2 month olds sleep - awful!

[Laura1990111]

Hi everyone,

so my baby was a great sleeper, practically slept through the night until she hit 9 weeks old and is now awful.
she looks like she is trying to roll so maybe it’s developmental. Also after vaccines it seem to have gone downhill.
i am aware she’s a baby and I’m aware I was very lucky for her to be sleeping through prior to this.

i used to be able to feed her, put her down in her cot and she’d sleep 9 hours.
Now I feed her, she falls asleep but the moment I put her down she’s awake or some times she will sleep for 15-30 mins and then wakes up. She will go longer stretches only if she sleeps on my chest now.
is this normal? Will she go back to sleeping 😩

Newborn sleep is not linear you will have good nights and bad nights. But they will eventually sleep though. 2 months is very early to sleep through. See it as a positive that you’ve had a good 2 months as most newborns are up in the night a lot.

I'd say what you're getting now is much more normal than your first experience of newborn sleep. Can you cosleep? Being snuggled up to you safely following lullaby trust bedsharing guidelines will probably mean you both get a lot more sleep.

Hi Laura

It might be a growth spurt and baby wants more calories. You'll get more calories into baby by feeding more frequently (during thr day) rather than more per feed.

Also, have you introduced a dummy, because that will help with settling and sleep.

I'd try something along the lines of wake > full feed > awake time > first cry > full feed again > nap. Also, make sure you wind well.

I formula feed. Is it still safe for me to bedshare? I don’t mind bed sharing but my husband doesn’t like it. It worries him. He has nowhere else to sleep.
she just seems to have stopped sleeping all of a sudden

I have tried a dummy but she won’t take one. Thanks for your advice ☺️

At the moment she's too little to be in bed with both of you - could you put a campbed or blow up bed in the lounge for your partner? If your baby wasn't premature or a small birth weight and you can set up your sleep space safely it may help a lot.

It's probably the lack of comfort sucking that's the problem then. Sucking is an instinctive comforter for babies. I'd work harder to get a dummy accepted.

I would suggest giving some time before responding to wake ups. As she becomes more aware the differences between waking and sleeping or sleep cycles can be more pronounced.

what’s your daytime routine?

I could but I doubt he’d go for that. I could set up a side cot for the bed like a next to me crib? That might work well

Definitely worth a go! You can half lie into it too while she's going to sleep - bit uncomfortable but less uncomfortable than zero sleep 😴

We don’t really have one! I have a toddler and he wakes her up all the time. Not on purpose - but by being loud or playing with his toys. She won’t go down in her cot in the daytime either. So she just keeps waking up.

she cries hysterically as soon as she wakes and realised I’m not there I guess.
If she was just fussing or moaning I’d leave her but she screams straight away

Does she sleep longer on you, in sling or in pram?

Yes she does sleep longer on me. She won’t in the pram. She sleeps about 4 hours on me.

How about a sling- is that doable?

It is tricky when you have a toddler. I had to put my second down for naps in her room as she was easily disturbed.

I think a sling is a great suggestion, as is persevering with dummies.

I personally blame overtiredness for most things so I’d focus on awake times and once she’s been awake for just under an hour, I’d try and settle to sleep.

if you’d like to get her to nap in her room, you can try to create a routine for that. Into her room, close blinds and curtains, nappy change, sleeping bag on or swaddle, white noise machine, milk and then put down. You could use shh-pat to transition.

they nap 4+ times a day at 2 months so if you repeat this for 3 of the naps, they tend to get the idea fairly quickly!

alternatively, use the sling or go for walks but keeping an eye on the awake periods and try to build a routine with it by using a cue such as putting a snooze shade on the pram.

she will get there, some babies just need a bit more help.

Hi op your post is exactly what my 11week old has been like since his jabs at 8weeks 😩 I’m exhausted too, he has never slept through but we used to get a 5hr stretch of sleep, now he is going to bed aroubd 8-9pm and waking up at 11pm every night. He just won’t settle, I’m worried that he isn’t getting that long sleep he won’t be developing as he should. He also will only contact nap in the day, so I’m just at breaking point, at night he is constantly making noises, after I feed him within an hour he is fussing 😴 so ready for this phase to be over it’s exhausting. So you aren’t alone ❤️