Newborn more alert at night

[ToniBraxtonhicks]

DS2 is 5 weeks old tomorrow, so VERY new I know, and I'm not expecting much in terms of routine or sleep for me!

However, he seems to be more alert and less drowsy in the night (particularly at/after his first feed, which can be anytime from 12-3ish am) and more likely to drop off while feeding in the day. For example, today he fed to sleep after about 45 mins awake. Last night his first night feed started at 12:30, he was finished and burped by 1:30 (or slightly after as he's really hard to wind) but not at all sleepy. He was not interested in having any more, so I attempted to hold him until more sleepy to put down (always worked a treat with DS1), but generally he seems to get squirmy, grunty and annoyed with this, so I swaddled him and put him back down with the white noise on. Therefore, from about 2 am he was lying in his sleepyhead, quiet but awake. He drifted off at 2:45 am. Seems a long time to be awake when newborn 'awake time' guidance says 45 mins - 1 hour.

Two questions:

1. is this just normal newborn mix up of days and nights that should resolve with age? I'm already doing the night/day teaching techniques like being more interactive, keeping lights bright, being noisier in the day and the opposite at night. Is there anything else to try?

2. if a baby is fed, winded, clean, dry and quiet in a safe sleep space, would you let yourself drift off, knowing you would wake if they became unhappy? Or wait to supervise that they had drifted off? Or try and intervene to 'put' them to sleep? I offered the dummy a couple of times early on in the period of time, but he was uninterested and let it fall out each time (sometimes he likes it).

Hello,

I had the same issue with my now 10 week old. After every feed in the night he would be so alert, thrashing arms and legs around and looking around. He made so much noise (I didn’t have a clue newborns did make so much noise) and I didn’t know what to do to help him settle on a night.

I too was worried that he was awake for such a long period of time, as it would take hours. I had a look online and other mums said to not change their nappies in their night unless it’s sodden or if they’d pooed. I was worried about this as I thought he would develop nappy rash etc but ever since I started doing this he would wake for a feed and go straight back to sleep! I couldn’t believe how much of a difference it made, even though before I would change his nappy first and then feed him it still would make him alert. So on a night now after his last feed at about 10.30 I change his nappy and put some sudocream on, just as a barrier, and so far so good. He now wakes once and is happy to fall straight asleep.

Also if baby has been fed, and is safe in their Moses baskets and is just happy to look around, you go to sleep. They will soon wake you if they are unhappy or if there is an issue. 😊

Hi Toni,
I'm in a similar situation, My LO is 5 weeks Saturday, she was often up for long periods of time as well, but I'm noticing it slowly reduce in the night
I found she was sometimes still gassy if she was wriggling, and more recently she was still hungry so I give her a bit extra in the evening feeds. But like PP said if she's happy and everything's been done I let her chill in the Moses and she's starting taking herself off to sleep when she's ready

I believe they start distinguishing between night and day soon! 🤞

Many thanks for your responses!

The night alertness had slightly lessened in the last 2 nights, so maybe we're heading in the right direction.

I already try not to change his nappy at night, but he still poops at the night feeds, sometimes at both of them so obviously this is sometimes unavoidable. I think one of the main issues must be his gassiness. He does swallow so much air when feeding and it takes ages and many position changes to get a burp out. This must be stimulating him to some extent. Unfortunately, putting him down without getting the burps out leads to either grunting/wriggling or him posseting. Sigh.

Still, I should be grateful that he will drift off to sleep with minimal intervention beyond white noise at the moment. DS1 certainly didn't!