Night feeds

[FirstTimeMumDec2020]

Hi All,

I wanted to find out what you are all doing when it comes to night feeds.

My 3 week old doesn't seem to settle upstairs in our bedroom so me and my husband have been doing shifts. I'll go to bed until 2am, then I'll get up whilst DH goes to bed for 4/5hours and then we switch again. That system has worked well for us as we both get a few hours sleep without disruption and baby sleeps well too. But I need to try and get my son used to upstairs for when my husband is back at work and I'm lost as to what I can do that allows us all to have some sleep.

Any advice welcome 🙂

Thanks

Where have you been going in the night? What have you been doing with your ds once he's been fed?

He's 3 weeks old. You're unlikely to be getting much sleep for weeks to come. We just did as you're describing for about 8 weeks (we fortunately have a spare room) then it got a little easier because our son became more predictable in his night wakening, and we just got used to the new normal.

When you say the 3 week old doesn't seem to settle upstairs, what do you mean? He won't know where he is right now so not settling in a particular location is likely something you've created in your own mind rather than it being the reality. I'd focus on what you do differently upstairs versus downstairs and see about replicating it in your room. Also remember that babies are noisy. They cry and moan in their sleep. Making noise and rolling around doesn't mean that they're always awake.

@dementedpixie

Where have you been going in the night? What have you been doing with your ds once he's been fed?

At night we have just stayed downstairs. Once he's been fed if he's fallen back asleep I will put him back in his Moses basket. If he's awake still then I'll hold him and talk to him and then put him down once asleep

@brainstories568

He's 3 weeks old. You're unlikely to be getting much sleep for weeks to come. We just did as you're describing for about 8 weeks (we fortunately have a spare room) then it got a little easier because our son became more predictable in his night wakening, and we just got used to the new normal.

When you say the 3 week old doesn't seem to settle upstairs, what do you mean? He won't know where he is right now so not settling in a particular location is likely something you've created in your own mind rather than it being the reality. I'd focus on what you do differently upstairs versus downstairs and see about replicating it in your room. Also remember that babies are noisy. They cry and moan in their sleep. Making noise and rolling around doesn't mean that they're always awake.

The only thing different with upstairs is there's no noise from the tv and all the lights are switched off. Not sure if he's now used to the noise.

I co-slept with both of mine. Also with ds2 I used white noise for sleep time from the start. At the 3 week stage I just played it softly when I saw him drifting off but later you can use it as a sleep cue so he knows it's time to sleep. Ds2 is 13 months now and we still play it at bedtime.

Possibly, you could try a white noise machine? I can just about sleep through the rain sounds one.

You need to try to make day time noisy and bright and then into the evenings it needs to be darker and quieter to help them learn the difference between day and night.

When my dd was that age she would go down in the moses basket wherever it was, if baby likes the noise then do white noise or lullaby music up in your bedroom

We've got an app on our phone which our toddler (22 months) still uses for his naps and night time sleep. It is called Baby Sleep and is free - give it a go. We've got hair dryer noise for naps and then waves for night time. We slept with the waves going all night for 6 months without an issue. We also had a night light which is now in his room, which was primarily so I could see what I was doing when feeding him. Essentially replicate whatever you're doing downstairs to get him to settle as he doesn't even know he is separate from you right now, let alone in a different room. You just need to be consistent wherever you're putting them to sleep - we had this "routine" from about week 2 by accident, as we realised he'd always fall asleep when I was drying my hair.