Newborn hourly wakes at night. When does it get better?

[Keepingbusyeating]

My toddler was bad but not this bad! I can’t remember how long it lasts that they wake up so often in the night?

I am really struggling to keep my eyes open during night feeds, it’s literally every hour and I am so worried I’ll fall asleep feeding him!

Firstly, set yourself up to feed in bed as if you are safely bedsharing (follow lullaby trust guidelines) even if you don't want to bedshare (although I definitely would just share). Then if you do fall asleep the risk is much lower. If you're breastfeeding I'd also feed lying down so you can rest. Mine woke every 1.1.5 hours until about 11 months, apart from a terrible few weeks at eight months when they woke every twenty mins. Hence why I just bedshared and made it safe

It gets easier by about 4 weeks, as in you can put them down more and sleep in between. Sleeping longer stretches by 8 weeks.

Do you have a partner? For the first 6 weeks or so, Dh would take them for the first half of the night and let me sleep. Dh would put older one to bed while I did the feed, then I’d hand off baby and go to bed. He’d bring baby to me for a feed about 10 ish and then take him back. We’d switch off about 12/1am. It meant I got solid blocks of sleep from 7/8-10pm and 10:30-12/1am. Dh did a lot of watching box sets walking in circles around the lounge to keep them sleeping.

Exactly how old is your baby @Keepingbusyeating ?

Unfortunately it’s true when they say every child is different. My two 5 year olds were like chalk and cheese. DD slept like a dream and rarely cried and sleeps like a dream even now, DS never slept and still wakes up now and putting him to bed is like some sort of Olympic sport for my partner and I. We are due another DS next April and praying he’s like our DD.
Bed sharing helped us in the trenches but honestly we just did what we could to survive. Sending you love

He’s 1 week… so very new! I’d love to do shifts with DH but I put him down 20 mins ago after a feed and he has already woken up (and fallen back to sleep on the boob). Gonna have to just ride this wave for a few weeks hopefully!!

Set up a safe sleep surface for the two of you and then just try your best to do next to nothing other than feed and rest.

Thanks all - I did set up a safe co-sleeping space and gave in at 2am. Feel more rested today!

What I found reassuring was that when you are curled in a C shape around them and they are feeding on their side tummy to tummy with you, if you try and shuffle them around the only way they can actually roll is onto their back because forward is boob and they are already there, down is your thigh, above their head is your outstretched arm. So you can test it and reassure yourself that he's safe and can't go into an unsafe position if you fall asleep. I also had a grown up slumbersac so no bedding on the bed (which was just the mattress on the floor) at all to worry about.

We thankfully didn't have any hourly wakings with newborns. However, from 6 - 18 months my second woke every hour, so I did a year of hourly wakings, along with looking after a toddler and working. I'm living proof that sleep deprivation can't kill you!