3 week old unsettled at night and staying awake for over 2hrs

[lyssie29]

Hi, my almost 3 week old settles absolutely fine through the day for naps but after her nf at around 3-4am she won't go back to sleep for hrs sometimes not until I get up properly for the day and then she falls asleep. How can I settle her? She sleeps in her moses basket for naps and night time, is ebf and eats approx. Every 2.5 to 3hrs. Last night I lay her next to me in bed and she eventually dozed for a couple hrs but I don't like co sleeping so I lay awake next to her. Any ideas?

Are you breast feeding? I am pretty sure at this age they do that irritating awake-for-hours-in-the-breast thing as part of their way of ensuring the milk supply is upped as they grow. It's pretty normal for them to just want to feed constantly at this age.

Exhausting for you though.

I have a combination fed baby of the same age and struggling with the same problem! No advice sorry, but lots of and sympathy! I'm watching with interest for some wise mnetter to provide the solution!

3 week old babies have no concept of night and day, unfortunately! It kicks in at about 6 weeks so until then, just hang on in there and try and get as much rest when she's naps as you can.

I pump breast milk and bottle feed her. I wish I could nap but also have a 2.5 yr old lol hoping she'll get used to it soon! My dp is going to do tonight though so I can hopefully catch up.on some sleep :-)

What are you actively doing to get her back to sleep?

She might want a dummy to suck? She might want feeding to sleep? She might want movement?

Slightly younger ds but same here finding white noise app and dummy slightly helpful
Every other night is horrendous, no idea why!!

DS was the same except didn't nap well and slept shorter stretches. And after about 2am wouldn't settle in the basket at all. I stayed awake with him.next to me, sat up with him on the feeding pillow, took him downstairs......eventually caved in at 7weeks and started co sleeping. He mostly wakes once in the night now.

As an aside, can i ask why you pump and bottle feed? Genuine question. I bf and keep meaning to express so someone else can give a bottle. I have done it a few times. I just feel like i am having to take twice as long - once to pump once to feed. Rather than just feed. Also i don't often get much when i do pump.

I've been there lyssie (my 2 are 2.5 yrs apart), and I feel your pain! I was basically a zombie for the first couple of months with dd2 I can't even remember what I did to try and make things better as its all a blur now, but suffice to say I did survive and she did settle down until the sleep regression kicked in

Thanks I know it's only early days but one can hope! Lol

I pump it because when she was born she was an extremely sleepy baby and in the first few days she would sleep for 8-9 hrs a time and no one could wake her for a feed. Not even the midwives at hospital so I had to use a syringe to feed her and she continued like this at home (they wouldn't let me take syringes home though to feed her) and whenever I bf her she would only do so for 2 minutes maybe and then go back to sleep. Because of this she lost 10% of her weight in the first week so I tried her with a bottle and gradually she started to take it better. I had to pump my milk anyway because she was hardly feeding and my boobs were about to explode! Now I'm happy bottle feeding her my milk as I know that she's eating a good amount each time. It is a lot more time consuming though but I do 10 minutes each side every 3-4 hrs and I get 3oz from each side which will currently do her for 2 feeds :-)