two week old not sleeping at night

[Iamnotacerealkiller]

Hoping the collective wisdom of mumsnet can help.

DS is two weeks old today, had a rocky start with bad jaundice so a long stay in the intensive care and hospital. He just wont sleep at night. during the day he is good as gold. will have a long feed then zonk out for 2/3 hours. if he is awake he just lays there and gazes about, everyone is very impressed by how calm he is.

Night time is another story, he gripes allll night. we change him, feed him constantly even when he isn't dirty or hungry it seems. he doesnt stay on the breast for more then 5 mins or so then refuses it. we tuck him up all warm in his cot next to me in bed but he just moans. i have tried putting him on my chest to calm down but this only works for a minute or two.

I would love to sleep in the day when he does but i physically struggle to sleep in the day time (no matter how tired) im a bad napper in general. OH AND I also want to keep him in our room and to stay in there together rather then sleep in different rooms. OH is on leave for another week so we do a kind of tag team at the moment where i go to bed early, OH does midnight feed and then come upstairs with him
and i do 3am and 6am feeds. it works ok as at least i get some sleep (and more then i got in hospital) but i'm probably averaging 2 or 3 per night.

I would like to be managing more on my own by the time OH goes back to work so that he will have a less disturbed night.

Can anyone offer advice or experience? Will he naturally start sleeping more at night on his own? is there anyway i can encourage this? I breastfeed and express for a couple of bottles a day if this makes any difference.

He's only two weeks old things will change - as will you, I used to bed bad at napping, I'm an expert now after two non sleepers lol!

Is he colicky? Bicycling legs and cNt put him down? May need gripe water or infacol etc when he's old enough

Sorry to say it’s one of those ‘it will pass’ things. My DS was the same at that stage and had just started sleeping more at 5 weeks. He is the most chilled baby but just grunts and is generally noisy at night! But it’s def settling and I’m getting 3-3.5 hrs between feeds now so hopefully your baby will settle over next few weeks. Do you swaddle??
Also share your pain about not being able to day nap!!

Coffee that is reassuring. like i said at least i am getting some sleep so i am coping it is hard to see him distressed at night though and that there is nothing i can do.

Frustratingly i have brought him downstairs now to give OH a chance to sleep and he is now out cold next to me on the sofa why can't he do this when we are all in bed ?!?! He was born three weeks early so mentally im giving him this time to recover as he shouldn't even be born yet!! he still has some signs of jaundice which is why im trying to keep him well fed and flush that out of his system.

I really feel for you I was the same and couldn't sleep in the day. Try and aim to rest rather than sleep so someone has the baby for a bit and you take a bath, lie o the bed etc. It will pass and you can do it. Delegate all the jobs you can and take all offers of help xx

Have you tried white noise at all? You can download a free app on you phone called sound sleeper it helped my DS settle in the early days. If you imagine that in the NICU there would be constant noise day and night so he hasn’t had to transition to quiet nights at home (and babies are used to constant noise in the womb remember so it might have seemed as though he slept better in hospital?). As pp’s have said he doesn’t know night from day yet and it will come in time! Breastfeeding is supposed to help establish circadian rhythms with the different hormones that are present in the day and night so this will help too!