Anyone got a 3 week old? Wondering what your routine is please?

[Lily1995]

Hi there. This is my second baby and I cannot remember a thing from my first regarding his sleep.
Baby sleeps between 3 to 4 hours and has either 3 or 4oz of milk. But sometimes it's staggered, like he'll wake up at half 2 finish 2oz then go to sleep, so I put him in his Moses basket and he immediately wakes and is really fussy wanting more milk but just spitting it up and crying. So sometimes we don't finish his feed till about 4!! And then he's awake again at half 5 for more.
He's also awake in the evening usually from about 7 till 11 and just won't settle, but tonight he is fast asleep and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
What are your baby's routine like around this age? Just wondering if it's a normal pattern.

In that first 6 weeks I would work on the basis that if baby isn't feeding he should be trying to get to sleep or sleeping.

Except for maybe 10 or 20 minutes after waking but before next feed, the rest of awake time would be for feeding.

What I have no experience of is formula feeding at this age. For the first 3 months of life I wouldn't expect baby to be awake for longer than 90 minutes (pref 60 minutes) between naps. So the 7pm-11pm awake time would be something I would be worried about.

A newborn really shouldn't be awake for that length of time so I wonder if over-tiredness is what is keeping him awake. Breastfeeding babies often clusterfeed at that time - doze and feed on and off for several hours. I would be feeding to sleep at this age.

I literally could have written this OP!

DD2 is 3 weeks today, and has been more unsettled yesterday evening and today - I think she is overtired as took ages to drop off for a nap in her cot yesterday afternoon and then was awake for ages yesterday evening.

She has been cluster feeding (BF) between 11pm and 2 am, but last night I gave her 2oz expressed milk in a bottle and she slept from 12.30 to 4am, so I'm wondering about my supply now...

FATE - interesting that you recommend feeding to sleep at this age. Like the OP, this stage with DD1 is a haze, but I definitely ran into trouble feeding her to sleep at the 3-4 month stage, and have been trying to consciously avoid it with this one .

Thanks for your answers.. Fate- would you suggest holding off feeding him immediately when he wakes in the night? And wait 10-20 minutes so he's awake then and not after the feed?
I've just fed him now, he falls asleep in my arms, so I wait a bit and then transfer him to the Moses basket, but he always wakes once he's been put down.

And dependant, he cluster feeds in the evening, from about 7 till 11. And again in the morning at first feed 5/6am.

Fate- would you suggest holding off feeding him immediately when he wakes in the night?

No, absolutely not IMO. For a long time to come, but certainly while in the newborn phase, a cry is for a need which needs to be met and by far the most usual reason for a cry is hunger.

The awake time I mentioned was through the daytime, sorry for any confusion caused. Even then at 3 weeks baby might not have any awake time that isn't feeding sometimes during the day. At this age babies just eat and sleep, eat and sleep, eat and sleep. During the night, there is no reason not to expect for baby to wake, be fed, so straight back to sleep.

FATE - interesting that you recommend feeding to sleep at this age. Like the OP, this stage with DD1 is a haze, but I definitely ran into trouble feeding her to sleep at the 3-4 month stage, and have been trying to consciously avoid it with this one

Feeding to sleep is unavoidable in the newborn stage (up to 6 to 12 weeks ish). Avoiding feeding to sleep when all baby does is feed and sleep is futile and pointless since when baby isn't feeding, he should be sleeping (not being woken up!).

That doesn't mean feeding to sleep needs to be the be-all-and-end-all. Still lift baby and wind (BF or FF) after a feed at this age. That might wake baby slightly but then put baby down to sleep after the feed. But the almost certainly likelihood at 3 weeks old (and for a few weeks to come) is that baby will go straight to sleep after a feed whatever you do.

By 3 months onwards, that is a different matter. But not something to consider yet.

What you could be doing to ensure better sleep in the longer term is persevering to get baby to accept a dummy and know that sucking it allows them to go to sleep without any help. This takes some 'holding it in their mouth' at this age. But definitely worth the effort in terms of long term sleep and self settling.

I had no routine at all until DD started to form patterns. I fed to sleep every time until she was 1, then she stopped breastfeeding and then she learned to go to sleep by herself within a week or two. I offered milk every 3 hours unless she was hungry sooner. She sorted it out by herself with minimal crying.

...transfer him to the Moses basket, but he always wakes once he's been put down.

Missed that bit.

Try swaddling. Like marmite some babies love it and some hate it. But great for allowing for easy transfer when asleep.

To make an effective swaddle sheet I would take a normal cot sheet and cut it in half along the short edge so that you have two very long, thin rectangles (not two shorter, fat rectangles you would get if cutting in half down the long edge). These make perfect swaddle sheets.

I also cannot understate the massive benefit of getting baby to accept a dummy. Once baby can independently suckle to sleep, then can be put down and left to suckle into a deep sleep (at which point dummy will come out since it s no longer needed).

If swaddle and dummy are still meaning light sleeping, my next suggestion is baby isn't been fed enough and needs more milk - either more per feed but more usually more frequently.

Thank you fate. I will try swaddling tonight and see if he's any different.