Baby awake for hours at night

[bleachblondemom]

My baby is 10 days old and for the last few nights has been wide awake from about 10:30/11pm to nearly 3am. He cries and fusses and will only fall asleep on either me or DH then wakes up after about ten minutes in his Moses basket. Because he’s awake for that whole time, he realises he’s hungry sooner than he would if he was asleep, so for those 4 hours it’s just a cycle of feeding, winding and crying. Once he does go to sleep, he’s fine then for 4 or more hours. Then wakes, feeds, and back to sleep a bit more! I know it’s way too early for him to have a routine yet but I don’t know why he’s started doing this at that specific time. He is absolutely fine in the day, he doesn’t cry or show any signs of distress. Just eats, sleeps, and spends his awake time with us just looking around very happily. I’ve tried to stimulate him more in the evenings so that he’s tired and ready for bed when we are but hasn’t worked so far. Am I letting him sleep too much in the day maybe? I don’t know what else to do with him in the day as he’s too young to respond to playing.

Ah. Bear trap alert. Just when you think you’ve made sense of it it all change again and you’re back to square one.

Baby sleep is far from linear. It changes frequently. It’s really best to focus on sleeping when you can and keep expectations low about them sleeping ever.

@TitsOot4Xmas no I know I just mean we’ve accepted that we need to go with what he’s doing whatever that might be!

"For the first week of his life he slept really well at night too in his Moses basket next to our bed, exactly the same setup as now. We haven’t changed anything."

In the very beginning he was most likely tired from the birth. That's why he went down in his Moses basket. Now it's day 10 and he's more 'with it'. He just wants to be close to u & it's normal I'm afraid. Have dp hold ds for a few hours while u sleep then swap. That's what we did for the first couple of weeks. It's hard but gradually gets easier.

He has done nothing but scream all day. He hasn’t slept properly since 11am. I don’t know how he’s still up. I feel like I can’t even look after my own baby properly.

I wonder if he has colic, one sign is drawing legs up to abdomen. There is medication for colic.

Get some ear plugs

@sneakysnoopysniper thanks that’s a really great tip for a first time mom who is obviously feeling emotional and overwhelmed, I’ll just put in some ear plugs and ignore him and act like everything’s fine.

It was a bit blunt but tbh @bleachblondemom I found earbuds and a good podcast/music helped me immensely. I felt a physical reaction when dd cried and it was beyond stressful (fecking instincts), the distraction helped me calm down which in turn meant she wasn’t picking up on my stress. It’s worth a bash

To be clear, I’d use these while continuing to comfort/rock/whatever. I didn’t bugger off for a lie down! Well I did if I could hand her over to DP.

@bleachblondemom

He has done nothing but scream all day. He hasn’t slept properly since 11am. I don’t know how he’s still up. I feel like I can’t even look after my own baby properly.

Screaming could be from being overtired. Unfortunately when they're overtired, they just don't want to give in. If they're the same today, ring the GP or HV tomorrow as maybe they're coming down with something. Everyone has bad days, nothing to do with how well you are looking after them.

@bleachblondemom google the fourth trimester. You're baby just wants to be close to you. You could also google safe cosleeping and follow the guidelines for that. I'd recommend moving your husband to a spare bed/sofa for that though. Good luck. You'll get through it x

Get the wonderweeks app. It gave me an explanation for why they were grouchy.

But what you describe is still in the realms of normal

Babies are drying, shitting and eating machines. Its what they do. Our grandmothers recognised this and once they had fed, changed and burped the kid they put it down, left it, and got on with their day until the next scheduled time to check in. Babies were not allowed to rule the home.

@sneakysnoopysniper

Babies are drying, shitting and eating machines. Its what they do. Our grandmothers recognised this and once they had fed, changed and burped the kid they put it down, left it, and got on with their day until the next scheduled time to check in. Babies were not allowed to rule the home.

Well you’re a treat aren’t you? I doubt you have a baby.

OP don’t worry - it may be colic which they will grow out of or it’s probably over tiredness. He doesn’t know he’d be happier if he fell asleep he just knows he’s cross. This will pass.