Terrible nights...

[sleepynell]

My 8wk old (born 6 wks premature) is relaxed and relatively 'easy' during the day, and a nightmare at night. He's developed a pattern of sleeping soundly from about 10.30pm to 1am, then is awake, completely wired, from 1 to around 4 or even later. He breastfeeds calmly during the day, at about 2-3 hour intervals between sleeps, wants more feeding during his night-time wake period (but then, all that shuffling about, whimpering, and being awake must use lots of energy...). Each time I feed him, he falls sound asleep on top of me, but is bang awake the moment I transfer him to the moses basket.

He seems just to be completely topsy -turvey - has anybody any advice on how to turn him round, gently; we're shattered and can't 'catch up' during the day because I have an older one.

does he have reflux or colic or anything? my dd was just the same, when she was very tired i could get her to sleep no problem, but then would struggle when she wasnt quite so knackered, and moses basket would wake her right up - we even used to try sitting on the mattress first in case it was the cold mattress waking her, but no!!

i went against all advice and convention and put her on her tummy to sleep. it worked wonders. she now will just lie there if awake and stare,waiting for sleep to come. She knows that tummy means sleep and back means playtime. I am not advising you do this because of the curent guidance to prevent cot death, I am just letting you know what works for me. (although with a lot of guilt and worry on my part!)

dd now been dx with reflux, and had colic due to milk intolerance. we hadnt realised this until recently but explains why shes happier on tummy.

i personally felt that me having enough sleep helped me to care for her much better and happier during the day, even if it meant taking a small risk.

hope you find something that works for you.

I had a similar problem with ds1, I swaddled him - worked wonders. Oh, and he was also much more settled on formula milk (onmeo confort- lower lactose, so much easier to digest - no buggering about with colic etc)

Co-sleeping solved this for us, although I did get very confused about the contradictory advice about its safety. Lots of people on here know loads about it though, so would be able to advise you better.