Settling a 3 wk old after night feeds - HELP!!

[milkmoustache]

Our dd is capable of leaving 4, sometimes 5 hours between night feeds, which I know is potentially a good sign that she will be able to sleep for long stretches, BUT she has a real struggle to settle down again and a 30 min feed currently takes her up to 30 mins - 3 hours before getting back to sleep. Last night was particularly grim: she was awake from 1.30 - 5 am, mostly very alert, intermittently very grumpy and crying, and not hungry/dirty/cold. We had made sure she didn't have longer than 4 hours sleep in the day, and we tried at intervals: white noise, shushing her, dummy, moving her from the cot to the bed, re-swaddling so she was tightly held... The only thing that got her to sleep (4th attempt) was holding and rocking, and she slept for 2 hours in time for the next feed.

Any thoughts??? She has been able to get herself to sleep again a few times, but has anyone out there managed to establish any kind of pattern..?
I'm well aware that this may be one of those things that will only come with time, but I'm an optimist and would love to get some SLEEP!!!!

Sleep and a newborn? HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH.

It does get better, I would just try and snatch as much sleep as you can in the day or whenever.

xx

you know that's what I was going to post, but no one usually ever listens to the second poster but Oliveoil is soooo right

Sleep with a newborn, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA

sorry, just enjoy our time with her while she's so wee and don't stress until she's a bit older

I was a bit mean and stressed with my dd2 and really really really regret not just going with the flow and enjoying her when she was so new. Please don't stress about routines, this period doesn't last long and you will soon be sleeping more.

That said, when I was going through it I wanted to bop the next person that told me 'it will get better' so feel free to give me a cyber space smack in the face.

xx

I think you'll find that 4 hours sleep during the day for a newborn is no-where near enough and it is not until they are older that less sleep during the day = more sleep at night!

In fact you could just be setting yourself up for a grouchy tired baby in the middle of the night who finds it hard to settle back to sleep!

Just keep the lights low with minimal interaction and hopefully she'll get the message that its sleep time not play time

In a few weeks time things will start to look better

Agree with soapbox - allow her to sleep when she wants to during the day otherwise she will just be overtired at night and won't sleep properly. Try a dummy if you're not already - my dd (8 weeks) will suck her dummy for while which soothes her off to sleep and then spits it out and sleeps the rest of the night without it. From about 6 weeks she started sleeping for longer periods through the night (and now goes for 8 hours) so stick things out for a few more weeks - it will get easier.

ok getting ready to take cover as i get smacked in the face

my 3 week old dd is amazing she has a feed at 7pm then goes to sleep and i have to wake her at 11 for her next feed. takes a while but we get there. then she goes to sleep and wakes at 6.30 for her next feed its great. all i do is put her in her crib and rock it and she falls asleep instantly.

do u think its maybe wind as dd has some bother with it and if she has then she just wont settle. ive started giving her colocynth granules and she is a much happier and settled baby

I am trying to teach my 8 week old to sleep in the day for longer than 5 mins. "The no-cry sleep solution" by Elizabeth Pantley is quite interesting and worth a look if you can't/won't let baby cry it out and don't want to just grin and bear it.........

wow
sleeping for no longer than 5 minutes in the day! Take it you don't have any other children at home with you.