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16 week old baby sleep help please

4 replies

27jhb · 19/02/2022 08:41

Hi everybody I just need some advice, I’m a first time mum with a 16 week old baby that just never sleeps. I definitely don’t think it’s the 4 month sleep regression as he’s been like it since probably 10 weeks old.
He usually goes to bed around 8ish, sleeps well for 2 hours and then wakes up every 10 minutes for the entire night (till 6:30,when we start the day). I usually feed him (bottle fed) around 2 but he still won’t settle after feeding. We use a white noise machine, have the mattress tilted up as doctor thinks he might have reflux although I’m not sure that he actually does. We’ve just stopped swaddling him at night to see if that makes any difference but it’s still the same. He doesn’t sleep very well in the daytime either, usually 3 naps for 20 mins each. We had the sleep specialist on the health visitor team come and visit and she said that there’s nothing else I can do that’s just what he’s like but surely there must be something 😓 I’m starting to really struggle with it all and not sure what else to do so any suggestions would be much appreciated thank you!

OP posts:
FATEdestiny · 20/02/2022 15:29

If baby isn't rolling I would keep the swaddle.

Establish inconstant use of a dummy, if you haven't already. Makes a huge difference.

Are you winding effectively after every feed? If you are feeding frequently you also need to be winding a lot otherwise trapped wind disturbs sleep.

What are you doing to get baby to sleep?

During the day I'd suggest dummy and bouncy chair. Even tempo boucing with your foot all the way through sleep. 20 min naps aren;t the issue - too long awake between naps is the problem.

Wake Window wants to be around double nap length. So 20 minute nap means that after 40 minutes awake baby should be back in the bouncer with dummy for a bounce to sleep.

At night, dummy, swaddle and sidecar cor is possibly the easiest way to achieve independant sleep. If baby wakes, open swaddle, feed baby until refused, put back into swaddle and onto your shoulder, wind upright until at least 1 burp, back into cradle hold to reoffer milk until asleep or refusing. Dummy in, lift back to shoulder for final wind, then slowly slowly lie yourself down in bed and at the same time lower baby into the sidecar cot, while keeping body contact at all times. Cuddle into the cot, tap dummy to encourage sucking. Extract yourself once asleep.

Mummy2C · 21/02/2022 20:33

My LO sleep was poor too. Ended up with milk allergy. Do they have eczema?

Thefaceofboe · 22/02/2022 05:27

Hi!

I found that poor day time sleep really affected my DD around that age and would cause her to have similar nights to your baby. I started off by going on long walks with the pram/sling to encourage sleep and I noticed her night time sleep improved dramatically. If she sleeps for short periods for naps now I just make sure she was lots of 20 minute naps through the day, it’s tedious but necessary.

Also agree I would keep swaddling untill rolling if not already

mavis24 · 22/02/2022 05:55

Hi if there is a winding issue that cud be unsettling maybe try infacol we had a similar issue early on and started infacol before every bottle and she was a different baby wind also came up with ease our baby didn't tick all the boxes for colic but we still gave it ago and I honestly don't regret trying it it was a game changer.

You got this mumma hang in there x

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