6 week old will not sleep - please help!

[maloney123]

Sorry to start another non sleeping thread but my 6 week old just will not sleep, from early evening onwards she is wide awake. She will eventually doze off for 10 minutes or so after a long time of rocking / feeding / cuddling/ dummy but then she wakes up and it all starts again. She is frequently awake until nearly 3am. This surely can’t be normal? Can anyone help?

Is she cluster feeding or just unsettled? A lot of babies go through a growth spurt around 6 weeks so if she just seems to be clamouring for food all evening, that could be at play and should calm down in a few days.

If she isn’t just really hungry though, she could be overtired (counter-intuitive, I know!) and so just really wired by the end of the day. Try to focus on getting her to sleep every 90 minutes (from last wake-up) throughout the day and see if that helps, even if some of her naps are only 25 minutes or so. Try to privilege getting her rest above all else for the next few days if you can (by “above all else”, I mean don’t worry about creating “good sleep habits” in her crib right now, just let her sleep on you or in the pram if that’s what she seems to want). Once she’s less over-tired, you should find that the evenings get easier again and that she starts sleeping longer / less agitated stretches.

Good luck!

@maloney123 it's really common and usual for newborn babies (under 3 months) to have an evening "Witching Hour".

It's frequently more like 2 or 3 hours and it's when baby basically wants to feed non-stop. There may be occasional dozes in that, but not a proper sleep. Just a short snooze while propped upright on your shoulder to wind, or sleeping at the breast. It's best to just resign yourself to sitting in the sofa from 6pm-10pm and basically just let baby feed at will, wind cuddle whenever not feeding, and let baby doze while doing either of these. Dont plan to do anything else.

If this is going on for longer than a few hours in the evening though, then you could look for some support in how you could settle baby. It might be that baby needs a swaddle. Or just more patience. Or needs winding. Or that baby isn't getting enough help to get to sleep. There are loads of possibilities. It's trial and error, just keep trying.

Thanks guys, we’re trying to feed her more through the evening and get her napping more. She’s still really really difficult to settle at night though, it’s 12.30 now and I’ve been trying to get her down for about two hours! Think I may have to call in a professional

I have a 30 year old and a 24 year old. Six week olds not having a sleeping pattern is completely normal IMO. She’s not yet two months old. I don’t think you need professional help at this point.

It’s exhausting but it passes. Though in my experience it settles for a bit then unsettled again for the first year. But before you know it they’re passed it all.

What are you doing to get her to sleep?