11 day old DD wide awake 1am to 3am - Help

[fhutts]

My 11 day old daughter sleeps, feeds and subsequently settles fine during the day and early evening but between the hours of half midnight (ish) and 3.00 am she is wide awake. She takes her last feed at around 11 or 11.30 ish, but then wakes again about an hour later.

She shows the signs of hunger (well, those which a new mum of 11 days can know!) but will only take about 10 or 20 mls. When I then try to put her down she won't settle unless I put a dummy in as she appears to just want to suck. She will take a dummy but when it falls out she cries.

Tried to let her cry it out for a few minutes (how hard was that)last night when dummy fell out but made no difference she still wouldn't settle but was wide awake looking around quite happily! Nappy clean, burped as much as we can get out - please can anyone offer any advise?

I am so near to just cuddling her to sleep......HELP!

When mine was 11 days old, it was all I could do to get him to nap for a couple of hours at a time and that was a triumph. I am afraid your DD will keep stupid hours for a while yet, try to forget that night is for sleeping and you will be much happier. It does get easier quite quickly but you can only tell when looking back. B**r all help, really

cuddle her to sleep then

she is 11 days old and needs to be near you

she may take a while to drink and need little and often

she also has no idea of the difference betwwen day and night yet

she's so tiny that expecting anything more is a bit hopeful!!
dd1 was fed roughly every two hours for the first month...that means from the start of the feed to the start of the next feed with a change cuddle and sleep in between

the only thing I would say is try not to overstimulate her during that feed, make sure the lights are dim and everything is very calm.
Eventually she'll get bigger and start to be able to tell the difference between night and day and take on more food to sleep for longer

sounds like she's doing fine. Ds was awake ALL night at that age. Dont worry too much about routines / bad habits etc she is waaaaaaay too young - dont let her cry it out either, she's tiny.

Gosh, just do whatever it takes, feed hourly if you have to. Your dd is just getting used to being in the world, letting her cry it out will only make her distressed. At 11 days old your dd knows what she wants better than you and you should give her ehat she wants, funny that as she gets older you will have the monopoly on what's best.

Trust your instincts and hers, there is no truth in any of the myths that babies can be greedy, spoilt or manipulative, they have needs and needs alone.

If it makes you feel any better, my DS (13 days old) is doing exactly the same thing. He settles ok after feeds at 10ish and 5 ish but is awake for 2 hours at the in between one at 1-2ish.

Usually he feeds a bit, then I put him down, and just as I'm falling asleep he starts grunting and posseting and making boob faces when picked up. He does this for the next hour or so then feeds a bit better and eventually settles. I never know if there is something unsettling him (never know if grunting equals wind) but think it is just how it is. And this is my third so you would think I might have it sussed by now...

I can't remember how long it takes for them to get more settled at night but I think take comfort from the fact that your DD setlles well at othertimes so obivously does know how to settle on her own. You could try feeding her lying down in bed - then at least you can carry on sleeping!

thanks for your messages, it is very reassuring to know me and Millie are not alone. Being a new Mum I have no idea what to expect, I thought I may have been expecting too much of her because she is so tiny, in fact has only regained her birth weight in the last few days so I take comfort in your replies. I have been wanting to cuddle her to sleep but have been warned by so many well meaning people that it is a big sin to start this, I thought I mustn't do it but you are right, she is tiny and I guess still adjusting to being out in the wide world. Tonight I am going to cuddle her and see how it goes. Thank you again.

I'm that people don't cuddle babies to sleep, what do you do just put them in their moses baskets and hope for the best? Wow.

Cuddling to sleep and co-sleeping are the best thing ever.

she is still a newborn! You are right just to do whatever feels right, if that means cuddling her permanently, letting her fall asleep in your arms, feeding on demand....
congratulations btw

no idea suwoo, I put DD (18weeks) down the other day when she was very sleepy but not asleep, like a reverse doll the eyes opened and the angry crying started

Agree with Suwoo. I honestly can't imagine trying to get a newborn to go to sleep without being cuddled. G'wan...just cuddle her! They are tiny and squidgy and snuzzly for such a short time. Make the most of it!

I can't bear to let go of Ds2, even when he's asleep

I am quite looking foward to a snuggle tonight I have to say

cuddle away

yay for newborn snuggles

dd2 is 18 weeks and unless she's feeding or sleeping she is far to nosey to be interested in cuddles, she wants to be upright and looking around

enjoy your snuggles while you can

11 days isn't old enough to know the difference between night and day so you might get more snuggles at night than you really want , but the easiest thing to do is just go with it.

Well, we are both just off to have a bath together and then Daddy will take over for me to fill up the bath and relax and then tonight or rather morning, I will just go with it as you all advise. Will let you know how it goes!

you'll figure out a special swaying rocking move that only you know that will sooth her. Promise

Nobody tells you that babies are born nocturnal, do they.

Try not to worry too much about this. At this age DD1 would be awake pretty much every night between 1am and 3am, nothing seemed to work - cuddling / bf / rocking / dummy, she just screamed and screamed at that time, I was beside myself. I don't know about volumes of milk as I bf but I do know my DD1 wasn't hungry any more as she would pull away from the breast and refuse to do more than the odd suck. I would feed her around 10.30pm and she would go to sleep, she'd wake for a feed between about 1am and 2am and after that feed would NOT settle again until a couple of hours later. It lasted until about 3 or 4 weeks when she still woke for a feed around 1am but started to go straight back to sleep. By 6 weeks she was going to bed at 7pm and waking 4am ish, by 8 and a half weeks she was sleeping through 11 / 12hrs a night. I know I was v v lucky with her but I just wanted to illustrate how this phase DOES NOT last. Get through it, endure, sleep when you can in the day and in a few weeks the worst will be over.

If it works to cuddle her to sleep then do it (it didn't work for DD at that time as she just wasn't sleepy), it really doesn't matter at this age, you can start the whole putting down to sleep awake thing later, maybe around 6 weeks. One thing to though - as newborns DD2 and DS always settled way more easily than DD1 did and part of me thinks that this is because I didn't fuss over them so much. With DD1 I was always trying everything the minute she cried - i.e. rocking, more feeding, cuddling etc. Sometimes I wonder if maybe I over stimulated her. With the next two at bed time once they were bathed, fed, burped, swaddled they would be plonked in the moses basket and kind of left to it (at least briefly) while I dealt with the older ones. I noticed that often after a minute or two of wind down fussing and crying they would often zonk straight out (if not of course I'd be right back there). I do think there is some merit in not over interfering.

One thing babies really need to adjust to is day and night. As the pp said they really do seem to be born nocturnal as they like to move around in the womb when you are resting and still (i.e. night time!). As she settles well at other times I'd guess this is just currently her alert time. In order to change this, try and wake her regularly for feeds during the day so you get in as many as possible and expose her to as much sunlight as you can - take her out regularly in the sling or buggy or just place her carry cot in the window during the day. These things help them to adjust to day and night and hopefully the awake and alert time will soon swap to the day time.

I really wouldn't be worrying about putting them down awake at 6 weeks either . That seems so early to be worrying about stuff like that.

Well, sort of worked last night, for DD at least (which is the important thing).When she woke at 1.15am I offered her more milk which she half heartedly accepted and cuddled her until she was zonked. Tsfd to her Moses basket and manged to get an hour.

She woke again at around 2.15 am but this time when I tried to put her in her basket thinking she was deep asleep, she woke up and was having none of it. I repeated the process to the same result. Eventually I put her bedside me in bed on a flat pillow and read my book whilst she slept (too frightened to go to sleep with her in bed with me). I managed to stay like this for an hour and then tsf to the basket and got another 2 hours before she woke for another feed at 6am - she came back in with me until a 9am feed then I put her in her bouncy chair and after a little awake time, the monkey slept from then until past midday in the chair.

Maybe she doesn't like her Moses Basket??

Daddy is on duty tonight so I can get some sleep - I know every new Mum is the same but I was not prepared for how exhausted I would be!

Appparently letting baby get plenty of daylight on their faces can help their circadian rhythms so they start figuring out night time is for sleeping. If you think about it when you were pregnant was baby very active at night? She needs time. You are doing great.

Thanks, that is kind, I sure don't feel like I am doing great though . It doesn't help that I live abroad (hubby's job) and I feel very isolated, although I do have my Mum here for a couple of weeks to help with chores and stuff.

I thought if I took her out for a long walk that might help this afternoon, but it seems all I have suceeded in doing is making her overtired as I have just spent over 2 hours trying to settle her at a time of day when I thought she settled.Crikey, lets not hope this now starts in the evening aswell!

She was active at night yes, when I went to bed to read she would start wriggling away!

fhutts try warming the moses basket with a hot water bottle before you pop her in, it worked for me. DD would wake up as soon as I moved her, now i just pop HWB in whil feeding then place her feet in the basket, use this handto remove the bottle then place their torso and head where the bottle has been.
If you think about it she is all warm and snuggly with you then you place her into a cold MB, give it a go.

Hiya, my dd is going to be 3 months old next week. She didn't like lying down to sleep when she was a newborn. She would only sleep in her carseat/bouncy chair or upright against me. She's happy in her cot now, but only for the last couple of weeks (and she is slightly raissed in that too, I have a thin pillow at one end).

Work out how your DD likes to sleep and then let her. Ignore people who tell you "you're making a rod for your own back" (one that my mum comes out with regularly). I taught my DS to fall asleep on his own when he was 5 months old. There's no rush. I'll try with DD once she is round about that age too, if I think she's ready.

Another tip would be to try a babycarrier or a sling, so that you can do things while she sleeps (even if it just have a cup of tea). Both my children love/loved sleeping that way. It made going to the supermarket very easy.

OOh, I'm abroad too (Mexico)... don't let it get you down, you'll find attitudes on childraising vary from place to place. The tick is to do what suits you and DD best, and ignore everyone else (because trying to follow everyone's advice will just undermine your confidence).