help six week old.

[alexandra]

I'm going crazy with my six week old baby. It seems that the only time he's quiet is when he has the bottle in his mouth. I'm worried because he's already over 5 kg and the nurse tells me to hold him and feed him every 3hrs but he wants it every 1 1/2. He can't go to sleep on his own without any rocking or swaying. I've followed all the techniques the nurse says and the stupid books but it just doesn't work. When he does fall asleep, he wakes up after 10 minutes. I would love to hear experiences of other mums with bubs of same age.
thank you
:sleeping:

[Nickster]

Ooh, big :hugs: ,I remember that time well. It could just be a growth spurt, which is why he wants to feed more frequently. Although her advice is well-meaning, I would tend to take what the CHN says with a grain of salt - if your baby is hungry, feed him, and you'll probably find the growth spurt slows after about a week.
I know he's bottle-fed bub, and I breastfed my daughter, but she was on 2 - 2 1/2 hourly feeds for the first 6 months, but I think you'll find a lot of the bottle-feeding mummies have had to give frequent feeds too.
You could perhaps try a dummy to help settle him.
In regards to the sleeping, there's not really much you can do about it as they are just so little at that age, and haven't learnt how to go to sleep, nor are their brains developed enough to consider "sleep training". I would just persevere with whatever you are doing at the moment - perhaps a sling could help and at least give you your hands free - I have only just stopped rocking my bub to sleep (in a rocking chair - the only way to save your back!) and she's 16 months old. She now lays on the bed and I can rub her back until she goes to sleep! Just know that they do eventually get through this stage, as hard as it is for you at the time.
Good luck to you.:fingerscrossed:

[Ange&Seth]

Hi, sorry to hear you're having such trouble getting bub to sleep. I agree with Nickster, if he's hungry then feed him. Otherwise you won't get any peace. Our bub had trouble going to sleep on his own at first, but we ended up letting him cry himself to sleep. I know alot of people think that's cruel and I used to as well, but I was just beside myself and didn't know what else to do. When he was obviously tired, we would put him down and walk away. To start with we gave him 2 mins or so and if he was still crying we'd go in and make sure he wasn't crying coz he had a wet nappy or anything like that. If all was well, we'd puthim back down and leave him for 5 mins. Within a week, we could put him down and he would just lay there content to look at his mobile until he fell asleep. One night we put him down at 11 after a feed and when we went to bed at 12.30 he was still awake but hadn't made a sound during the hour and a half he'd been there by himself!! We couldn't believe it!

Now he has a TOMY starlight which plays a light show on the ceiling and plays lullabies. It has a time setting of 5 mins or 10 mins and then it shuts itself off. It's fantastic. He's had that since he was 3 months old and 97% of the time he's asleep before it even finishes.

If you're going to try this crying to sleep approach as a last resort, you have to be strong. Put him down and walk away. Even if you have to walk outside until you can't hear him and stay there for 2 mins before you go back in to check on him. At the time I felt so cruel for letting him cry but in hindsight it was teh best thing we did for our own sanity and it also taught him to self settle. He slept through the night at 6 and a half weeks old and still hasn't woken through the night since.

Hope this helps and you find some relief chic!

[PinkBinkie]

Hi
I bottle feed my baby (who is 10mths now!) and was feeding her everytime she cried in the first weeks, until I saw my chn and she said that bub was only snacking and she should be having 3-4 hourly feeds. Does your little one finish each bottle you give him? It took 2 days of leaving Lucy to cry when tired (very upsetting at first) instead of giving a bottle and by day 3 she was in a 3 hourly routine. What a relief!! It's so hard to go anywhere or do anything when you don't know when bub will want their next bottle!

All the best, most of us know what you're going through :D

[alexandra]

Thank you girls, for the quick responses. Well he has a dummy but he is not keen on it as he'll only suck it for a minute or so and dump it, and i've tried different sorts. He does finish his whole bottle when he has it, all 150 mls.
I've already listed here that i need a rocking chair in the buy/sell section and i bought a sling from ebay. And I think in the mean time I will try the crying and checking on him every couple of minutes. Hope these things work and I maintain strong until this stage passes. Can you believe today we ate at 11 pm?
Thank you to all of you girls. Now that they're both asleep I think I'll go and have my first and last coffee for the day.
Take care:fingerscrossed:

"There is only one pretty child in the world, and every parent has it"
(adapted) Chinese proverb