Getting the wee one to sleeeeep

Zola.

My wife and I have have been blessed with a gorgeous little boy, now 2 months old.

We are struggling at night to get him to do a good long sleep. He was born at only 6lbs 10oz, so he's a little man with lots of growing to do. He's now about 10lbs. We cant seem to fill him up enough at night. We try to give him a good long feed, but he only wants so much and will take himself off / cry if we try to give him much more. He is always well winded and burped etc, thats not a concern. He just wakes up a lot.

A typical night is: a feed and then bed for 7pm..... 10pm another feed... then he may wake at 1am and feed to 2am, wake at 4am, feed... and up at 6.30am.

Its hard work, I know in a few months time this may level out, but is there anything we can try to do to stretch him out at night for longer sleeps?

annandale

I would imagine that’s quite normal for a baby of that age. To wake regularly through the night for feeds

culpepper

I agree with annandale, hes only been around for 8 weeks, the bigger he gets, the longer between feeds. My son was about 6 months before his first all night sleep . My daughter was much older, I think 10 months .

trailingspouse

It's hard - and normal.


You can try all sorts of things, but at the end of the day they're just a tiny toots that needs feeding, and they don't know that they 'should' be having a long snooze - or that their parents are cream crackered.


It's a matter of survival really. You need to discuss a plan of action - maybe one of you sleeps away from the baby while the other is 'it' - then swap the next night. Not so easy if they are breastfed, but can be managed if you are able to express. At the very least, the non-breastfeeding parent can get up and change nappies etc so all the breastfeeding parent has to do is actually feed.


Be nice to each other.

FreddieFrugal

Hi Zola, the disturbed nights are difficult. It's just a normal part of the whole baby thing. It will get better over time.

We've got one boy 11 weeks old and another a couple of weeks off his second birthday.

Just continue as you are letting him have as much feed as he wants. Don't try to force him to have more - as you say it'll just stress him out and mean he's likely to sleep less.


With our first - he woke at least 3 times a night until he was 2-3 months old, then he went for a while of only waking a couple of times, then only once and eventually by 5 or 6 months he was consistently sleeping through.

He did actually do some full night sleeps between 3 and 5 months but not consistently.


Our youngest for the past 2 weeks has tended to wake twice. Once around 12 - 1am and again 3-4am.


But they have all number of sleep regressions were even babies that have been sleeping through for weeks suddenly revert back to waking constantly. Luckily DS1s sleep regressions were always short lived.



Every child is different though - DS2 sleeps better than DS1 both in the evenings and during the day. DS1 wouldn't sleep at all during the day for naps so was constantly grouchy - yet slept brilliantly at night. He got over it in time and started having nice long naps.



Only advice I can suggest, which you probably already know, is all the usual stuff: keep lights low and voices soft/off for night feeds. Have the baby sleeping near you safely - like in a bedside crib. Have the same night time routine.


We found that DS1 started sleeping loads better as soon as he was big enough to fit in those baby sleeping bags - instead of having a blanket. He was much more cosy, couldn't kick it off and just seemed to immediately sleep better.

DS2 hasn't seemed to mind either way - he's a lot less wriggly in his sleep.



Hard as it can be it'll get better with time....then worse...then better...then worse etc...until eventually they sort themselves out!

pinkshoes

His waking for milk at these times is normal.

You get used to feeling exhausted.

You could try playing white noise to see of it soothes him back to sleep? Lots of people have success with myhummy teddies.

Other than taking it in turns to do the feeds, then just drink coffee!!

I used to go to bed at 7pm with the twins, hubby would do the 10pm feed before he came to bed, then I did the rest and did the school run looking like a zombie!

These baby things are hard work!

Kynthia

It's normal. Dont try to feed him too much as you may give him a tummy ache and make sleeping more disturbed. All babies are different and if others are saying their baby sleeps through by now thry might not mean more than 5 hours or might not mean more than a few nights a week, so try not to compare.

Are you breastfeeding as some try to express a feed so that the dad can do one of the night feeds while mum gets a stretch of uninterrupted sleep? Otherwise all you can do is try to ensure all night feeds are done in low light, with very little interaction and eye contact (lots of cuddles though), possibly without leaving the bedroom, so that he doesn't wake too much and learns to tell the difference between night and day. Daytime feeds should be in daylight with curtains open, lots of eye contact and attention.

tom9980

Zola. wrote: »

My wife and I have have been blessed with a gorgeous little boy, now 2 months old.

We are struggling at night to get him to do a good long sleep. He was born at only 6lbs 10oz, so he's a little man with lots of growing to do. He's now about 10lbs. We cant seem to fill him up enough at night. We try to give him a good long feed, but he only wants so much and will take himself off / cry if we try to give him much more. He is always well winded and burped etc, thats not a concern. He just wakes up a lot.

A typical night is: a feed and then bed for 7pm..... 10pm another feed... then he may wake at 1am and feed to 2am, wake at 4am, feed... and up at 6.30am.

Its hard work, I know in a few months time this may level out, but is there anything we can try to do to stretch him out at night for longer sleeps?

Sounds like heaven to me. Honestly at this age our now 10 1/2 month old was wanting a feed every 2 hours she would drink her bottle but it would take 30 mins then you spent 15 mins winding and settling her down only for her to wake again within 90 minutes. My wife was unwell so I had to do 9pm to 4am most nights before she could take over hopefully at the 5-6am feed.

There really is no magical method you just have to find a way for you both to share the load until he is able to have bigger feeds and sleep longer. It was hell sleeping 4-5 hours of broken sleep a night but it will get better.

clairec79

Hate to say it but he doesn't wake a lot, that's normal for this age.

My eldest (I have 4) would have a 5hour spell in the nights from about 5-6 weeks but she was the exception (and I counted that as sleeping through) - none of the others did till far later

Their stomachs are small and they are designed to wake and feed every few hours.

The main thing to remember is you don't BOTH need to be able to get up for every feed (obviously if she's breastfeeding then it's on her) but if bottle feeding then alternate feeds so you both get a spell of 4-5hours - and GO TO BED EARLY - you may be an adult but if you are tired at 8pm go to bed at 8pm
If one of you can do the 1am feed and the other the 4am , you'll both feel more rested - one of the common mistakes new first time parents make is that they want to share the work load and think this means they both get up at the same time - tag team it

Zola.

Thanks all! Yes 90% breast-fed, so its hard on my dear wife especially!

jackomdj

Perfectly normal. You may/may not be doing it, but when my girls were little ones night feeds were done in their bedroom (be that your room or later on a nursery), in the dark, no background noise and little talking. A quick nappy change (used to just open the door a bit and use the landing light), then quick cuddle, say goodnight and put them in their crib/cot.

This way they learnt, or at your age just had routine, that night feeds weren't fun/playing times, they were just milk and nappy times.

I always put mine down awake, so they were used to lying in their cot and going to sleep.