How do you (quickly!) soothe/settle baby I'm crib after a night feed?

[LondonKiwi123]

My 10 week old DS used to do a 3 hour stretch at the start of the night (dropping to 1-2 hours for rest of night) but recently, he's been waking within the hour and then again every 30-45 mins!

I've accepted that this might just be a phase (fingers crossed cos otherwise 😱). What I'd like your help with is tried and true methods you've used to settle your baby back in his/her crib as quickly as possible after a night feed. DS wakes so regularly now that if I wait till he's in a deep sleep on his nursing pillow before transferring to crib, he'll be waking again before I've even had a chance to fall asleep myself! It's so draining.

Atm if I transfer him too soon (

That title should read "back in crib"... Too tired!

Honestly?
She sleeps in with me. We feed lying down and drift off. Nothing else worked, we now both sleep soundly.
It’s not for everyone but I made the bed safe and we are both happy.

Mine slept with me dd2 didn't sleep consistently alone until 6 years old, I'm probably not the best or advice but my attitude was they are only little for a short time so I didn't want them to cry

@Megan2018 @okiedokieme thanks for your replies. I find co-sleeping semi-restful but not at all comfortable because I stay so rigid. I'm confident that I'm doing it safely but it's just one of those decisions out of many where I've decided it's not something I want to do in the long-term. Agree that it's a great way to get more sleep though!

@okiedokieme p.s. he doesn't cry when he wakes, just thrashes about. I always go to him before it progresses to crying because I know he's not going to get back to sleep on his own. Also...his eyes don't open when he wakes up. It's def not just stirring in his sleep, but not fully alert either.

Just reflecting on your PS...
Re read that as if someone else had written
If you always go to him before he cries, how do you know he can’t get back to sleep on his own?

The fact that he is not fully awake either suggests he is try to go back or am I missing something?
Is there any way you can keep him
More alert at the bedtime feed so he is still semi awake when he goes down to sleep?

A couple of ideas to try... Maybe see if he can fall back to sleep without you doing anything, you going over may be disturbing him more. Also, you could try singing to him along with a hand placed on his tummy. You didn't mention it either but try stroking the brow of his nose if he'll tolerate this.

Move to a sleep, feed, awake time routine rather than a awake, feed, sleep routine. Give an opportunity to settle without feeding as they shouldn’t be hungry every 30 minutes

We have an electric heating pad in the crib for a while to take the chill off and con him he’s still on a person...

Also look at daytime routine. At 10 weeks, I’d be putting down for a sleep after 1hr 15 awake time. Over tiredness causes lots of problems but if put down at the right moment it is much easier

www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html?m=1

Do you think he has ‘full’ feeds at night? Or does he just take a little milk as assistance to get back to sleep, iyswim. I seem to remember at that stage making an effort to keep them awake to get bigger feeds into them to encourage sleeping longer.

Waking that frequently is awful, you have my sympathies. My second child was amenable to going in a crib but my first was not, and sometimes I think there is little you can do about that unfortunately and things like cosleeping are needed just to survive.

@selly24 yes I know it sounds like I'm going in too early :/ I guess what I mean to say is that if I do leave him to do the thrashing/squirming about, then he will eventually cry. I admit I've never timed it, but I'd say he can stay like that for 15mins before crying (maybe even longer...) Given that I know (for now) that he'll cry eventually, I feel guilty for keeping him awake so I feed. I realise that I might not be giving him the opportunity to go back to sleep though!

If I put him down semi awake, do I then just let him drift off or help him in some way? I wonder if he is he too young to do this?

@missanony I try to do feed sleep awake in the day unless he's clearly hungry before he's due for a nap. Been doing this since he stopped getting to sleep in the day about 3 and ago. Not seen an improvement at night yet :/

@Merename no I don't think he's full after every night feed. Sometimes he'll suck for literally 30s then fall asleep! And nothing I do will wake him...except if I put him in his crib 😂😂😂 I'm wondering if the bedtime feed is not enough because my supply is always lowest then. I have noticed the last few nights at bedtime that he has been comfort sucking for ages (like 40 mins) before detaching (asleep). He didn't do this before, and I'd then put him on my shoulder and pat until he was in deep sleep. Maybe I'm going backwards!

@missanony thanks, I think his sweet spot for awake time is an hour pretty much exactly. And he'll only nap on me or his dad!

Dummy?