Help! Lack of sleep 8 week old.

[Olivess]

I am beginning to despair. At first LO slept quite well - 2/3 hours at a time either in our bed or in her moses basket. Then a few weeks ago we started to have problems. She now doesn't ever go longer than 3 hours (she will only have one of these longer sleeps a night) then the rest are 1 hour or even less. For example Last nigh she slept for 1.5 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour and then after that it was the odd half an hour here or there.

Tonight she has done a 2 hour sleep, then an hour sleep and now it's 1.33am and I am struggling to settle her.

I don't know what the problem is. She falls asleep easily but she just doesn't settle for long but I can't work out what is disturbing her.

Shouldn't she be sleeping for much longer by now!

Hi

Mine didn't at 8 weeks but that's not much help is it?
(I often found I ended up with a 2 hour block and a couple of 1 hour blocks myself. Just ended up waiting for baby to wake again )

You must feel exhausted though. Any chance of any help during the day?

Whoops! Let me try again.

Hi, Olivess.

I had exactly the same problem with my DD at the same age. One thing that did seem to help us was being stricter with her naps during the day. My DD often didn't show any tired signs until it was too late, so I started making sure that she napped no more than two hours after she last woke up. This seemed to help a bit, as did making sure we got out for fresh air every day.

Also, I noticed that DD fell asleep early in the exevibg, around 6pm, and that was it for the night. As was suggested to me on here, rather than sitting downstairs with a sleeping baby, we shifted our bedtime to much earlier to make the most of her best and longest sleeps being in the early evening. Is this something that you could try?

Something that didn't really help us but may work for you, is white noise. It may help her to get between sleep cycles.

I can offer lots of sympathy and say that for us, it did get better, not that long after the eight week mark. DD still isn't a brilliant sleeper, but (growth spurts and developmental phases aside) will do four hours, sometimes five, followed by a couple of two-three hours.

I hope something there might be helpful - I remember all too well how it felt (DD is now 16 weeks).

Thanks! I've been comPletely baby led up til now but this week have started to think and plan her naps a bit better. I think I was lettIng her go too l

Thanks! I've been comPletely baby led up til now but this week have started to think and plan her naps a bit better. I think I was lettIng her go too long between sleeping. So we'll see how that works.

I don't have much help either, DH has his own business and is very busy at the moment (staying up til 1am most nights to work and working at the wkend). I have been catching up with sleep on the odd evening when LO will sleep on Dh's chest as he works. Funnily enough she'll sleep for 4 hours on him. I guess he is very comfortable and warm.

We have also started a bedtime routine of bath etc and will try to do it a bit earlier like you suggested mock Tudor.

I'm als hOping it is also just one big growth sPurt and that it will get better with time!!

I had a terrible week at 8 weeks too. Has she become more aware? Mine suddenly at 8 wks just couldn't fall asleep anywhere anymore and certainly not with the tv on. I started doing a proper night routine - feed bath quiet time and then feed in dark in bed and this helped. Also naps were crucial to her sleep at night. It seemed like the more naps she has the longer she went at night - this was the reverse of what made sense to me but it worked. I second what someone said about white noise, this works really well for my dd. I realised at that age that if she had been awake for 2 hours in the day she needed a nap and I would walk about in a dark room or take out in a pram and she would nap - and sometimes stay asleep long enough for me to have one!

Bottom line, get some help if you can. Watch for sleep cues- yawning, rubbing eyes and ears, staring into space.. And try to get her ho nap-- this is babyled!

But it does pass and my dd 14 weeks now regularly does a 6 hour stretch at night plus a couple of 2-3 hours either side. (Bar growth spurt- 12 week one was a killer! Just as I was getting used to more sleep she woke me at 2 hours all through the night!! Ah!