Baby won't stay asleep.

[TimeWasting]

DD is 7 weeks old now. First couple weeks she slept lots, too much in fact and I had to wake her to get her to feed enough.

Now, usually she'll sleep heavier at night and I can put her down and she'll stay asleep, but most of the time, and for more of the night too now she wakes immediately, or within 15 mins of me putting her down.

Getting her to sleep is no problem, she feeds off easily, and very regularly, but she won't stay asleep.

Should I try and keep her awake more during the day now?
She's very sucky, and on;y has very short amounts of time where she's awake and not feeding.

Two things - she'll be more alert so if you put her down when she's asleep it's common for her to wake within 15mins and realise she's not being cuddled. A mobile works for us - we sometimes put it on 3 times before dtds are settled (they aren't creaming the whole time or anything but it gets them off to sleep, but if they wake we pop it back on... we have a Tiny Love Classic and love it as do dtds)

Also, 7 weeks is around the time for the first growth spurt so could be that.

Good luck - our dtds are now 13wo and go to bed at 8.30pm, fed at 11pm, then wake about 6am. So different to dd1 who never slept for 4 months!

I also find that on days dtds haven't slept in the day, they are worse at night. It's surprising how much sleep they need. If you wake her in the day it can affect he night sleep as she won't be able to sleep for long periods as she'll be used to waking (someone told me this and it seemed to work for us - dtds were prem so slept loads to start with).

Good luck x

Have you tried a dummy? I used to be anti dummy but I it was amazing the difference it made to my ds when he was 8 weeks old- it was like switching a switch , suddenly he could sleep. I'm a fan these days - he's 6 months now and still loves his dum dum

My DD was just the same, I spent a lot of time sitting next to her crib gently patting her and stroking her til she would drift off. It was the only thing that worked for us. Gradually over time I reduced how long I needed to do it for before in time she would go to sleep herself.

If she got herself to sleep she always slept longer than if I let her fall asleep feeding and then put her down in the crib. She always slept better on the days that she had plenty of daytime naps too. I wouldn't try to keep her awake during the day, for us it just made it harder to get an overtired, cranky baby to sleep at night.

I know it is a bit frowned on by some, but a dummy worked wonders for us. If things don't improve (and you aren't already using one) then give one a try.

Both my children were rubbish sleepers so no real answers but ......

All my friends who had good sleepers also had lots of daytime sleeps. It's counter intuitive but more sleep leads to more sleep.

The Baby Whisperer might be worth a go. I can't remember how old you start patting them but it was good for getting them through the first 'hump' after 15 mins and staying asleep.

Thanks guys. She did a six hour stretch on Saturday night.
Bad last night though, will try to process thoughts.