Help!

[Twinklestar2]

Have changed nappy, fed - twice, shushed, rocked... Nothing works. Minute I put him down his eyes open. So I leave him in his Moses basket and try and rock him. Doesn't work. He starts crying.

He wants to play! When I put him on this changing mat he plays.

OH says let him play to tire him out - I say that's stimulation and he needs to know the difference between night and day. OH says it's 5am so it is day.

Help! I don't know how to make him fall back to sleep again!!

He's 8 weeks old BTW

My 11m old frequently wakes at 5am for the day - not a lot I can do except get up and nap later!

Mine woke at 4am and wouldn't go back to sleep. DH has now got up with her. I find myself getting really grumpy and short tempered with lack of sleep :-(

But he's been up since 3.15...

When absolutely nothing gets them to sleep, you have to give up I think. Less painful, for both of you.

What you can do is designate 'night' hours e.g. between 8pm and 6am if he's awake, you still keep the lights low, voice low, you might decide to stay in the bedroom, and don't give him anything noisy or too stimulating to play with. At this age, they're still learning the concept of night!

Cross post. Christ, that is tough. Give up on trying to get him to sleep. I swear that after a while they pick up on your frustration desperation and it becomes even less likely.

Nap when he does. I know everyone says it but seriously, just do it. Even if it means no shower, no washing up no MN.

He played for about 15 mins then cried. I boobed him and he fell asleep for an hour and a half. Feeding him again...

My DD is 14 weeks now, but at that age we had a few nights where she was wide awake for hours in the night. One night I had to wake DH as I actually felt delirious from tiredness and thought I might go mad!

Agree with the other posts. If nothing will get them back to sleep the only thing is to give up. I find it easier mentally to just give up and accept 'awakeness' rather than become desperate in trying to get them to sleep. Also I am certain my DD picks up the desperation vibes and becomes even less likely to sleep.

Agree with rooty about deciding when 'day' starts and then keep lights low etc before that time. Even if it means sitting downstairs in dark with him in your arms for a while.

I really hope it gets better. If it's any help, his body should figure out day and night very soon, meaning his is sleepy all night, even after waking for food.

Good luck x

Thanks all.

We do the dark night, light day thing and making normal noise during the day and quiet at night, etc. He fell into a pattern of getting up once at 3.30 from about 2 week old. He's regressed back to getting up every 2-3 hours and last night decided it's playtime at 3am! He used to wake up, have nappy change, feed and go straight back down. Where has my good boy gone?!

My 3 yr old is terrible at going to bed at a sensible time in the evening and now she has started nursery, when she comes home at 4 pm she falls asleep straight away and wakes wide awake and won't go back to sleep till 11 pm, my husband and I have no time in the evenings and puts a stain on our relationship, any advice on keeping her awake from 4 till 7??