Getting the wee one to sleeeeep

kingfisherblue

tom9980 wrote: »

Sounds like heaven to me.

And me! My son is disabled, and unable to tube feed. He had four oral feeds a night until he was 15, then three oral feeds a night for another year. Then there was the reflux - even surgery didn't cure it.



My ex didn't help out either, but you do get through it. It may seem as though it is lasting forever, but it doesn't. It's hard work, but only lasts a few months.

peachyprice

Absolutely normal, it took 9 months for my twins to sleep through, 2.5 years for my daughter. At 8 weeks he only has a small tummy and can't take enough milk to fill him up for longer periods.

Also 6lb 10 is actually a good weight, not at all small.

trailingspouse

Ironically, now that I'm 57 and the kids are all grown up (and producing their own kids), I only seem to need 5 hours sleep a night. There's definitely a design fault there...

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Nope. He's only got a tiny tummy and he's almost textbook in his waking/sleeping pattern.

He's definitely putting on weight well, particularly as he's BF, too (BF babies tend to put on weight at a slightly different rate to those fed formula).


If he's contented when he feeds and isn't massively windy, there's no changes in BF that could change that - if he's very windy, it could be that sometimes he needs to stay on one side for longer to ensure he gets more hindmilk rather than filling up on foremilk (which is more thirst quenching) and, if he starts a bit of a growth spurt, he could seem hungrier, but supply increases in response to demand (and a couple of days where she can stay in bed and do nothing but cuddle and feed whilst you deal with cooking and housework is very useful in increasing her supply quickly) - but if, not, it's just perfectly normal.



What you need to do is remind yourself that a lot of people who might say 'oh, babies should be sleeping 6-12 hours by now' (for example, I certainly heard it) would be formula feeding - and most likely, have forgotten the nights when they were pacing around with said formula whilst their LO only took a tiny amount. MILs and random women in the street volunteering their (uninvited) opinions are particularly bad at that, as are *some* parents who snored blissfully through their partners getting up every couple of hours. And for every person who declares that sleeping through is 'normal', there will be just as many thinking sleeping for more that 75 minutes at a time before screeching the house down would have been a miracle.


In other words, you're doing fine.

daveyjp

All babies are different, but it sounds quite normal. Don't be ruled by times. i.e. bed by 7, next feed at 10 etc. Try being flexible.

Our daughter was in her own room at 6 weeks and we found by moving the final feed to closer to midnight she happily slept until 5am or so. Its much easier to be up at that time than feeding at 10pm and being up at 2-3am.

culpepper

I also breastfed ours. OH was on nights the entire time when one was newborn and the other 17 months old and that was hard hard work . I found that if I took a flask of drink and a sandwich up with me at bedtime and littlest slept in our room, it was much easier. I could get up as soon as she made a peep, give her a change and feed her and have my drink and sandwich while she was feeding ( you get very hungry when breastfeeding). Then she was back to the crib and I could hop back into bed. It made it much quicker not to be traipsing all over the place and I think it was easier to get back to sleep between feeds.
If bub sleeps during the day, try and get a sleep then if you are still at home else you might be able to grab 40 winks in lunch break if at work to help see you through.

Kynthia

Breastfeeding is hard on sleep but it does sound normal. I know mums who wpuld go to bed at 7 or 8pm, the dad would give expressed milk at 10/11pm, then the mum would maybe get 5 hours uninterrupted sleep before the next feed. This can go on for months and you'll possibly be tired for years.

Despite being formula fed my nearly 2 year old still wakes most nights at least once. So your little one is very young still, and there will be tough nights when he feeds for longer due to growth spurts and needing to increase his mum's supply. If your wife needs any support there's groups like La Leche League and breast-feeding cafes, as it can be nice to chat to others going through it too and get tips.

jimbo747

It is difficult. Wife and I expecting our 3rd in January. Previous 2 she breastfed until 18 months, but it was hard going on her, especially for first few months when solely dependent on her. We think this time we may do a combination of feeds. Having one of those next2me cots helps too. Lack of sleep is the hardest bit, and makes you get short with each other too, so we have been looking in to night nannys for a few nights a week early on.