Help haven't been able to get newborn to sleep before 3am every night

[Jen99]

DS1 is 2.5 weeks and since last Thursday night we haven't been able to settle him to sleep much bfore 3am each night and we are both at our wits end. He started off with just wanting to feed constantly and could sometimes be at it for 5 - 6 hours in the late evening o the early hours so eventually we decided to top him up with a formula feed at night and has been taking about 3 oz after feeding from both breasts but this doesn't seem to be helping. Yesterday he slept for 2 hrs in his moses basket from 2-4pm. He fed from one breast, we bathed him at 6pm, gave him the other breast and then he had 3 ozs of formula. He seemed very tired and we tried to put him down at 8pm but he didn't settle until 2.45 this morning and then only slept for 1.5 hrs. After that he woke about every hour for a small feed until he finally slept for 2 hrs at about 10am this morning.

My instinct is to stop giving him the formula - after all our nights surely can't get any worse! Was in floods of tears last night and am starting to get really impatient with DS which then makes me feel guilty. DP is very supportive but is now back at work and finding it hard with the lack of sleep. I know DS is still very young but can't go on for much longer like this every night. Sorry for rant - has anyone got any advice?

DS was 8lbs ll at birth and is now 9lbs and has lots of dirty and wet nappies. Also do not think it is colic as he has been going down in his moses basket and has been lying there quite happily making noises before he starts crying but is not screaming or bringing his legs up.

i really feel for you my ds was like this at that age fed every hour but i'm afraid some babies do jsut do this

could you express milk to see how much he is actually taking

my cousin had thsi problem found she wasnt producing as much as she thought so baby was just continuously feeding

also try wrapping abbay tight in blanket like in hospital as i found my ds settled better

the smell of you will be comfort to baby this small so they want to be cuddles all the time

try wrapping and just low soft music and gently rock moses basket to settle baby

have no other suggestions i'm afraid as my ds just stopped when he got to 8 weeks i started putting down at reasonable time as they can apparently tell the difference between night and day at that age

but it doeas sound fairly normal remember being so tired i couldnt remember his name lol it passes

try to sleep in day when baby sleeps feed on demand and hope it passes real quick

Sorry if I jsut wasn't pauionmg atention.. howmany hours out of 24 is he sleeping?

I know I'll probably ger flamed for this, but have you tried a dummy/ would you consider a dummy?

Exposure to as much bright daylight as possible in the morning will help to fix his bodyclock. Babies older than about a week lose the melatonin (sleep hormone) they get from their mothers in utero and don't start to produce it properly til they're about 6 weeks old, so there are often sleep difficulties at this time.

Newborns also have different wake/ sleep patterns to babies older than 6-12 weeks. Their "natural" bedtime is 9-11pm and are often wakeful before this. I read that it's all to do with body temp and cortisol and various parameters. The main thing is that you need to sleep as much as you can when your baby does (I don't know if you have other children) and ride the wave knowing that by 6 weeks, the fussiness and crying peaks and very rapidly gets better.

Put him in a sling or swaddle, rock him, do whatever you need to do. You can't spoil him or give him bad habits at this stage. When the fussiness subsides is the time to sort out bedtimes and routines.

Another point of note is that sleep deprivation in the day can cause sleep problems at night. He probably needs to be awake for only 60 to 90 mins at a time at this point before he'll get very tired. Some newborns can't be awake for longer than 45 mins before they get overtired.

My 8 week old was awake a lot in the night for the first 3 weeks and then seemed to get into her own routine. She wanted to suck on me all the time and used me for comfort, so it felt like I was feeding her constantly.

I ended up expressing to see how much milk I was producing (put my mind at rest) and I also gave her a dummy to settle her (although many will disagree). She is just a very 'sucky' baby.

you could try the dummy as couple of others have said, also your smell is of comfort to your baby, u could try putting sumthing that u have worn a cardigan or jumper of yours with baby my hv suggested this to me and i kept thinking it can't make any difference until, it got so bad i tried it and you know what it worked, you just do it for a few months to get baby used to it and see how you get on!!! i wish i had done it sooner

My dd used to want mega-feeds too when she was little. The record stands at 8h, though at least she was a bit more civilised with her timing - started around midday finished at 8pm. I was never so glad for satellite TV!

My HV assured me she'd grow out of it and it wouldn't be long till I wished I'd got so much time to just sit on the sofa. She wasn't wrong...!

Mind you it does sound as if your little one really isnt sleeping a lot so that could be a different issue to address.

My DD1 would not go to sleep much before 6am for the first 6 weeks or so. It was a complete killer. BUt i did manage to just stick to breast feeding and she did change her habits and ever since then has been the best sleeper i know of. So although it is tough tough tough just go with your instincts and ride it out- things WILL improve in a few weeks (or maybe before then if you are lucky....)

Thanks for your replies - its nice to know that all fo this is quite normal. DS doesn't seem to sleep much in a 24 hr period. When I tried to work it out for the last 24 hr period only seemed to be about a total of 10 hrs - which does not seem enough to me. I haven't been trying to keep him awake during the day as I have been trying to sleep when he does - which is what is keeping me going. I also have a very suportive mum and MIL who took him out for a long walk today so I could get some sleep.

I have tried a dummy but he didn't really seem to like it. I'm going to stop the formula feed for a couple of nights to see if this makes any difference (wasn't happy about doing this in the first place) I have certainly noticed that he seems to fuss more at the breast than he did before - pulling and moaning as if he is getting frustrated.

jen99 your baby is cluser feeding, which is absolutely normal. in fact, everything you are describing is normal lol.
It will get better, and he will gradually start recognising day from night.
I would definitely give up the formula- as you've already discovered, it doesnt' make him sleep longer, because it isn't a fuller tummy that he wants or needs- it's you!

my ds2 was exactly the same. he used to sleep all day and stay up all night. there was nothing we did particularly that changed things but he was definitely much better by 5 or 6 weeks at the latest