daytime sleepers!

[Spod]

Wiltshire and I have the same problem and would like some suggestions on what to do.... our babes are around 5 weeks old....happy little souls but dont know difference between night and day. We've both been told by various people to up their daytime feeds and keep them awake more during the day. HOW DO WE DO THIS??? have tried keep dd awake but she isnt playing ball!! but then is playful in tyhe evenings... sometimes until 4am... when she will then get overtired and grumpy before falling asleep. Any suggestions?? thanx.

Keeping awake during day: Try taking off clothes, blowing rasberries on belly, wiping face with cold water. To start with don't worry so much about keeping awake as waking to feed so that you can be sure (as sure as you can be with a 5 week old) that grizzling isn't always about hunger.

When does she have her last afternooon sleep? try to keep her awake from 5pm -7.30pm, then you have to get her to have a sleep, however short. We resorted to going for walks with the pram (I remember them very very well - and dd is now 18months) because if she didn't get at least 30 minutes she would be quite able to stay awake (overtired and grumpy) until 2am. But if she had had even a short nap she would go off quite easily at 11pm after a last feed.

Stick to lights out at 11 - she can stay awake if she likes but it'll be bloody boring! No TV on in the background, no toys, no playing - just cuddles and lullabies allowed. (And try to ensure your dh sticks to this as well if he's getting up in the night - a friend of mine discovered her dd and dh watching recorded football matches whenever he got up with her - the baby was entranced by the TV and so wouldn't go back to sleep)

Those might not work for you - but they might. Good luck

Agreed about the TV. Our DS would get too "worked up" to fall asleep if he was near the tv at night.

I also remember DS was not ready for a 7pm bedtime and had a nap at 5:30/6pm. Then up for a few hours and I usually did a last feed of the day between 9-10pm in the total darkness, no talking, no eye contact (v. v. v. important). It was hard cos lots of my favourite programs were on at this time, but they were given up for a few months (like everything else!). We also did not let him sleep for more than 2hrs a nap during the day which did sometimes lead to a very grogy baby by 9pm but this only lasted a week or so until he realised what day and night were. Day feeds were done in the living room, tv on, etc so he realised it was day. All night feeds in our/his room, in the dark, no eye contact etc. If you can't keep them awake, then don't let them sleep too long. I think DS was having about five naps a day at this age, but all were between 45min-1.5hrs or so.

HTH

Oh, and agreed about DH! For some reason, no matter how many times you tell them, they don't follow the "rules" and start playing, talking, eye contact, tv , and you're back at square one. Let us know how you get on.

thanx for the tips... am doing all those things and hope it starts to mke a difference soon.... I actually had some better sleep last night...dh slept with her between 1-4am! but she was good for me till10.30.... and she still snoozing... will wake her soon. I think one issue is that I put her down at night in a moses basket and she appears to hate it! maybe it smells funny or something. She has managed a couple of 2 hour naps in it in the past... but at bedtime, only 40 mins or so... then she wants to be with me. Also... she seems to get all her wind at night, and she has never slept between the hours of 11pm - 1am WHY>?

Hi Spod, our DS was also really windy at night, out both ends. Sometimes he would cry and cry and then a BIG burp would come out and we knew what the problem was. Unfortunately it's something they'll grow out of (everyone said that at the time and they were right!).

Must admit we put DS straight into his own cot, but well swaddled and tucked in. The startle reflex kept waking him up all the time in the night - do you swaddle? He hasn't ever wanted to come into our bed so can't advise on that. He was also in his own room at 10wks-ish.

The first 12 weeks were pretty much like this, it then slowly started to get better. The turning points for us were 6wks and 12wks. HTH

A quick glance at google found this link on swaddling .

thanx karen, unfortunately she will not tolerate being swaddled... have tried.... her kick is too furious to contain her and she hates having her arms tucked in. i guess i shall just plod on and hope she eventually learns day from night and to sleep without me there..... i know she can do it cos she falls asleep like an angel during the day... even if she starts off awake on her own she drifts off and is then unwakeable!