Help! Sleep tips.

[brummiesue]

I have a little boy who is 5 months and formula fed. He usually wakes once in the night about 1-2am. The problem is he stays awake usually for around 2hrs following this every night whinging and fussing. He feeds on and off during this time and I have even tried giving him a dummy with little help. I'm at the end of my tether!!

I mean 5 weeks!!! Not months!

Unfortunately this is really normal, it takes a while for them to figure out their days and nights! My 9 month old still is regularly up for a couple of hours in the night so I understand how hard it isjust got to hang in there!

It's totally normal, still getting used to day and night and his little body. I recommend joining a thread on here called 'awake with a newborn, anyone else', it is lovely and supportive and I think would really help x

Baby does sound hungry brummiesue.

Making daytime feeds more frequent (less time between daytime feeds, more bottles per day) means fewer calories are needed at night. But at 5 weeks it would be unreasonable to expect baby not to need feeding at night, sometimes a lot.

Keep going with the dummy too. Most babies are comforted and soothed by sucking.

I would also check you are adequately winding. Baby should burp at least once after every feed, including night feeds. In fact night time winding is more important than daytime winding due to extended time lying flat. If no burp comes, change winding position until it does.

I forgot to mention swaddling.

A swaddle recreates the tight, cramped, enclosed and protected feeling baby had in the womb. Many newborns find recreating womb-like conditions comforting.