Wide awake monkey! What can I do to reduce the time she is awake in the night?

[Samraves]

My dd wakes up either once or twice at night which would be fantastic as she is 11 weeks and previously a complete nightmare for sleeping at night... But when she wakes she is wide awake for a minimum of an hour, sometimes two or more hours!

Bless her she is so cute and smiley, and we try to not smile back too much, or talk to her. We only have the bedside lamp on too... Any ideas for helping her feel sleepy quicker?

Are you feeding her when she wakes up? My DS was like this for a while and it was a nightmare. The best tip I ever got (from The No-Cry Sleep Solution) is not to turn on any lights whatsoever when the baby wakes. It used to take 1-2 hours to feed and resettle as he didn't fall asleep on the boob - now he feeds back to sleep within 40 minutes flat.

He is only 4 months though (and currently waking every two hours ) so might not be relevant to your DD. But it's one of those simple, subtle things you think won't make any difference but it really does.

Sorry, read that as 11 months not 11 weeks! Definitely try not putting the light on.

Thanks, will hope for a clear night and moon to see by!!!

Sam, we put a dimmer switch in our ds's room which was a stroke of genius for night feeds. Maybe something to think about when you move her to her own room? (NB dimmer switch does not prevent 4 month sleep regression hell) Cue slightly manic laughter.

Indeed, 4-month sleep regression sucks ass. That little trick saved my sanity when he was waking hourly!

FWIW we have dimmer switches in both our room and DS's room, and I used to turn it on to the dimmest setting to feed him but even that used to wake him too much (he is a very wakeful baby though so it might be OK for you). I used to put the light on to make sure I got the latch right but after 4 months of bfing he can now pretty much latch on by himself in the dark. If I need to check, I just shine my iPhone in his face for a second . Other than that, the light from the clock radio is enough to stop me going arse over tit on the way to the cot

Oooh just realised we have to put on the light to change her nappy- otherwise that could get very messy indeed!! She us hyper-sensitive about having even a wet nappy... :-s

In her room the egg temperature thing gives out just enough light to see to put her down, but her room is too tiny to change her or feed her comfortably so we take her in with us to do that. Think we just need to experiment with lights

I can't really think of anything to help apart from keep the lights down low (we had one of those revolving nursery lights) and keep as quiet as posible. dd2 was like this, whenever she woke up in the night she was awake for 2 hours, I saw alot of tv at 3am for the first few months. I eventually started holding her for less time after each feed.
On a positive note she slept through by 6 months (7pm to 6am) so night waking was not a problem after that. She also had at least an hours nap a day until she was nearly 4. Even now (5.3) she often has a nap at weekends!

Honestly sounds like she is doing great to me
ditto no lights
i used to put DDs mobile on in the night we both fell asleep with it on, of course that could be stimulating but it was better option for me than no mobile

Lol, she is doing well most nights, just help but want to improve where possible :-) I am prob just being greedy because less than a week ago she was a nightmare!

However, in the last week she has finally worked out how to suck her thumb which has been a turning point for us and means that she can do something to calm herself a bit... Good old thumb :-)