My 2 month old just won't sleep.

[MeAndMineSince2019]

Just looking for some advise really.

My 2 month old will sleep in the day fine, she will even go up to 6 hours without waking up. On a night however is a completely different story. I will keep her awake for as long as possible in the day, she has a bath before bed too but when I take her up to bed she can take hours to go to sleep even when she is exhausted. It's like she's fighting sleep and doesn't want to go to bed. It doesn't make a difference if the room is light or is pitch black. She has a night light which projects different coloured stars and plays music too but this doesn't help either. I'm a single mom and have to be awake in the day to deal with other responsibilities so at this point I'm nearly tearing my hair out. This past 48 hours I've had 3 hours sleep.

HELP?!

Is she ff or bf?
What are you doing to get her to sleep?
Do you have other children?

2 month old babies need lots of sleep during the 24 hour period and getting into a routine isn't easy.

Your baby shouldn't really be going for as long as 6 hours without a feed during the day though, so my advice would be to try and limit the daytime naps to shorter periods and make sure she gets plenty of milk whilst she is awake.

My daughter had a solid routine from about 14 weeks which included sleeping from 7pm - 4am with a dream feed, and she would go back to sleep for 3 or 4 hours after the 4am feed. Got to nail the daytime feeding regime, then work on the naps before tackling nights!

I think if we let him DS (7 weeks) would sleep pretty much all day especially if he's being cuddled or is in his sling. We wake him roughly every 3 hours if he doesn't wake himself and once he's awake he realises he's hungry. That means that at night I'm not so worried about having to fit in a certain number of feeds so he gets enough. He does sleep quite well but I'm not naive enough to think that that's anything more than luck. But it could be that she's really hungry at night so try to feed more during the day?

I have similar issues with my 7 week old - currently still awake despite having come up to bed at 10pm, lights low, no noise etc. She is shattered but fights sleep and works herself up to inconsolable screaming. She sleeps fine during the day, and feeds every 2 hours or so. Is your DD upset at night, or just awake?

I have no answers I'm afraid, only sympathy.

I would not let her sleep for 6 hours during the day. You ideally want her longest sleeping period at night so maybe don't let her go more than 4 hours during the day without a feed. Baths can over stimulate some babies so maybe move that to the morning. Have you tried a hummus where it plays white noise? Perhaps it is too quiet for her at night.

Thank you for all the replies!

She is formula fed....I do everything. Rock her in my arms, rock her in her crib. Sing, play music, put colourful lights on, turn lights off. Feels like I've tried everything! I will feed her more regularly in the day and see if that helps on a night.

It's the long stretch in the day. I'm surprised they don't wake for a feed during that time but then I ebf.
If the 6 hour nap was spread out/ shortened they would probably sleep longer in the night.
What time are you taking them to bed?
Regardless, unless you sleep train you cannot enforce a routine/ sleep on a baby.

Sounds like maybe baby is overtired at bed? Don’t let baby go so long without feeds during the day (3h max) and make sure baby is napping after an hour of being awake. If you look online there are some example sleep schedules.. so for example my 4 month old can be awake for 1.5-1.75 hours at a time before I need to put him down for a nap- if I keep him awake longer he’s a nightmare to put down, especially at bedtime. At 2 months they need loads of sleep. If you keep baby up too long in the day they get overtired & much harder to settle- figure out how long your baby can manage and work on that (I would guess 1h-1.25h at 2 months). Avoid such long naps in the day- sounds likw maybe has day/night confused. Open blinds first thing in the morning and try to make sure baby gets lots of daylight in the day.
It really tough to get them into a routine so to an extent what you say is normal! Good luck