5 week old was awake for 7 hours!

[marshmallowpies]

DD2 is nearly 5 weeks and last night was like nothing I've ever experienced.

She is mix fed, sleeps a lot during the day and can be quite grizzly in the evenings but does sleep fairly well - once in a while we have a night from hell, though.

Last night she had a bottle and breastfeed at 11. We expected her to wake around 2.30-3, she woke at 2. Had bottle of expressed milk and BF from 2-3. Then tried to rock her & soothe her to sleep. Changed nappy. More Bf. Still wide awake at 4.

DH took her n the spare room to let me sleep. She stayed awake till 7.30 when he woke me (he made her a bottle at 5).

I fed her again at 8 but she stayed wide awake until I took her & DD1 out at about 9.30, she finally slept in the buggy. She'd been awake for 7 hours at least!

I have never known a newborn go so long without sleep - she had maybe 10 mins here or there if she dropped off, but would wake again almost immediately.

We are at a loss as to what to do if this happens again!

When DD was newborn we read all the baby books which reassured the reader that newborns can't possibly stay awake for more than about 2 hours at a time. Not DD! She once went 13 straight hours without a sleep at a few weeks old. We were on our knees. She has never liked sleep very much, unfortunately! She never napped during the day for longer than about 20-30 minutes until she was about ten months, (Though she did start pretty much sleeping through the night at about 12 months.)

Some babies can just go for longer without sleep. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! My sympathies though!

Have you found the 'thing' that acts as a soother to settle baby to sleep?

You mentioned rocking, some babies like to be still to sleep. Or to be bounced rather than rocked. Or fed to sleep. What about sucking? Try a dummy. What about a swaddle to calm the startle reflex?

The key is to find your DDs 'thing'.

What was she doing while she was awake? Was she crying?

Oh I feel your pain. I have an 8 week old who is not going by the books at all when it comes to naps. Some days he doesn't sleep at all despite our very best efforts. He's actually getting worse and it feels like every day is just a battle to get him to sleep

Sorry I don't have any advice. Only thing that usually works for us is a walk in the pram (although even that failed today). Keen to know the answer if you find it!