3 week old awake all night

[loopylo]

My 3 week old is awake most nights either from 10-5am or if I'm lucky 2am-5am. I am breast feeding and during this time awake she just wants to be nursed. During the dat she will sleep happily no matter what noise there is-I did the hoovering yesterday with her in the baby bjorn and she slept throughout. I try and keep night time quiet and dark and day time noisy and bright, andhave tried the no cry sleep suggestions with no change so far. During the day she wakes up evey 3 hrs for a feed and is alert for only an hour or so appart for feeding. Any suggestions on how to go from here?? Also is it ok to sleep during the day when she sleeps or is that going to make her even more nocternal. She is fully breast fed and at her last weigh in she had out on 7 onz in a week. Last night she was awake from 11pm to 7.30 am. She then slept to 11 am and I feel guilty as I slept then as well.

Congratulations on your DD!

It does take a few weeks for the LOs to sort out night from day. You're doing the right things so far. Expose her to daylight as much as possible and take her outside during the daytime when you can.

It's unlikely she'd be happy awake for more than an hour at that age, so don't worry about that too much. Some people say try not to let daytime naps last longer than 2.5 hours max, so you might want to think about that. On the other hand, let sleeping babies lie is usually good advice...

And there's no harm in you resting when she does during the day - get what sleep you can, while you can!

Oh I remember DD being 3 weeks old and not knowing the difference between day and night and really panicking about it and needing to 'train' her to understand it, which I don't think you do really.

All I did was bath her when we got up to signal 'it's getting up time now, the day is starting', dress her in daytime clothes (i.e. anything other than a sleepsuit - footed trousers and a top usually) and just put her in a sleepsuit at bedtime and also I stopped putting the light on and talking to her at night when feeding (still cuddled her lots though, just no talking). She worked it out quite quickly. It does take them time to learn that there is a daytime and a night time and they are different.

I slept during the day too, otherwise I would have lost the plot. Who cares if you sleep til 11am? I stayed in bed for as long as DD would sleep (often til 12noon and later). It doesn't matter. I gradually got up earlier as DD learned that night time is for quiet sleep. I would say she was 8 weeks old by the time I was regularly up by 10am (I used to motivate myself by getting up to watch Homes Under the Hammer ) and another couple of weeks after that before I was able to get up at a 'normal' time. I worried that staying in bed til 12 would delay her learning day from night but it was fine. Do it as long as you need to.

Agree with IC. My HV advised me not to let DS sleep for too long at once during the day (he'd sleep 4 or 5 hours at a time). I woke him a couple of times after 2 or 2.5 hours. The result was a screaming overtired baby, so I wouldn't do that again.

Daylight is your best bet. Day and night organisation normally appears at around 6-8 weeks for most babies.

When DS was little, I kept going back to bed every time he went back to sleep, until 1pm - every day. Wish I could do that now.

(Incidentally, IC, he slept for longer at a time then than he did now )