Night time help 😴🌙

[Nikki512]

Hi guys I’m in need of some advice or guidance with my 6 week old daughter. I know she’s only little and very new so I can’t expect miracles but is there any tips to help her go longer at night between feeds?
I’m very lucky she’s a good eater (touch wood it lasts) but I’ve found lately she is going longer during the day than at night maybe she’s got her day/nights mixed?
Should I feed her more regular during the day? She can sometimes go over 4 hours. Should I be trying her after 3?
Should I have a bedtime yet? We go up to bed at the same time etc but her feeds are different everyday
Should I limit naps or have a structure for it?
Sorry if this post makes no sense guys I’m just a bit overwhelmed with it all atm

Any advice would be so welcome

Thank you xx

Hello! 😊
My DD is 10 weeks old, at 8 weeks old we started to introduce bath, bottle, bed but this was completely led by her (she would cry and cry from 6.30pm because she wanted to go to bed). Before that, there was no structure to feeding and it was when she wanted it. We're only now trying to establish nap times.
It sounds like you might be breastfeeding though? Could it be cluster feeding in the evening?
It's all a minefield isn't it! Xx

There's a growth spurt at about 6 weeks so they often want to feed more. Make sure you are keeping day time bright and noisy and nighttime dark and quiet. You could always try feeding more frequently during the day time.

Is she breastfeeding or bottle feeding? It doesn’t matter which to her for this but her body is trained to feed more at night to increase milk supply.

I would introduce a gentle routine, yes. What is her current feeding pattern?

Sorry should have said she’s bottle feeding.
She wants fed every 3/4 hours during the day and same in the night sometimes more during the night she doesn’t seem to take as much during the night as day time.
She will take a feed about 9 or 10pm then it’s a fight to get her down to sleep about 11ish.
I just duno if I’m doing the right thing it’s such a worry and I’m knackered which probs isn’t helping

Ahh @Nikki512 it's so hard at night when they're struggling :( is it that she's crying/in pain etc? Could it be colic or silent reflux? Our DD has silent reflux - you'll get a lot of midwives and professionals telling you it's not a thing but it definitely is. We changed her bottles to dr browns and her formula to anti-reflux and there was an instant difference in her settling. Also lifted the head side of her crib up with books so she isn't laying flat. Xx

It’s not even that she wakes crying she just wakes and gives me a shout to let me no she’s awake. She’s like a baby dinosaur with her grunting and noises so i can’t sleep through it.
I feel all over the place atm with trying to do the right thing for her.

There is a growth spurt around this age, so it could be that she requires more feeds for that.

Her circadian rhythm isn't fully established either so there will still be some day and night confusion. Try to make sure she is starting to have a play and activity during the day too between naps to get her a little more active and it is a good idea to do a 'bedtime routine' so that she understands the difference between day and night.

I think there might be some suggestions on here that might help:

www.littleoneslondon.co.uk/blog/2019/11/understanding-sleep

My DD got switched around so she was going longer in the day than at night and the health visitor advised me to feed her every 3 hours in the day to get her to then go 4 hours at night and it worked

The grunting at night can be one of these things:
Too hot/too cold
Immature digestive system
Reflux
It doesn’t usually mean she is hungry. Hungry = crying.
I would feed every 3/4 hours in the day and aim for a 7pm bedtime then feed again at 10.30pm and only feed after that for crying.
Grunting and squeaking are normal baby noises. It’s like sleeping in a barnyard.

Also during the day I would aim for 1.5hrs awake time between naps and lots of daylight. Make night v quiet and dark with minimal stimulation.

We tried a bed bath bottle around this age, she wouldnt settle when she went to bed so we left it a few weeks and tried again. Her crib upstairs is only for bed time and i dont put her up there in the day, sleeping bag was the real key to getting her to sleep longer because she wiggles and kicks blankets off. I put her to bed about 8ish, lie in bed until she falls asleep and then dream feed her 60ml when i go to bed about 11/1130 and shell generally sleep through till half 5. The more weve stuck to it, the faster shes falling asleep, shes 12weeks this week and would say we started 2weeks ago properly.

Thanks everyone
Il give a few of these a try. Fingers crossed

On average I feed our little one a bottle every four hours so when it reaches near to bedtime I will give two bottles in the four hours instead and then tiredness is already in the air from being dosed on milk 😂

And I’ll make sure there is no toys etc used coming up to bedtime and I’ll keep the lights dim until our child is in the cot, and once they are in the cot and the lights go out they know it’s bedtime and time to sleep

with that extra milk that puts our child to sleep for hourss during nighttime

Thank you all we had our first all night sleep last night!! 😀