8 week old - advice

[Rockandrollwithit]

I have two children, DS1 who is 3 and DS2 who is 8 weeks. DS2 had surgery two days after being born and was in NICU for 2 weeks. One side effect of his surgery is reflux, which is medicated with ranitidine and omeprazole.

At the moment, we put both boys to bed at 7pm (DS2 in the sleepyhead in the living room). It takes about 45 mins to settle the baby. Then we wake him for a dream feed and all go to bed at 10pm. He will then wake at 12pam, which is far too soon! Between feeding and settling him, he doesn't go back off until 1am, only to wake again at 2am, 4am and 6am. It seems he will only sleep for about an hour or max two hours on his own.

In the day I have to hold him for all of his naps.

Any ideas for lengthening the amount of independent sleep? I'm very tired and the nights are long!

Forgot to add, we already have his bed tilted to help with reflux.

8 week growth spurt. Totally normal.

This is really really normal for an 8 week old baby, and I’d also say 7pm is quite an early bedtime for one so young. They usually feed and snooze in the evenings. My 9 month old still wakes various times in the evening - they’re all different but I wouldn’t be expecting and 8 week old to be sleeping in big chunks.

I'm glad it's normal. I'm reluctant to change the 7pm bedtime as during the day I'm constantly holding him and 7-9pm is the only time I get for myself, and I enjoy the break

Can’t your partner hold him from 7-9pm?

He does help, but he's a teacher and often has to work in the evenings.

Sling?

Yeah tilted cot or a wedgehog in the cot helps with reflux and colicy symptoms. But this is totally normal, rapid development mentally and physically can cause babies to wake from there sleep cycles (they have lots of them through the night and when they hit a light sleep stage they can wake) you could try comforting during this waking stage by rubbing tummy or stroking the eyebrows and babe my drop back off :) sometimes it works sometimes not so much. If you don’t want to change the 7pm bed routine then don’t, it will help in the future to have a set routine anyways :) but other than that it’s really normal at this stage, they don’t usually sleep in massive chunks until about 3mo+ my dd went from waking every 3/4 hours to then doing a solid 7-8 hours. Good luck x

It's reassuring to know it's normal, as he was in NICU I tend to worry that even normal baby things could be part of his condition.

I use a sling a lot in the day but it's not as good as a real break, when I can have a bath in peace!

I do think he is waking up between sleep cycles, seems like we will just have to go with it until he gets a bit bigger. Hopefully he will be able to go 3-4 hours soon.

This is really normal for an 8 week old baby, whether it has reflux or not.
Also, holding when for daytime naps or having to walk them in the buggy all the time is normal.
It will get better, hang in there

Instead of holding him for daytime naps, you could try a bouncy chair in a more upright reclined position. The position should be good for reflux. Plus it frees up your arms to play with toddler and the boucibg helps get baby to sleep.

In addition, I assume you are giving a dummy?

I've tried a bouncy chair, it just doesn't work. Same for a swing unfortunately. He's just one of those babies who needs to be held.

And yes, I'm giving a dummy. He likes to chew rather than suck but we're working on it.