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Sleep

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Original poster

Newborn sleeps all day and feeds all night..any suggestions?

13 replies

jfrew · 20/12/2013 05:59

Hi,

Our second daughter - five days old - is a really easy baby. During the day.

She sleeps much of the time, feeds every two or three hours, and is happy being held or in her Moses Basket. But when night rolls around, she basically stays awake and wants to breastfeed all the time. If not feeding, she just cries, whether in the bed between us, lying on one of us, or in the Moses Basket.

It is slowly driving us crazy, and we wondered if anyone else had a similar experience, and how they got over it?

I know some people say just leave the baby in the bed and let her feed on demand, but that just prevents maternal sleep...

THANKS

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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wellieboots · 20/12/2013 06:06

She is very small and this is normal, I'm afraid. How often is she feeding during the day? if she is sleeping a lot, and not taking enough milk during the day, then she will make up for it at night. Have you tried swaddling or white noise? How do you settle her during the day and how at night?

MumOfTheMoos · 20/12/2013 06:27

It's early days but see if you can learn to feed her lying down; you have to both be on your sides facing each other (if you google it some v thoughtful people have done some videos to show you). It will help with the maternal sleeping!

It does feel like you will never survive but this really, really intense bit will not last too long.

MumOfTheMoos · 20/12/2013 06:29

I second the swaddling - google a book called the fourth trimester - lots of great advice around settling - my DH became an expert with the help of that book.

MumOfTheMoos · 20/12/2013 06:33

Back again!

That book is called Baby Bliss by Dr Harvey Karp!

MissRatty · 20/12/2013 07:20

My little one is exactly the same, everyone comments how good he is...of course as my visitors come during the day!

What I have found that helps marginally, is waking him up every two hours during the day for food (as advised by the midwife) and this tend to lend itself to less feeding at night. At three weeks old however I think my munchkin is having a growth spurt as he's been cluster feeding again at night.

His wind/spitting up also seems worse at night and he is generally more unsettled at night so we think he may have colic as well. Boo!

If you can, nap lots in the day, as this will save your sanity at night. My oh gives top up feeds of expressed milk to ds and does an evening shift of a few hours so I can get some unbroken sleep...a godsend!

As a first time mum I'm relying heavily on others who have told me that time sorts this out as they will sleep more at night as they get older. In the meantime I still could do with matchsticks to prop my eyes open!

bishboschone · 20/12/2013 07:32

You need to convince her night is night and day is day . Do this by trying to give her as much milk as you can during the day . My dd was like this when she was born and it only took a few weeks to convince her otherwise. I know you are tired but try and start her day at 7 am . . During the day feed as much as possible and windown and bath at 6 pm , bedtime at 7 pm . Others will disagree with me and say you have to suck it up but I like sleep ( lack of sleep is literally tortures isn't it ) and both my babies slept for 12 hours by 12 weeks and have done ever since .

Original poster

jfrew · 20/12/2013 08:01

Thanks everyone for the tips. We tried side sleeping with my first daughter, but for various reasons it just didn't work for us.

I agree that she thinks night is day and vice versa; I know people think this is normal, but I also think that if she was awake more in the daytime, she'd sleep much better at night.

With our first kid, it was really easy to wake her up, but this little munchkin sleeps through pretty much anything. Anyone have any tips on keeping a little one awake, obviously whilst ensuring she still gets enough sleep?

The fourth trimester is a great book, and swaddling helped enormously with our first daughter, but doesn't seem to make much of a difference this time around. Again white noise really helped with the first, but just seems to aggravate our new little darling!

OP posts:

ScottishDiblet · 20/12/2013 08:09

Congratulations on your little one! Bishbosch has it right I think. Start the day at 7 without fail - get baby up and dressed in real clothes not a nighttime baby grow and feed every three hours during the day so at 7,10,1,4 and bath time at 6.30 followed by last feed at 7. Then lights off or down low and feed at night when necessary but keep it low key and Unstimulating and dark if you can. No matter what time you fed until in the night start the day at 7 and feed every three hours. I followed a book by Alison Scott-wright called the sensational baby sleep plan and my baby went from multiple nighttime feeds to sleeping through 7-7 within a week or so. Good luck!

wellieboots · 21/12/2013 08:42

I agree with suggestions to get as many feeds as possible in during the day, 2-3 hourly if you can, but I do think 5 days old is a bit young to be talking about 7pm bedtimes and routines!

BotBotticelli · 21/12/2013 10:05

agree: it's a bit early to be hoping your LO will be in bed from 7-7, but I don't think that's what you were asking OP? My DS had his days and nights mixed up when he was born and it took about 2-3 weeks for him to get it sorted. Don't get me wrong, he would still wake for feeds multiple times per night after that, BUT he wasn't awake from 11pm-5am like he was in the beginning (you have my sympathies, that was a killer).
I think what helped us was trying to take him outside in the daylight every day (even if he is asleep when you go out)...i am not a scientist but I think there's something about being outside in the daylight that helps mammals learn about day and night?

And also I think it was a developmental thing: the first 2-5 weeks ish are just fucking awful crazy times and after that baby will probably start being awake a bit more during the day and less at night. My DS started doing a solid 3-4 hours sleep between 10pm-2am at around 5 weeks old and it really helped to get that block of sleep. Esp if I could ask DH to take DS from 8pm onwards so I could go to bed and then sleep from 8pm-2am and even if the reast of the night from 2am onwards was a right off at least I had had 4-5 hours sleep (I think a 4 hour block of unbroken sleep somewhere in the day makes the difference between feeling truly insane, and just 'very tired').

bishboschone · 21/12/2013 10:46

I did routines and 7 pm bedtime from day one but each to their own.

wellieboots · 23/12/2013 05:55

I know that that isn't what the OP was asking about bot, I wasn't suggesting she was! I was just surprised at the number of PPs suggesting starting the day at 7am without fail, and feeding 3 hourly on a routine at this very early stage. I thought that people didn't usually do routines until about 6 or 12 weeks, but I must be wrong. It was just an observation.

FadBook · 23/12/2013 06:12

It's unclear if your breastfeeding, formula feeding or mix feeding - either way at 5 days old, feed on demand.

Routines at 5 days old? Might work for a minority but this us the kind of thing that sets expectations to parents that its "normal" for babies to be in a routine. its not normal for new born babies to be in a routine

OP - feeding lying down with dd1 may not have been successful but don't rule it out with this one. They're all different and different techniques might work when they previously didn't

As from my answers, I'm of the camp that you need to ride it out and feed her during the night. If breastfeeding, this is the best time for your supply to be increased.

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