My baby doesn't know difference between night and day!!!

[HLCA]

Please can anyone give me advice on how to teach my baby the difference between night and day. He sleeps all day and is awake all night! I've tried keeping him awake in the day but he doesn't wake up as he's only 4 weeks old. Help me someone pleaseeee!!

Sorry I can't help except to say it will work itself out! I have a 4yo DD who was a totally sleep disaster until she was 18months, regressed at 2 but then has been a dream - she is currently sleeping through my 3 day old baby screaming! He's exactly like your 4week old and I reckon I've had about 4-5hrs sleep in the last 4 days

Just like yours, he's just woken and become really alert at 10pm

I think we got to 8 weeks and ds then started to get day and night.

We started putting him in “day time” clothes in the morning then started a bedtime routine (bath jammies milk and a story)

He slept through ish from week 10. Ish.

But at 4 weeks ds slept loads. Day mostly.

As someone said to me when DS1 was 4 weeks old..."he doesn't know he's here yet".

He'll get the difference eventually. Some earlier than others!

I'm afraid to say that's normal.

Bright noisy environment during the day, dark and quiet at night. But it's normal and might take a while to change over, sorry.

My two dds were quite simple, I don't know if it'll work for all babies though!

From birth, all daytime naps were taken with the curtains open in the nursery and normal household noise going on around.

At night time, they had a routine (bath, feed, bed) and they were put to sleep in a pitch dark room. No light at all. When they woke in the night they were fed in the dark and in silence. We didn't interact at all.

They were both terrific little sleepers, but we did shoot ourselves in the foot with the dark thing, because obviously they needed to sleep in the dark at all times, when away, etc. I remember a fair few nights where we had to engineer getting the travel cot into the bathroom in hotels because that was the only place it was pitch black! 😂

He will get it.

It is normal, I'm afraid. It is a gradual thing, learning the difference between night and day. Some are faster at it than others. I was lucky and mine generally understood it from around 8 weeks - as if a light suddenly went on in their brains.

Keep daytime as normal as you can. Get out once a day as often as you can. Don't keep everything unusually quiet in the day because baby is sleeping. Carry on as normal.

I made night feeds business only. No stimulation. Nighttime wasn't playtime. I also avoided changing nappies in the middle of the night unless they had pooed.

Get some rest whenever you can.

Oh my days don't think I could wait that long! Haha

Thank you so much everyone for your comments, I really do hope he gets it soon! I've now put him into one of those cots that attach to your bed which I think helps a lot because he is a very fidgety baby and likes to kick about a lot so he has more room to do that in this bed. I think when he's a few months older I can keep him awake longer in the day as he will be more active. Fingers crossed and thanks for all your tips!

Same happened to me. DS was awake 11pm to 5am every night. I caved and brought a next to me at 4ish weeks. He had a moses from birth. It took a few more weeks for him to learn the difference but the cot helped in the meantime. I wouldnt be without it now! Goodluck 😊