Newborn vs six weeks old - what’s the difference?

[newmum234]

I’ve seen people on other threads saying that their babies started to get easier at six weeks.

My baby is five weeks and although I’m very happy to be a mum, I’ll admit I’m struggling with the constant change, feed, burp, nap cycle and the lack of sleep. I got three hours last night and am shattered!

In your experience do things really start to get any better at six weeks? I can’t see much difference between my baby at 0 weeks and 5 weeks tbh, apart from the fact that he’s got a lot bigger and is a bit more alert. He still feeds about seven times a day, wakes a couple of times during the night and cries quite a lot.

Any thoughts?

There's no need to wake up an older baby (6 weeks +) every 3 to 4 hours

@UnderTheBus I didn’t know that - thanks!

As long as they are gaining weight etc.

Babies should stay in the same room as you until they’re 6 months for all naps and sleeps (although for daytime naps I did put Dd upstairs from around 3 months with the monitor) to prevent SIDS.

Dd slept beautifully from 8-14 weeks and then the 4 month sleep regression hit and she didn’t sleep more than 2 hours at a time till she was 1yo

What I’m trying to say is baby sleep isn’t linear, if they start sleeping better you could then have months of no sleep. I know it’s totally shite when you’re knackered, but they all get there eventually!

Mine didn’t get easier until 6 months! After 6 weeks was more of a shock as the newborn sleepiness wore off. I wouldn’t fixate one any particular age, it varies massively from baby to baby and parent to parent. It will get easier though, at some point, although will be replaced by new and different challenges! This parenting malarkey is tough.

There are a lot of magical sleeping babies on here!

My first started sleeping through just before she was 3. Before that, she was regularly up for a couple of hours in the night.

My youngest wakes anywhere from 3-10 times a night still - she's 14 months old.

Interestingly, she fed 3hrly when she was tiny, but her sleep deteriorated after the 4m sleep regression and it's only now back to vaguely how it was at newborn times (only with both of us working).

If your baby is only waking up for a couple of feeds a night at 5w count yourself very, very lucky.

If your baby is only waking up for a couple of feeds a night at 5w count yourself very, very lucky.

Thanks - I will! Just hope it lasts!

Keep track of how many ounces he's had. The goal is to get more in during the day, so you don't need to give as much at night. If he wakes hungry at night then you must feed him, but encourage him to feed in the day.

You can't make any of this happen of course, it's just about making sure you take advantage of his daytime feeds.

Hm, if your baby is already going four hours between feeds, I suspect it’ll be a while before you see a difference. We didn’t go more than two hours with my eldest until he was 10 weeks! My youngest meanwhile, went four hours at six weeks, but from 16 weeks barely slept, and that continued for a long time. All babies are different and you really just have to take one day at a time. I am sorry that you are exhausted, but I think that it pretty typical at the stage you are at, and that seems true for mums, whether they have babies who sleep or those who don’t.

I love my sleep so am hoping DS will take after me!