What do you all do with an unsettled baby in the night?!!!

[Babyisaac]

Just curious. I know when my 10 week old DS is hungry and I feed him in the night but when he wakes several times for no reason I wonder what to do with him for the best.

Dummy goes in, he dozes for a short time, dummy comes out and he wakes. This cycle can go on endlessly until morning.

Do you think I should take him out of the cot and rock him or should he stay in the cot? My DH has been taking him downstairs for a couple of hours so I can sleep but he's working nights at the mo so I don't get this break. Also I don't want my DS thinking this is the norm every time he wakes.

Any suggestions?

I would just take him into bed with you and feed him if he wants. At least that way, you'll get some sleep.

have you tried settling him without a dummy? it sounds like he's waking up and unable to re-settle himself. With our DS, we filled him up with milk, then when he was at that "full and slightly drunk" looking stage but still awake, we popped him down in his basket and killed all the lights. He grizzled for a moment or two, then popped himself off to sleep. He's been settling himself pretty well ever since. The other thing that worked for us was swaddling - DS does the most spectacular startles in his sleep and wakes himself up. A miracle blanket solved that problem for us. but these things might not work for other babies, they are so individual. Whatever you do, your DS is really still a bit young to be getting into bad habits, so I would just do whatever works and allows you to get some sleep for the moment.

I sit at the PC on mumsnet with DS (7 weeks) typing hopelessly with wrong hand. White noise helps him to drop off. Only for the desperate but it works.....

Hi babyisaac

One thing I would reccommend is to not take him downstairs. By 10 weeks you should be trying to teach night from day. I made the mistake of putting a small bedside light on and reading with the radio on whilst DD fed. It is I think - the cause of a lot of grief later. Grit your teeth and go for either co-sleeping if you can - I could not - or feeding in the semi dark.

I have to assume from your post you are BFing? If so just feed him whenever he wakes at this age - you can't spoil him. He is waking through hunger. DD got to the point where she would wake and feed and go back to sleep in 15mins. I could cope with that even every 2 hours. Much better than watching re runs of QI at 2am - which I did A LOT in the early days

Sorry - meant to say ditch the Dummy if possible, they lose them at night and wake up looking for them

I always fed. They soon get secure enough to know all their needs are met and relax at night. My ds2 is 1 tomorrow and I feed him if he wakes (rare)

I second what others have said about co-sleeping, especially if you are breastfeeding. My ds could latch himself on and off from about 5 weeks and I slept through it all!

These worked for us in various combos: keeping her awake and alert in evening, big Aptamil feed (6oz) at 11pm/12pm followed immediately by bed-time (and self-belief that this will do the trick until morning - am now FF, but was combined-feeding for 1st 2 months, I guess this could be done effectively with EBM), removing toys from cot with a 'night-night' routine, using a dim green night light overnight, grobag, Classic FM on low volume, reading a sleepy-themed story in soft voice which puts us both in a more relaxed frame of mind.

Have progressively managed to ditch light and radio. Working through a tricky transition from moses basket to big cot right now, but these still seem to work.