2 week old sleep pattern problems

[Barnes79]

I'm hoping someone out there can help. I have a 2 week old who just will not sleep at night.

During the day he will nap in his travel cot for 3-4 hours at a time, waking for feeds or nappy changes and the occasional bit of awake time (30-60 mins once a day).

At night he is completely different and each night I dread it and am now crying with frustration and tiredness in the early hours of the morning. We start his "bedtime" anytime between 6-10pm when he wakes for a feed. He then cluster feeds for a few hours (this is the only reason it sometimes starts at 6pm as he won't settle and keeps wanting to eat). Anytime from 10pm -12am he'll finish eating and doze off but then every time I try to put him in his crib he wakes up and either roots for another feed or screams until picked up. This can carry on for up to 4 hours and then, when I finally get him settled in the crib, he only sleeps for 15-90 mins before waking hungry again.

An example is last night - he woke at 8.45pm so we fed him (120ml expressed milk and topped up with 40ml formula -DH was doing this feed). DH then tried until 11pm to settle him but no luck, and as he's back at work I took over. At about 1.15am I 'settled' him in his crib and he slept. For 15mins. It then took until 3.45am to get him back to sleep and in the crib. He woke again at 5.45am, fed, and I got him back down at about 7.30am. He woke again at 8.45am and that's it - we're up.

We've tried using a hot water bottle to warm his bed, a used muslin so it smells of me and milk, tried rocking, background noise, light and dark environments, formula as we'd heard it meant he'd be fuller for longer...

I just can't cope like this much longer so would really appreciate some suggestions. 😰

It is completely normally but such hard work.

Are you happy/safe to cosleep? He just wants to be next to you. You are all he has know for 9 months and until he is two he won't realise that you are two separate people. Babies need to feed over night so you increase your milk supply to meet his increasing needs for milk.

Try to keep things quiet and dark during night time feeds and during the day get him in the light eg but his Moses basket in front of the window.

As much as you can sleep when your baby sleeps.

It's normal, they seem to have night and say mixed up at first. Make sure that you get out and about in the daytime to begin to help him work it out.
It's crippling but it didn't last long from what I remember.
A friend told me that the first 8 weeks are a total blur and after that you get a bit of control back, it was good advice and didn't actually take as long as that but it helped me to realise that it was a number of weeks not the lifetime it felt

It's inky temporary. I agree with helping him work out night and day. Also agree that co-sleeping is a good idea at this point even if it's only for a week or two do you can get some sleep

Try swaddling with a giant muslin.

• Swaddle baby before breastfeeding.

• Feed whilst in the swaddle

• When finished lift swaddled baby to your shoulder for a few minutes gentle swaying and rubbing back

• Once asleep on your shoulder in swaddle, lower baby to lying position by keeping baby on your shoulder and you bending at the waist, so that you keep full body contact with baby.

• once baby placed down, put your hand spread across baby's chest as you move your torso away.

At this point I'd additionally suggest putting a dummy into baby mouth to help independant settling. However it sounds like you don't have established breastfeeding yet.

If you hope to exclusively breastfeed then a dummy is not a good idea until established. However if your aim is to mix feed or bottle feed (expressed or formula), baby may well need a dummy now in order to satisfy the need to comfort suck.

Have you tried white noise? What about having your little one lie on top of your nightie? It would need to be tucked in like a sheet mind you. My little one was a nightmare about this age too but both my suggestions worked for us.

Our LO was like this, happily slept in Moses basket during the day but could not be put down at night. I don't really know what helped us but just wanted to say hang in there, they do learn the difference between night and day fairly soon. Those first few weeks were an exhausting blur but they don't last forever.

I think when they are in the womb they tend to have more "sleep" in the day because they are lulled by your movements, and then more active periods at night whilst you are lying still as you're asleep. This takes a while to wear off but give him as much light, fresh air, and company on the daytime. Dim the lights & the TV/radio in the evening and keep them as low as possible during the night. Keep night feeds dark and calm and quiet.

I found with mine that she really wanted to be close to me/swaddled/cosy for th first few weeks but then was happy to go without that and lie in her cot ok.