4 week old has been awake since 8.30am please help!!

[Bexwood]

My DS is 4 weeks 4 days old and has been awake since 8.30am - I'm struggling to cope with the days he's like this.

He sleeps really well during the night from about 10pm till 3 or 4am then up for an hours feed and back down till 6 or 7am. Really pleased with night times. I'm breast feeding on demand and he seems happy in all other respects.

It's just some days he'll be awake for more than 6 or 7 hours at a time - today it's been 10 hours - and it's hard to know what to do. He'll have little naps on me, in his bassinet or on his mat, but they last all of 10 mins before he's screaming for attention. I'm trying to look out for his sleep cues, swaddle him & put him down in his bassinet when he's fallen asleep on the breast, starts yawning or getting scratchy but he seems to wake as soon as his head hits the mattress.

The midwife and health visitor have both said all babies are different & some can do with less sleep than others, but I'm sure he should be sleeping at least a bit during the day, especially as he's so young. Has anyone else had the same problems? How did you get through it?

Thanks in advance. Bex

do you think he might have silent reflux or something like that? my DS is 6 weeks and has a bit of the same problem but he definately has reflux. before the reflux he was like clockwork, now he is all over the place with waking and sleeping.

hate to tell you this but it may not change that much! BOTH mine have been like this.

Ds1 would barely sleep at all in the day except in the car, from birth! I remember asking my health visitor if babies were supposed to be awake all day and she said 'no' but couldn't help me with a child who screamed himself hoarse when placed 'to sleep' in his bassinet.

He did sleep in the sling also but used to wake up as soon as I sat down. He didn't even sleep in his pram after about 4 months and would sit up as straight as he could staring at everything.

Ds2 is similar but sleeps worse at night! He is 7 months old and sleeps a maximum of about 1 hour a day, and only 11/12 at night usually with interruptions!

Apparently it's a sign of intelligence, so they tell me.....

I was just about to start a new discussion about this very problem as i hadn't seen many comments about babies not sleeping during the day under about 8 or 9 months.

My DS was 4 months old yesterday. at about 3 months old he was sleeping 7 to 7 which was amazing! That only lasted a couple of weeks unfortunately. Then he got bronchilitis (nasty chesty cough, sounded like he was smoking 40 a day!) Since then things have gone down the pan. He used to sleep for about 3/4 hr between 9 and 10, that's completely disappeared, never really slept at lunchtime, again 3/4 hr if i was lucky and the afternoon nap was pretty non existent. All the above took some working at. It's since he has stopped sleeping during the day that his good night sleeping habits have deteriorated. Having said that he settles pretty easily after a feed in the night so won't complain about that too much! The days are hard work, especialy about 5 o'clock when he is so knackered so doesn't always have a good feed before he goes down. It's a vicious circle. I've tried some tentative CC but not sure if he's too young really, he just screams. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your replies everyone.

Moocowme, we had thought it might be connected to reflux as last week he started arching his back & grizzling during feeds along with a few other things that were out of the ordinary. We raised the head of the bassinet & that seemed to help for a few days. I'm wondering if you can give them Gaviscon or something to help? Will go to the Dr tomorrow. I just hate it when he cries & gets so upset but I can't seem to do anything to help.

Domesticgodless, thanks, glad to know I'm not the only one with a baby who refuses to sleep. It's just so hard to do anything during the day when he's like this. Am hoping he'll be a bit calmer tomorow.

Happybug, sorry to hear about your poorly DS. I hope he's over his cough. I know what you mean about the days being hard work. I haven't tried any controlled crying yet as DS is only 4 weeks so want to build up his trust. Sorry I can't suggest anything but I hope you get some suggestions too.

We have a 12 week old and she is reluctant to sleep in the day, or early evening. Her older sister now 3.10 years was much easier and we struggle with our new dd2. Your description of your baby's night sleep pattern could have been written by me 8 weeks ago.
2 months ago I was against dummies. I still don't like them but she does and we have reluctantly introduced one. (not the answer for everyone I know). I can't bear the thought of cc (won't go into all that now) so at the moment we are just muddling through.
I am posting because I thought it might help you as we were in a similar position and now are a few weeks down the line. Our average day: up at 7am ish. Stays awake til around 8.30. Sleep for an hour or so. Sleepy again around 11am. May have longer nap now say up to 2 1/2 hours but we do have to pop the dummy back in usually once or twice. Very brief cat naps during afternoon. Terrible early evening. Settle to bed at same time as sister - 7ish. Up and down to her for at least an hour to comfort/replace dummy. Dream feed around 11. One night feed around 2-3am but straight back until 6 or 7. Interestingly she doesn't look for the dummy at dream feed or middle of night feed!
Sorry for long post. It does get slightly better as the weeks go by. x

ds's record when he was about two months old was 15 hours on the go without sleep - he was perky as anything, i was on my KNEES by the end of it. he is still not a good napper but does at least sleep a bit now.
the quid pro quo was that in his non-napping days he slept thru the night from 10 weeks old - now he wakes at night, and naps during the day, and i remember with longing all those endless wideawake days when i couldnt think what to do with him! so perhaps try to count your blessings if he is good at night.
if it doesnt worry him - ie screeching and unhappy which would indicate that he is tired but just cant get to sleep - then try not to let it worry you. at this age everything is a passing phase anyway.

Thanks Bex, he is now fully recovered.

I also reluctantly tried him with a dummy this afternoon and he did have about a 20 min nap so i'll give it a go tomorrow. I'm also fairly anti dummies but i do now agree that they have their moments. I'll give anything a go to try and help my DS and me get back to our gentle rythm that we had before.

I had tried one earlier but he had spat it out with such force that i didn't try again. I'm also not a great fan of CC but have been getting fairly desperate. x

try some infant gavsicon. you can buy it over the counter or get it on prescription. my DS slept like a log when i finally worked out what was wrong and got some for him.

You sound just like me at the same stage -i went through hell and back with DS naps and it really got me down for a while sometimes battling for an hour each naptime and then he would only sleep for 30 minutes. Then suddenly magically he just started going down with no fuss at all -it started with his early morning nap then gradually he did it with the others too. Now he just goes into his cot awake and goes off. we managed without a dummy (I hate them too) and I know we made life harder for ourselves but I'm really glad we stuck it out. I think it was part getting him used to sleeping in his cot and part just natural development as he got older. Unfortunately he only started to do this at 5.5 months just before I went back to work so I never really benefited from sleeping when baby sleeps etc but he's brilliant now.

There is hope!

Progress at last! The dummy was spat out with such force again which was fine by me but using a sling 'close baby' i managed to get him to sleep for 1/2 hour between 9 and 10 and then again later in the afternoon about 4 ish. Bath time was a pleasure again!

Not wanting to have to do that everday though but having given us both a break i have just tried yet another tactic. I put him in his cot the opposite way round, different scenery and sat on the floor so he could see my face and touch me and just soothed and chatted and when he started getting atall worked up i would try and make him laugh. He is now sleeping - yipee! Took about 15 mins and he's now been asleep about 20 mins so far, watch this space!

Hope some of these tactics may help someone else.