Is there anything I can do to get my 8 week old to sleep longer stretches at night?

[FLA92]

I’m sure there isn’t… and it’s a waiting game. But she wakes up every 1.5 - 2 hours and I am exhausted! I know 1.5 - 2 hours is normal.

DH does weekend nights and the last / first feed to share the load but still… so tired!

Is there any point in a bedtime routine at this age?

She is not the best at napping during the day, she has short naps unless on me but I try to stick to some sort of light routine of wake, feed, awake time, sleep.. etc. keeping an eye on her wake window time and if she needs a bigger nap I put her in the carrier.

She doesn’t finish her bottle sometimes (120ml) and it can take her a while to drink it. She doesn’t seem frustrated but I tried a different brand teat and she drank much faster, so I’m wondering whether I change her teat to the faster flow which MAM say to use from 2 months, so she drinks more and is less hungry during the night?

Otherwise any other tips welcome! Or feel free to tell me to not have such high expectations as she is only 8 weeks old!

When I say wake, I don’t mean I wake her. She wakes up herself 😊

Sounds pretty normal. Don't think there is much you can do to change it at this age - she is still very small.
If you are bottle feeding, get your DP to do a night feed, or he can do the evening to 11 shift while you sleep. Bring baby up when he goes to bed and then you do the night feeds.

The one trick that works every time is to wait for her to get older. In the mean time the path of least resistance, which will help you get the most rest with less frustration is to ride with it and come up with strategies for how to maximise everyone's sleep.

What my husband and I did was sleep in separate rooms, so whoever wasn't on baby duty wasn't getting woken up every time. Then we switched so one of us was always getting uninterrupted sleep for our own sleep shift. Because I was breastfeeding I naturally had a longer night shift and then had a lie in - hubby took over from around 4am and had one bottle of BM that I had collected during the other night feeds, and he let me sleep until he had to leave for work around 8.30am. I then took advantage of naps - mine contact napped for 9 months, so I had a lot of mandated rest time with a baby on top of me. We agreed that my job during the day is to be a nanny rather than a housekeeper and we would tackle housework when we're both around rather than expecting me to do everything because "I was home with the baby".

It gets better over time. Mine is now 20 weeks old/4.5months and he goes 4-5hrs which means only 1-2 wake ups in the night. He’s not on fixed times, it’s just when he wakes up. He has only switched from max 3hr to 4-5hrs very recently though.

Try the number 2, our ds went onto 2 at about 8-10 weeks I can’t remember exactly when. We noticed with the 1 he would end up squishing the teat in his mouth. Also he would take longer than before to finish it. The 2 was too quick for him to start, he had to adjust to the flow. He would splutter at the start so look out for that. I found tipping the bottle over the sink at the start helped with the initial stream.

You can definitely try the different teat and see if you can get her to eat a little more during the day/evening. It might work, it might not. But always worth experimenting I think!

Is she definitely hungry when she wakes in the night? Not just unsettled? You could also try leaving her a little longer if she's just fussing and not actually crying or just do a shush pat and see if she can resettle.

8 week olds aren't designed for long sleep patterns unfortunately. Any routine you attempt to get her in will go out the window once she starts teething.

What you can do is get more rest your self though. If she's sleeping you sleep, it'll make life more manageable. Resist the urge to get on with house work etc. Try and prep meals in the morning so you can grab your lunch and eat wherever you take her to feed her and then get your own nap in.

It does feel like you get no time to yourself but sleep is more important at this stage.