I need help with baby sleep

[Sleepdeprivationmyenemy]

Hi everyone,

I have a 3 month old who will not sleep for more than 2 hours and 2 hours is if I’m lucky.

Do babies actually sleep more than that? Are other mothers lying to me?

I exclusively breast feed. I set up a night time routine, I feed her for more than 15 minutes. I have very good milk supply and she has really good latch.

I think she knows day time and night time because In the daytime she is awake after a feed and at night she goes back to sleep.

When mothers say their babies seek 4 to 6 hours do they include the feed and happy change, and just that their baby is sleeping through all these processes? My baby wakes up asking to feed and I would change her happy but she only wakes to ask for it and would be asleep while I feed and change her. If that is the case than yes she does sleep up to 6 hours.

We have a night time routine.

I make sure she’s not overtired in the day time.

I’m teaching her to self settle by not going over to her the minute she fussed. I wait until just before she does her first howling cry and pick her up to rock her to sleep again.

I just want more than 2 hours as you know it is very exhausting to not have unbroken sleep for over three months.

I started yelling at her if she wakes up before one hour or sleep and tell her she’s torturing me and feel guilty about it later on.

I’m following all the tips I’ve googled and read in books about having a schedule but she still wakes every hour - what am I doing wrong

Sorry for the ramble as I am very tired and cranky.

On Instagram try just chill mama sleep guru. She has affordable online courses or more pricey 1-2-1 calls x

https://instagram.com/justchilll_mama?igshid=1hqef3awg9b5e

Haven’t got much practical advice as it seems you are doing everything right. Just here to say it will get better.

Actually just remembered this helped me;

Or see your dr about reflux

Best of luck

I didn't change a wet nappy overnight, only soiled ones! Not sure if this may help?

Do you co sleep , if not check out the advice on the lullaby trust website, it was a game changer for me!!

Don't take to much notice of what friends say their baby can do, that path leads to madness (as you are finding!)

You are doing a great job and your baby's pattern is very normal as well as exhausting

Feel free to ignore me entirely, as you know your baby better, but I don't think you need to worry at the moment about teaching her to self settle. She's tiny! It's a skill she'll learn in time. I'd second above with safe co sleeping. Lets everyone get more sleep, which makes being calm and patient so much easier.

If she sleeps at the breast while she is feeding, is she actually getting enough milk to see her through a few hours. She might also be using you as a comforter to help her sleep rather than needing to feed, so consider a dummy. Also don't change at night unless she poos.

Routines don't make any difference sorry. So perhaps stop worrying so much about routine.

Hi everyone, thank you for your response - as you can see from my rambling post with bad spelling and grammar, I was so tired and cranky!

I’m feeling a lot better after my one hour snooze...

I appreciate all your advice and encouragement. I have looked at the Instagram page and the YouTube so thank you for those resources!

I have tried a dummy many times but Baby hates it. She starts screaming when she realizes it’s not a real boobie and there’s no milk coming out.

Seems like there’s a few of you saying no need to change a wet nappy? I thought she would be really uncomfortable otherwise?

We cosleep on desperate nights and I do sleep a bit better as it is easier to feed her then.

Thanks Again.

I wouldn't change a nappy every couple of hours unless she's a heavy wetter. Is she properly waking up and being hungry or is she just having a little cry?

I co slept until around 12 weeks for this reason. Then stretches started getting longer and I shifted DS into his next to me cot. I think it will gradually happen. Mine did every 2 hours till 12 weeks, then every 3 hours, then 4-6 hour stretches etc until he was sleeping through-ish by 5 months. I did find that once he moved into his own room at 6 months he slept much better and settled himself, rather than me picking him up and feeding him every time he snuffled.

I was like you, couldn't believe what all my NCT friends were saying about 5 hour stretches and thought my baby was some kind of non sleeping freak. But lo and behold, they're now 11 months and most of theirs wake regularly in the night still, and mine doesn't. Newborn sleep isn't a predictor of how they'll sleep as they get older. I'm sure mine will have bad stages again too.
Good luck!

If she requires rocking to sleep then it's unsurprising that when she wakes she shouts for the rocking again. It's what she knows and needs to fall asleep.

Is she rocked to sleep in the daytime too?

I'm not saying it needs to change, but it's a direct explanation for why she won't just roll over and go back to sleep herself - she doesn't know how.

Hi! My baby sounds similar to yours. She is nearly 4 months old now and she is exclusively breastfed. She still wakes up every 2 hours or even 1.5 hours at night to feed and it’s definitely exhausting. Haven’t had a long stretch of sleep that’s been more than 3 hours since she was born. I don’t change her nappy unless it’s soiled which means she can go up to 11 hours without changing. If I changed her she would wake up and she is a nightmare to put back to sleep. But she has been fine. No diaper rash or anything. We also co sleep which makes feeding a million times easier.