How the hell do you wake a sleepy baby during the day

[firststeps]

Our 3 week old is awake all night and sleeping all day - how can we encourage him to turn this round and how can we try and keep him awake for a short time after feeds during the day? We are demented from lack of sleep and have a 2 year old as well so sleeping when the baby sleeps is out of the question this time round!!! Ant ideas or tips gratefully received

take turns.
try and interact with baby during the day. but lights off, or very low at night, and no interaction. just feed, clean and lay down. whilst during the day, talk, coo, noise, light etc.
congratulations on the new lo.

Congratulations on your new little one. I never put my two in their nighttime cot during the day for naps - I used a pram or carrycot downstairs to help differentiate day and night. As pukkapatch says keep the lighting level/noise etc. up during the day and during the night be as boring as you can be when feeding/changing using minimal light. This routine worked with both mine. Good luck - and hope you can get more sleep soon!

Sympathies - ours was similar. In utero he would wake up at 11pm and run about the place until 4am, after birth the pattern continued.

As the above say, lots of interaction during the day. You could also try getting him outside in the afternoon - the natural light reprogrammes the brain to understand day and night.

Now 11 weeks old, DS sleeps from 9pm until 6-7am, so it can be done.

I am afraid the answer is, there isn't much you can do.

Beyond the normal advice of keeping things quiet and dark at night, avoiding unnecessary interaction and not jumping up to the baby at the first wimper, it's my experience after 3 kids that you have to let them sort it out for themselves.

This too shall pass.