DD not settling at night, I've heard about swaddling........does it work??

[GoodGollyMissMolly]

DD isn't settling at night, she will sleep through once she has settled (usually at about 2am till about 7am) but all she wants to do is feed, and as I am bf, it means I am up with her all the time.

DD is 16 days old, please can someone tell me it will get better, or recommend something to help her settle. Or feel free to tell me that I am expecting to much to early.

I've heard about swaddling, does it work? How do I do it?
Do those baby night time products work, has anyone tried them.

Any advice please. All I need her to do is settle and anything I can do to help her do that would be very, very welcome.

Thats not too bad at 16days, if youre getting 5 hours interupted sleep! Its still early days. They one thing that I can really really recommend is try to distinguish between night and day ie before bedtime put her in pajamas, put her in the bedroom with a little light on maybe play some lullabys. This wont work immediatly but it will def help you in the long run and make her realise when its time to sleep. My DD slept through at 9 weeks and I really believe this helped. Try not to worry as she gets bigger she will be able to eat more and sleep for longer. Swaddling is worth a try it worked with us for a few weeks then she got too strong and went mad when she was wrapped up, to be fair I could have tied her up with sellotape and she would have been able to get out!!

Thanks Mumbear, so basically I'm lucky to get the sleep I am getting , I thought I was asking too much, too early, lol.

I think it's the constant feeding DD wants from about 9pm till she finally settles at around 2am. She wants feeding every 30 minutes or so for about 25 minutes.

I think I may try the swaddling, anything is worth a go

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Really lenny, MW at mat home told me not to worry about her feeding in the night if she doesn't wake. Should I wake her for a feed in the night?? Different MW's keep telling me different things, it's so confusing as a first time mum!!

Thanks for the congrats lenny

I would only wake her in the day. they tend to cluster feed at night, when my dd was this age she fed a lot at that time of night. by the time she was 10 weeks I she would go down at 6 and I would lift her for a dream feed at 10. She was on formula by then so that made a difference in that when she went down after her dream feed that would be her till 6 the next morning.

Oh and I always swaddled (forgot to add that) Still do and she is 9 months (now it's under arms) It does help as the moro reflex is quite strong until they are 7/8 months. x

Whats to moro reflex?, I've never heard of that.

Oh, and did you buy a specific swaddling blanket or did you use a normal blanket??

I found swaddling really helped until DS reached a point at about 6 weeks where it did more harm than good - he would get really frustrated trying to fight his way out of it!

I used a crib sheet rather than a blanket, I was worried he would get too hot.

This really helped my ds sleep better
We looked at these before he was born and thought hmmm, that's rather a lot of cash for a cotton blanket.... Ds had a tendency to punch himself in the face whilst sleeping (moro reflex) and this was absolutely great for preventing that. Only regret is that we didn't buy one sooner. I remember being gutted when he outgrew it! As for the 5 hour period without a feed, if she was a good sized term baby, who feeds very frequently otherwise, that's absolutely fine...enjoy it

Moro reflex is just the name used for what babies do - they have involuntary movements which they can't control which makes them move and thrash about - they can kick off covers, getting cold or due to the thrashing they wake up. I used a grobag and swaddled as well to limit this. It does work. I just used a normal blanket. In the early days I used a shawl as it was quite light but meant that I could wrap it round.

Wow, lots of great advice, thank you all.

Pinkpussycat, that was the one I was looking at. DD was 8 days late and weighd 7lbs 3 ounces, she has since put on 6 ounces.

puppydog, I hope it will help DD.

Karen, so thats why she keeps puncing her arms in the air.

Id personally save the money and use a blanket ask your Hv to show you how to swaddle if you are not sure. She will settle into her own pattern of sleep soon enough x

Good luck

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Missmolly, the main difference that the swaddle blanket has over an ordinary one is the pouch where the legs go - they can then kick away but the actual 'wraparound' bits are up round the body out of the way of the kicking legs - genius I thought!

The link to the swaddling blanket actually shows a Miracle swaddling blanket (not mothercare own brand) altho you can get the Miracle ones in Mothercare IYSWIM. I know you can swaddle using ordinary sheets and blankets and save money, but some babies are Houdinis and get out of ordinary ones. Our baby had one of the ones pictured and once she was wrapped in that she wasn't going anywhere. It really settled her, and we have since passed it to friends who found it a godsend. Half my NCt group ended up buying them and all swore by them.

oooh good idea mumbear, hv coming for first time tomorrow so I will ask her to show me how to swaddle.

Thanks lenny, I'm v v jelous of DH's 8 hour strech, lol, DD and I have taken to sleeping downsatairs so DH can get some sleep.
I'm certainkly not going to complain at only 5 hours anymore, should think myself lucky

Pinkpussycat, sounds good, DD is forever kicking her blanket off herself in the night.