5 week old not settling after 3am.

[Rach1311]

Can anyone give any insight into this? My lb has started sleeping a bit longer between feeds...he’s asleep without fail by 8pm then he’s been waking at 11/12 Has a (formula) bottle, nappy change then sleeps til around 3am when he wakes for a b feed. He’s mainly breast fed apart from a 4 oz formula bottle that my OH gives him before coming to bed. I’ve been coming to bed at 8 to try get a few hours in (I’m an awful light sleeper so I never sleep solidly) but after 3am it’s a constant battle with the dummy, winding, grunting, crying etc etc. He’s had congestion since birth which he sometimes struggles with but it doesn’t seem to bother him for the first part of the night. By 5.30 I finally give in and bring him into bed, he feeds for about 2 minutes then low and behold goes straight off to sleep. I don’t bother putting him back in his cot as by this point I’m just too tired to faff about putting his dummy back in every 5 seconds.
His naps during the day are very odd. If we’re in house he will stay awake ALL morning and I’m talking 7am-1pm and then he’ll sleep all afternoon until 5pm (usually with a b feed inbetween) this is unless we’re out in the car in a morning in which case he will sleep for a bit.
From about 9am he will yawn and yawn and he’ll maybe fall asleep after a feed, but as soon as I put him down he’s wide awake!!
I know he’s only little and hopefully it will settle down but I just don’t get why hes doing it?
I need tips on how to get him to sleep for a bit during the morning and how to settle him after this 3am feed!

This is very common in the early days. The early hours are not great sleep times! Sleep more yourselfnin the early evening to catch up.

On the morning he’s awake too long (mine was similar.) they shouldn’t be awake for anywhere near as long in the early days - literally feed, change, nap. Force that nap any way you can - rocking gently in a bouncer in a boring room, out in the pushchair, anything you can,

Sleep in the first year changes constantly and it’s exhausting and often stressful for parents. Do what you can, don’t beat yourself up if it doesn’t work. There’s a massive range of normal and most kids do end up sleeping ok (I say this from bitter, almost went crazy with sleep deprivation, experience.)

He's only 5 weeks, it'll all change again soon! They don't have a schedule.

Thanks. So it’s 2.30pm and he’s slept a total of half an hour all day. I tried bouncing him in bouncer, didn’t work, went for a drive for around 20 mins in which he slept but as soon as the car stopped he woke up. We went out for lunch in the car, again slept for 10 mins then woke up when the car stopped. Then we went to my mother in laws and he stayed asleep for all of 5 minutes then it was feeding time. He’s been awake since 8am. I just don’t know what to do.

At the moment I'm doing a lot of walking in the pram. If I stop he wakes so I just wander round the park/town for a couple of hours. Is that something you could try?