6 week old been awake for 6 hours - HELP!

[LittleMilla]

I have tried everything - pushchair, car (x3), rocking, dummy. DH just got home, bathed him and trying again with dummy.

I am at my whit's end with him. He frequently gets overtired (despite my best efforts to get him off to sleep on first cues) and we then pay for it with a usually unsettled night.

I've ordered baby whisperer book but it's not arriving until Friday.I really am very desperate and have had moments today where I have wanted to hurt him. I feel so guilty. I cannot cope and am feeling like a crap mummy.

HELP

I remember this hell all too well with DS. He was a nightmare and would constantly fight sleep. It was awful and I really feel for you . Glad last night was better for you. The sling worked pretty well for us but the best thing we had was a baby swing like this. It was pretty much the only thing he slept in during the day for the first 4 months.

You sound like you're doing great

Glad things are much better.

This may not be precisely what you want to hear but... If your supply isn't doing well, the formula (and resultant gap in feeding) won't help. To up your supply you need to feed a lot, and keep the baby on and sucking when there's nothing in reserve. You never run out of milk, it's like a stream with a reservoir iyswim...

I'm not saying this to put out your light at the end of the tunnel, honest. Perhaps you could have a go at expressing instead? Like everything in life, it's a balance. Mixed feeding can be done successfully, but the only answer to supply issues is more feeding

We're back to square one - he's wide awake. Today has looked like this:

Woke up 7:15am
Back to sleep at 8am
Up again 10:30am (I was feeling quite confident at this stage!)
Sleep again at 12:20 - 1:20 (he woke up grizzling and we were out so I came home)
Sleep 3-4 in moses basket
Nap 5:30-6 (drive around in car)

So a sum total of 2.5 hours in the last 12 hours and he simply cannot drop off. DH loathe to take him out in car again and he's getting cross with me :-( so I have come downstairs.

LongtallJosie I tend to have more rather than not enough milk. So my worry with mix feeding is that I end up with very engorged boobs very quickly. I am embarrassed to say that we've just tried a bottle again to see if it'll 'knock him out' but so far it doesn't look like it. Feeds have gone haywire today in my futile attempts to try and get him to sleep any which way...which obviously haven't worked.

Ah, don't know what to do. Confidence has once again hit rock bottom and I feel like a crap mum for not being able to help him switch off and sleep. Spent (what feels like) most of today in our darkened room patting, rocking and shhh-ing.

Why have I been given a baby that simply won't sleep...!!??!?!

LittleMilla :(

I am pissed so of dubious help, but

1. Have you seen a BFC yet? Do it! Oversupply isn't the worst problem to have, but if you do have it it can really mess up your baby's digestion and the resulting sore tummy makes sleep impossible for them

2. Unbleiveable as it is with the first baby (I know this from bitter experience)please please hang on to the fact that in just a few weeks this will all be better. Try not to get sucked in to the moment. Detach a bit. Deal with now. It's a survival mechanism.

3. none of this is your fault. Fact. :)

Mila although it goes against the grain and others have said not, have you tried leaving him for a bit? You are not a crap mum and your baby will sleep, but sometimes all that driving about and shushing and patting actually makes it worse.

DS2 is a very bright baby and any extra stimulation sent him into a whirl as a tiny baby. You only had to look at him to overstimulate him! The only thing we could do was leave him to it for a bit.

Now he is a 1.5 year old and bright as a button. Copies everything in a flash. So to me no surprise that as a tiny baby he was overstimulated very quickly.

You do what you feel comfortable with. Best of luck.

Milla suggested previously, could there be a medical issue? Reflux perhaps? Secondly, what is your routine on the evening Suggest taking LO to their room at 6.30 and cuddling and singing to them for 1/2 hr to establish a calm environment, then swaddle and feed at 7pm. I normally hold my LO for about 20 mins after to ensure wind is up and she has got sleepy/gone to sleep and then in to bed. Took a few weeks to get her used to the idea but we are nearly there.
Her sleeping patterns during the day are much the same as your LO, in fact worse unless I hold her/sling her she doesn't really sleep but at least I can reclaim some evening time.

I had one too. To be honest, I think it's all a conspiracy to get us to breed. DD didn't start to nap in earnest until she was nearly one.

OK, what you say sounds promising. You will be engorged at this stage, but your milk will settle down to what you ask of it. If you have a pump, you could express? Cheaper than formula, and a shame for it to go to waste, it'll relieve the engorgement too.

What DH and I did was I expressed in the morning, went to bed at 9pm, DH stayed up till midnight and then gave her the expressed bottle then, before he went to bed. I was up again at 4 (then later 5, then 6 and finally 7) but that gave me 6/7 hours sleep.

If you're beside yourself, the world won't stop turning if you leave the baby in his cot to cry for five minutes while you compose yourself, but sleep training's not possible at this age, he simply hasn't the brain development to understand you want him to sleep. He's more likely to get worked up.

If you suspect he's overstimulated, just sitting next to him in a darkened room rhythmically tapping his bum (like a heartbeat) can help. As can a hairdryer.

Thank you again for kind and reassuring words, apologies for being such a high maintenance new mum!

We let him cry for about 5 mins and then I went up and cuddled him off to sleep. This was at about 11pm. At 5am my boobs were so full I thought I ought to wake him up (and it had been almost 7 hours since he had the bottle!). He fed a bit but was sleepy and went back to sleep again until 9am, when I woke him again for a feed.

We've had about 20 mins awake time in bed and he was yawning so put him down in his basket. We left him for about 10 mins until he was grizzling and beginning to cry. Picked him up, sang some songs for about 5 mins, back patting all the time and had a cuddle. Once calm I put him down (he sleeps on his tummy - discovered that he sleeps better this way last week) continued to back pat and sing. After a few mins of snuffling and shifting he drifted off. Woke up once, did the same and he's been asleep for 45 mins now.

He has a bedtime routine which had been wokring up until last night. At about 6:30pm he has a bath (often with me), baby massage, feed and then sleep. Depending on feed times, I'll sometimes give him a bit before bath so he;s not tetchy and can relax in the bath.

I'll carry on with this daytime routine to see if it enables him to nod off. We haven't had any formal 'process' for daytime naps, which is prob why he struggles.

Reading the BW book I strongly believe we have a 'spirited' baby and so I need to cut out as much stimulation as possible.Funnys I am hoping that our DS ends up taking after DH and being bright like your LO! He literally cannot get enough of everyone and everything...we haven't needed to buy him any kit as he's perfectly happy just watching us and the tress/TV/pictures/furniture/any inanimate object that contrasts against the wall!

I found the best thing for daytime naps is to observe, and copy. I suddenly noticed DD was always asleep within 10 minutes of DH leaving for work, so would put her down not long after he left. Go with the grain...

Milla, happy to hear you have had a better day. I have no doubt that your baby is of the 'bright of the button' kind. Just a PITA when you need them to switch off and go to sleep

I clearly remember a trip to the supermarket when he was 4 weeks. All the old folk were saying oh look, he's so bright, he's taking it all in. His little eyes were on stalks. Cue a load of screaming at the checkout and half the way home. He has absorbed it all and it had fried his little brain! I never shopped with him again (not as a tiny baby at least)

Hi there I also have a baby who resists naps - it becomes my daily obsession and I've bought and read all the books . It totally stressed me out when I read somewhere that all babies 'should' be getting so many hours sleep per day .. and mine was nowhere near! Looking at your nap schedule it doesn't look too bad tbh. I've noticed that if I go out in the car anywhere then this totally disrupts DD's nap pattern as she will ALWAYS sleep in the car but the wakes up as soon as we arrive home - the short nap in the car seems to refresh her enough not to 'finish' the nap properly. I realised that unless I wanted to stay at home all day, rocking in a darkened room for the majority of it, then she would never nap as she was 'supposed to'.. My advice is go with the flow - don't stress, each day is a new day, don't worry about what the books say, or other people's babies, as ALL babies are different. You are doing just great so please try not to worry.

This could have been written by me. I am completely losing the plot. My five week 5 day old baba doesn't nap at home. Today he slept 10-12 in the sling whilst out then 20 mins in cot at around 3 but has been awake the rest of the time. That makes 20 mins in 7 and half hours. My dh has got him now as I'm no use, crying and worrying. He's mixed fed too, but we've been trying to limit it to one top up a day. I don't think it's hunger keeping him up though as dh gave him formula when he got in at half six and he still won't go down. Hes grizzling and crying now cos hes exhausted. I feel terrible. I don't know what he needs or why he isn't happy and I'm completely strung out. He sleeps really well at night but I'd rather he was regular-this is horrendous. I'm so worried it's going to effect his development to be up for so long. Please help I'm going mental with worry and tiredness xx

I am caring for my 6 week old grandson as his mom has up and left him after having a mental break and social services issues. He has had colic which has calmed down but around the same time of day he becomes very demanding for food, he will drink 8-10 oz of hungry baby milk over a couple of hours in addition to his normal 4-5 oz every 3-4 hours. We’ve tried giving him water in between and he usually has about an ounce before nodding off. Today though he has been a little terror. He was up at 6.30 had 3 oz of milk, vomited and went back to sleep. I put him back in his cot around 7.15 and within minutes he was crying. It wasn’t his hungry cry but on the basis he’d vomited his last feed I gave him 2oz of milk. After this he was demanding more and was still awake at 10.30. I took him out for a walk in his pushchair and he went to sleep. Within minutes of getting him home he was awake again and demanding more milk. He’s had another 5oz since then and is still demanding more. I haven’t got any kids of my own so this is an entirely new experience for me. Is it worth me trying him on the extra hungry baby milk to see if that works with his feeds as he always seems to be hungry.