New born sleeping problems

[Heidi9]

Hi, just after some advice and any tips for settling and sleep routine for our 1 week old baby (our second child). He is sleeping well during the night (waking every 3-4 hours) and also during the day (3-4 hours also). During these times he either falls asleep on the breast and we put him in his cot or he doesnt fall asleep on the breast and we put him in his cot and puts himself to sleep. This we are very happy and have no problems with BUT between the hours of 7pm - midnight he becomes restless when we go to put him in the cot and will not settle even though it is the same routine as we use every other time. We are trying to avoid a situation where we rock him to sleep every night during this period as we did this with our first child and he ended up relying on being rocked to sleep all the time and would only sleep for 2-3 hrs at a time even when he was 6-8 months old.

Any suggestions to what we could try. We have wondered whether it might be due to less fat in the breastmilk at that time of day.

[Baby Girl]

Both my girls have done this. I can't remember what I did with DD1 - I think rocking and cuddling!!

With DD2 I stopped fighting with her and let her stay awake with us a little longer and let her graze at the breast for as long as she needed to get her fill before I put her to bed. Some nights she would feed every hour or so for about 20 minutes and then other nights she would feed every 10 minutes for about 5 minutes. Eventually she got full, tired and went to bed. I also used to express after her first morning feed for her to have at night, the 'morning' milk helped to fill her up and it meant that DP could take her off my boob for a while so I wasn't totally exhausted - hah!! She also used to have a sleep for about 5 to 6 hours most afternoons so I changed our routine (the loose one we had) a little so she was awake for longer before bedtime.

It didn't take long before she was happily going to bed at around 8pm most nights. Once my milk settled down and she got the hang of feeding - by about 2 to 3 weeks she was sleeping from 8pm to midnight-ish and then having her next feed and then sleeping until about 5am.

[jarrahsmumma]

All sounds pretty normal if you ask me ;) Newborns do not have any sort of routine and have no concept of time, so this unsettled period is more than likely his 'awake' time. I would not think it has anything to do with your breastmilk, as breastmilk is calorie rich but not fatty (I think). Sound like you are doing a good job, and there is mothing wrong with helping you baby to settle, no matter what age. If you need to rock him or feed him to sleep, the best thing you can do for him is to adapt to his needs. :)

[Refresh]

Yup, what Nel said:) Sounds normal to me...at a week old, all we can do is meet their needs as best we can:)

[Kirstlea]

All sounds normal to me too.:)

Paige did the same thing.

We used to just cuddle and rock her until she fell back asleep.

We also used to have witching hour from 5pm to 9pm every night from about 1 week to 12 weeks. All we could do was pat, rock or cuddle her until she settled.

We do not had any problems with her going to bed now, we just put her in her bed, say goodnight and kisses close the door and don't hear another peep until the morning. She is generaly asleep between 7 and 8pm most nights.

Bubs is only 1 week old, he can't even see objects clearly yet never mind no what time of the day it is, bit of a bugger that:rolleyes:

I am impressed that he goes to sleep on his own at such an early age, you are very lucky. :) It took us until about 10mths before Paige would go to sleep on her own. Which from talking to others is not out of the ordinary.

I think you must be doing a fantasic job as you have a baby that sleeps well already (just not at a normal time) :rolleyes:

[reAllytee]

Yep sorry i agree its normal as bad as it may seem it will pass quicker than you realise & you will be wanting it all back again !
Can you believe i miss the 6- 8 feeds a day !!!! :eek: :rolleyes:
I only have 2 feeds where im allowed to hold bubs nowadays ! As the other two he has decided he likes laying on a boomerang pillow & feeding himself ! I soooo miss the cuddles & special time :(
Anyways just try & remain calm & flow with it easy said than done i know but try & work your routine around the fact that bubs plays up so to speak during this time & things will be a lot easier for you. Fighting him will never work.
Good luck :)