to get some sort of routine as this will help when baby is older but I think in the early weeks you need to go with the babys needs.With both of mine I established a winding down routine at bedtime ie bath,song(!)replaced later by story(very simple picture book),cuddle,feed,bed.Even so at 7 weeks mine were demand feeding evey 2-3 hours.Ds settled into sleeping through at 16 weeks,dd it took about 6 months as she was colicky.It is utterly exhausting I agree.Have you considered possibly expressing some milk and letting your dh do a feed or two?I found it easiest to express when baby was feeding from other breast.If you have close family near could they maybe take baby for a walk in the day for an hour or so so you can have a nap/put your feet up?? Re daytime sleep they all differ,ds was a good daytime sleeper and napped for ages but dd was a complete nightmare!Make sure you are eating regular meals if you can and drinking plenty of fluids.Try to rest when you can.Good luck! It does get better!!!!If baby does sleep during day I would let him and catch up yourself.Babies can get overstimulated and overtired at times.HTH.

It's hard but you are doing great.

I think the best thing is to accept that temporarily there is no such thing as a normal routine.
You have to grab a showere/food/sleep where and when you can and the way the people who love you can help is by enabling this to happen.

My dd cried every night from 3 to 10 weeks. Started at 12 midnight and carried on until 6 pm.

I learnt to sleep in the day and someone would take her out for a good long walk so I couldn't hear her at all.

By contrast,ds was a dream.

Hang in there.

It is soo soo hard isn't it. He is still just weeny. If you drive, take him out in the car if he will sleep in it. When he goes to sleep, park up and sleep yourself.

Another thing.
You you get up to feed in the night? How do you feel about bringing him into bed with you?
You might get a little more sleep?

Do you take him inot bed with you? At night I would feed then put baby back in crib. If they woke again I brought them back into bed, latched them on and slept at the same time as feeding. That is the beauty of BF. For second and subsequent babies I had a swinging crib. When I had had enough of them I swung them in the crib.
It is an exhausting time but it does improve, honestly.