6 week old baby

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Hi all

I have a 6 week old baby boy.
I am trying to get some form of routine (I know some wouldn't think that's possible but my partner works away so I'm single parenting a lot of the time and the sleep deprivation is now unbearable)

I have read Gina ford and a few other advice books.

We have made some progress as he now has a bed time routine of bath (or body wash) in sleep suit and a feed in the bedroom. He then goes asleep in his next to me approx 7pm- 10pm.

He wakes for a feed 10pm and nappy change and settles back down. He then can't quite make it to the 2am normally waking about 1:30/1:45 and again takes a full feed and I can settles back off eventually.

He then wakes 4:30/5:30 this is the wake up I need to try and eliminate but he won't resettle and cries a lot I give in and feed but he only takes a bit and then falls back to sleep

He wakes at 7am wide away ready for the day.

Any advice on how I can get rid of the 4:30/5:30 wake up or will he just grow out of it?

Thank you in advance.
From a very sleep deprived first time mum!

He's a baby. Waking because he's hungry. You don't "need" to cut the feed out.

It will pass. Until then you muddle through and provide him with what he needs.

I think you’re already doing amazingly! At 6 weeks old I didn’t have a routine for my baby, such as bath,
bottle and bed, I only started that when she was older.

He will drop his night feeds when he’s ready. He will slowly start sleeping later and waking up closer to the 7am. He might even continue to wake at 4:30/5:30am for a cuddle and some reassurance but just now he’s crying as he’s hungry. Is he taking almost a full bottle? If so then he needs it. You might notice that he starts to drink less with this feed.

The other option is he might eventually drop one of the other night feeds.

Personally, I’d keep going, letting him sleep for as long as he can and being responsive when he wakes. Seeing if he needs a nappy change and if he needs a bottle. My little one didn’t necessarily need a nappy change at every feed and we found it made her more awake. Now she’s fairly dry throughout the night but she’s older and moving towards toilet training .

Main thing is, it’s hard being sleep deprived but hopefully it won’t be long and his sleeping habits will change again. They go through so many different sleep stages that it changes and soon, hopefully, you’ll see difference.

Sorry OP, babies are up to feed approx every 4 hours max. You're doing really well, but you can't cut it to less than this so sounds like you're maximising your sleep as it is!

@Hiddenvoice
So his full feed is a bottle of 120ml but on the 5am wake up he has half 60ml

When he wakes at 7am he doesn't want a bottle but is wide awake so we get up and start the day.

@crabette thank you I think maybe I've got caught up in the advice books

The thing I found was that unfortunately babies don't read the advice books 🤷‍♀️

They're all different, and although I do believe in sleep training etc I don't think it's appropriate for a 6 week old baby at all, they are so tiny and really aren't meant to sleep that great! It's so tough, the sleep deprivation with a young baby is really awful so you have my sympathies, but at this stage you really do just have to ride it out.

I had one child who didn't sleep the whole night through til they were 3.5 years and one that slept in 6 hour chunks overnight from basically birth. Luck of the draw

I think the only option is time I'm afraid! I do understand how you're feeling (dc2 was born when dh was working away for 10 months), but when they're that little you just kind of have to get on with it. Rest when baby rests during the day (hollow laugh, dc2 would only nap in the pushchair).