How to reverse a baby's day and night pattern

[Notonthisplanet]

Hi,

I have a two week old dd who sleeps ok in the day where nothing will wake her but at night she's wide awake and refuses to sleep. I'm getting about 2-3 hours broken sleep myself each night and need a way of trying to reverse this, anyone else had fairly quick success of doing this? not sure how long I can carry on with little sleep.

Wake her to feed her every two or three hours during the day, if she doesn't get her milk in the day she has to wake for it at night. Let her nap downstairs during the day; make sure very thing is dark and quiet at night. Once you know she is well fed you will have more confidence about trying to space out the feeds more during the night, to say four or five hours.

Night feeds should be dark,no talking to baby and very calm.

Day feeds should be in a light room, singing/speaking from you, background noise from radio/tv !

Your baby will get it eventually, don't panic!

Try & take your DC out & about during the day so they see the daylight, try an hours walk or similar and that will help.
We have our DD sleep downstairs with the tv on during the day so she knows nighttime is quiet time.

I noticed she started sleeping much better at night when we put her in a sleeping bag, kept the light off (& brought a night light so we could still see) & started trying to do a bed time routine. ( we give her a bath at 7:30 then keep her in her room for a story, food etc. she's only 8 weeks so not sure how much she gets out of it but you have to start some time!)

Good luck!

Thanks I guess I'm already doing most of those suggestions but I shall definitely try a sleeping bag. The annoying thing is I had to spend a few nights in hospital where she was alert on first day and slept a good four hours that first night, but I got told off by midwives for not waking her so they insisted on doing just that every two hours through the night for a bf, now day feeds barely last five mins before she falls asleep on me and is a struggle to keep her awake for them. Thanks all for the reassurance I haven't been out much due to c section so hopefully will get to be more active soon with her x

op it's really hard with the hospital getting inc

What everyone else has said really. To be fair I don't think a babys circadian rhythm is set at 2 weeks so it's just about getting the daylight/frequent feedings vs nighttime only when they wake up and quietly/the dark pattern right now. (Assuming no other reason you need to feed every 2-3 hours at night).

I am having the same problem -baby has 4 hour naps during the day but wont sleep for longer than 2 hours at night. She is 2 weeks old also. Would love to get her into a routine but not sure how effective it would be at this stage - need sleep!! She also doesnt seem to like her moses basket but unsure if too early to try the cot?

In the day you could try stripping her to her nappy before feeds. Keeping them colder makes them more alert so feed more. One of mine sometimes needed a damp flannel to wake him for daytime feeds.

They do work it out eventually, you just need someone to take over so you can get some sleep. Dh watched late night baseball with our worst one while I caught up a bit on sleep.

Agree with Johnny, its good to follow all the other suggestions too re. Loud, bright, not too warm, talking etc. But fundamentally you have to wake your baby in the day for feeds.

I used to wake my DD every 3 hours from 6am - midnight, I'd then let her sleep as long as she could til she woke me needing her next feed. This meant she was getting most of her daily amount of milk during the day. Eventually she went on to feed more and more in the day and was then sleeping from 7pm to 6am with one dreamfeed at 10.30pm by 10 weeks old. Highly recommend waking to feed.

Just to clarify - the day/night confusion is completely normal at this stage.

DD is almost seven weeks and I think she got day and night the right way round about 4 weeks. Most of the time ... We still have one dreadful night a week! She's nowhere near sleeping through, but her wakeful periods tend to be during the day.

Yes to what you're already doing - light and bright during to day, dark and dull at night. Only change nappy at night if it's dirty or if you want to wake baby to take a bit more milk. Getting out in daylight apparently helps too (if nothing else you'll feel better for it!).

I know you know this, but try nap during the day.

Also, get netflix and watch tv your phone at night. Stops me falling asleep with DD on the boob.

Oh, and before I forget, banish the word "routine" from your vocabulary. At a push, you can try and spot a pattern, but the R word is banned

Notonthisplanet - didn't realise you had a c-section sorry! That can make it much harder to be out & about! My HV said I couldn't take her for a walk in daylight then if I just sat with her in the garden for a bit that would help.

Thank you all. Last night I put her in sleeping bag in cot and for the first half of night slept more soundly for a three hour stretch, yay, It's past midnight she was more awake so slowly I imagine she will get there. I agree with anythingnoteverything to forget the word 'routine', it's easy to forget at two weeks they are barely born .

Lots of helpful suggestions, I thought about at night giving a dummy but wanted to avoid one altogether if I possibly could but stripping her to nappy is a good one as when sleepy she is almost impossible to feed. I'm not

At least this stage is a short one in the grand scheme of things x

I never needed to strip mine down to feed them but it sounds good. Rub her feet to keep her awake. You're right - it usually doesn't take long if you take the lead rather than waiting for her to do it (which IMHO is a recipe for disaster).

Lots of nappy off time during the day. Fresh air on her bum always used to wake up dd.
Other than that keep feeding throughout the day and lots of light and noise and the bare minimum of interaction at night, cuddles, feeds and whispers in the dark.