Nocturnal 1week old..what to do?

[mammainlove]

I know it's early days, but my one week old sleeps in the day and is up most of the night unsettled wanting feeds. He sometimes lets me get 2 hours sleep in before feeding, almost continuously until 8am. I don't get more than 20 mins sleep at a time. I have a 2 year to look after in the day, so don't get chance to sleep with DC2 in the day. I'm exhausted and am getting headaches a lot. We co sleep and I b.feed which makes it a bit easier.

I'm thinking of trying to keep him awake more this afternoon, in hope he'l sleep more in the night. Does anyone have experience of this? Might it work? x

At a week old his awake time between sleeps will be minimal so trying to keep him awake will be a challenge.

Would you consider cosleeping? Do yo BF or FF? Are you wanting to establish a routine?

I b.f and co-sleep. Only routine I'm wanting is for him to sleep more at night.

I think all you can do is wait. I have a 5 week old now and I could hav ewritten your post 5 weeks ago. But it's a lot better now - not perfect but more manageable.

I don't thnk keeping him awake during the day will help I'm afraid.

It just takes time, they've usually got the hang of it by six weeks. Dd always seemed most interactive at 2am for the first couple of weeks, we went with it because it's such a short time in their lives.

If not doing so already, could you make daytimes noisier and brighter? TV on or radio, sleeping in lounge with the light on etc. How regularly does he feed in the day? The first few weeks I used to wake DD every three hours for milk in the daytimes but sort of left her to demand in the nights.

My advice is to start the day at the same time every morning. Don't be tempted to let baby "sleep in" to let you have an extra bit in bed. Set a time, try to wake baby for a feed, change their nappy afterwards and try to encourage a few minutes awake before they go back to sleep. It will help if you keep the nights very very dark and the days very very light too.

Firstly at only 1 week old there is no pattern really, every day/night will probably be different. Do you have anyone who can do things with your 2yo so you can sleep and/or follow the baby's cues?

Trying to encourage more feeding during the day may help satisfy his more of his needs then. Early evening before/after your 2you goes to bed is a good time to feed a lot and then when he settles you should go to sleep too. It's too early to push for more awake time in the day, he will just get overtired & more unsettled.

Personally I didn't co-sleep most of the time and found we built a bit of a routine around feeds and the process of settling, although it did take time in the early days. I used lots of triggers for sleep time such as putting on grobag, how I held them, talking/singing, closing curtains, laying down etc. Using this kind of repetition seems to help over the long term because then even if you are missing one of the triggers (eg. it's light or you are in a strange place) then the others will still help you. If they are wakeful then co-sleeping can mean they keep turning to you for comfort/a snack.

Good luck. Remember the first few weeks soon turn into a blur as they get bigger!

With all of mine (I've got 4) I didn't let them sleep for more than 3 hours at a time in the day when they were that little. If they woke before 3 hours I would feed them, but I wouldn't let them sleep longer than that in the day.
They were not 'awake' for long between those 3 hour blocks at that age, just the hour or so it took to wake them, change their nappy, cuddle and have a breastfeed.
I found that if I left them completely to 'demand feed' they would sleep for 6 hour blocks in the day and then be hungry every 2 hours in the night!
Enjoy your little one :)

can someone let you sleep more in the day,i.e look after your 2 year old?

Thank u all. Yes at the moment my dp helps in the day a lot. However he's going back to work next week, I have no idea what I'm going to do then...

I would try and encourage baby to feed very frequently in the day and try sleeping with the lights on! I know some newborns who are not keen on the dark..weirdly and are more unsettled at night but the light on and they are better.

GabrielOak You assume that it's that easy to wake a sleeping baby! My little one was nocturnal for the first 4 weeks, we tried everything to wake him up in the day, undressing him, playing loud music, even putting his feet in could water! Nothing worked.

If I were you I would try and get someone to come in and help with your daughter in the day.

i woudl suggest you rest durign the day as perhaps your milk supply is lower in the night, hence the extra feeding?

Not assuming anything hardboiledpossum. Was just letting the op know what worked for me