8 weeks old and hardly any day sleep

[cath]

Hi there,
my son Patrick is 8 weeks old and is now rarely sleeping during the day. He is having a couple of maybe 30 minute naps between about 6:30am and 10:30pm which just doesn't seem like enough to me (certainly doesn't give me much time to myself to relax a bit and get things done around the house - he doesn't like to be left on his own which is fair enough at that age). Has anyone else got or had an 8 week old who does this?

He has always hated wrapping (in his big 8 weeks of life so far) but I thought I would try it again today. I just went in 20 minutes ago and wrapped him and resettled him after he woke from a 10 minute nap and that worked for 20 minutes but I have just had to go and re settle him again and I'm not expecting it to last long. How do I get him to have some decent sleeps during the day. He does sleep pretty well at night so I can't complain about that but would love a couple of hours to get things done in the day. He is feeding about every 2 hours so it is tricky to get any decent sleep time in there but surely he should have a few hour long naps. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cath

[Mrs Little]

Cath.....i'm sure you're doing a great job.

Have you tried a cycle of feeding and then wake time and then sleep time then feed wake sleep again. etc. I know some mums don't like it...but you could also try letting him settle himself to sleep...makes it easier for them to resettle when they do wake up prematurely out of a deep sleep.

Hope this helps.

Mrs Little & Son.

[Lunar]

I think Mrs. Little has the best advice and I can't really add much more than that. My DD was like that too and I think the stress that I was going through was contributing to that too. I don't know your personal sercumstances, do you have extra stress or are you up tight about something?

Don't worry about the house work, really. And if you get visitors during the day... use them as babysitters while you do little things around the house, I'm sure they aren't going to complain about have a nurse of a beautiful new baby.

[JanetF]

Babies sleep cycles are about 30-45mins long so he's just having one cycle at a time. If you can, get near to him towards the end of the cycle and as he stirs either pop him on the boob and feed him back to sleep (my son used to go back to sleep much more deeply after this and sleep at lest 2 cycles) or at least pat him soothingly and see if he resettles. Babies change their sleep habits all the time as their brains grow and mature. He's sleeping normally :) There is no right or wrong way and yes, you might like time off but perhaps lying down with him and catching up a little yourself might help him stay sleeping longer too. Babies only really need love, arms, boobs and lots of eye contact and holding at his age. :) Before you know it, it will all change ;)

[jonesso]

My bub went thru this phase too, only got into a good rhythm with long day sleeps from about 3 months.

Suggestions of things to help!
* JanetF's suggestion of a feed or patting off to sleep is a good one.
* Go for a walk - the stroller always settled my DS and he'd sleep really well.
* If you need to get stuff done but can't leave bub, put him in a frontpack. e.g baby bjorn. I have a Phil & Ted's frontpack ($59) and it made the first 4 months so much easier for me as I could get on and do stuff even if Nathan was being grumpy. He slept really well in it. You could try a sling too - some babies really love them.
* Music. I play the same CD for "sleep" time - classical music for babies, although I"m sure anything soft and soothing would do - and i put that on when he goes to sleep. If he starts to stir I turn it up a little, pop his dummy in and generally goes back off.

Abandon the wrapping - if it isn't working by now then it won't work. Nathan loves being wrapped (arms OUT though) but other bubs I know on "the hub" hate it and scream if they're wrapped. Go figure!

If all else fails, leave the housework and put your feet up and enjoy the 20 mins that Patrick sleeps!! ;) You need YOU time as well!

It does get better (man I hate it when people say that) and bubs will find their own rhythm. Nathan is now 5 months old and has 2-3 naps in the day, ranging from 20-90 mins per nap. I have learned just to get on and do things, and sometimes that means that I have to leave him in his cot while I go hang out washing etc. My theory is as long as he is fed, clean and in a safe place then it's OK to get on with things. But this happened with time for me.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your little baby boy. I reckon the smiles just make everything wonderful again! :D

[Goosie22]

My first was a cat napper from the start. He would feed 2nd hourly and sleep for 10 min or 20 min at a time. I did what janetF has suggested you try and it worked, if I lay down with him and feed him he would sleep for probably 2 hours(sometimes I would sleep with him but othertimes I would get up and do stuffbut I had to get back and laydown when he was stiring and plug him back on so I got the second hour ). He is 8 now and will sleep the day away if I let him he loves sleeping so much ( I always think to myself he must be catching up from when he was a baby?)

[cath]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Paddy ended up sleeping from 3:30pm-7pm yesterday which was fantastic (with a couple of re-settlings - once I'd wrapped his legs so they stopped jerking him awake that seemed to fix his waking up problem).

I think you're right Janet about catching him when he is just stirring to re-settle him - if I leave it too long he is wide awake but if I get in there quickly and stroke his face and calm him down he will go back to sleep (if I got him out of the cot to feed him I think that would wake him up too much and he also always needs to be burped after feeding - he is a big burper - so I will just try soothing him with pats and the dummy).

Mrs Little I am trying the feed,play,sleep thing today (I read about it when I was pregnant and tried it when we first came home but somehow the weeks have flown by and we have been busy and he is now 8 weeks old and I'd sort of forgotten about it). It seems to be working!!
He has had one feed,play sleep (for all of 26 minutes before he was hungry again) cycle this morning and we are now on the second one and he has been sleeping for almost an hour now - woohoo!! I think I have been too busy getting stuff done and going out to let him follow any sort of pattern but I am going to try and have more time at home over the next few weeks to try and let him rest when he needs to (he does fall asleep in the car and pram though so at least he can get some sleep if I have to go out).

I am retrying the wrapping thing which also seems to be working (just wrapped from the underarms down - he always sleeps with his arms up near his head) - I think it is stopping the jerking that his little body does when he is falling asleep from waking him up. It is funny that from 0-3 weeks the startle reflex and any noise wouldn't wake him up at all but now that he is a bit older he wakes up much more easily from the startling and any loud noise- I guess he is becoming more aware of the world and what's going on. Anyway thanks again everyone.

Cath

[Mrs Little]

Cath,

glad to be of help. Life does seem to go by so quickly when you add children to the equation. I was the same as you....i needed to spend some time at home to get myself into a routine with the baby and learn all the info ( being the first one)...and then i ventured out into the world. By this time, the cycles and routines were second nature for both myself and my son.

Do remember though...newborns do sleep more.....his wake times will only be short. They will extend over time. Just use his tired signs to teach you when he needs to go down for a sleep.

and remember now wake times at night time.....feed and straight back to sleep. This helps them to tell the difference between night and day. (You'll appreciate this in the future....)

How often is he feeding?

Mrs Little & Son.

[cath]

Hi again,
Paddy is still asleep!!! That's 11:30 - 1:20 so far - almost 2 hours - excellent!!
Mrs Little -I definitely keep things very quiet and calm at night if he wakes up for a feed. Paddy is a bit of a pig during the day and feeds every 2-2.5 hours for 30-40 minutes at time but he has a break during the night normally which is fantastic (he slept from 12:30am-7:30am last night - what a good boy!!). He sometimes still wants a feed at around 3:30am but most nights I am finding he sleeps from somewhere between 10:30pm-12:30pm until 5:30am - 7:00am which is so nice for me.Now I just have to get my husband to stop snoring and I will get a good night's sleep (he got kicked out of the bed at 1:45am last night for waking me up with his stupid snoring). Thanks again.

Cath

[Mrs Little]

Cath....

so great to hear about his long sleep! I'm assuming your breast feeding? 2.5 hours is a good start. You'll find when he stays awake longer and then adds his sleep that feed times will become further apart.

LOL about your husband. My hubby only snores when he lies in a certain position...so just tell him to roll over!

hope the rest of your day continues so well.

Mrs Little & Son.

[cath]

Still sleeping - that's 2.5 hours - the wrapping of the legs seems to be working (or it may just be the heat in Melbourne knocking him out - keep checking to make sure he is ok).
He is breastfeeding and it's nice to hear that the feeds will become further apart.It is fairly limiting having to feed around every 2 hours (start to start) and having him feed for 40 minutes - not much time to get other stuff done once I have done the nappy changes and burping. Today has been a lovely break - finally written some emails I have been dying to send and have had a relaxed lunch.
Unfortunately my husband snores no matter what position he is in (especially after a few beers which he had yesterday). The solution is for him to lose a bit of weight as he didn't snore when we first met and he was about 10 kilos lighter. He is hopeless though and as much as he says he will try I don't see much effort (minimal exercise and still eating chips at lunchtime on a regular basis) - I will be on his back big time next year (yes - as of Sunday) to lose weight -I've decided his New Year's resolution for him. I don't want him dying of a heart attack now that he has a son (didn't want him doing that before we had Paddy either mind you).
Thanks again.

Cath

[Mrs Little]

hows it going cath?

[cath]

Paddy woke up at 2:30 for a feed (a 3 hour sleep!!). My husband got home early after that and played with him and then as soon as we saw a yawn we changed his nappy,wrapped him up and he was asleep from 4:20 until 5 again. So much better!! Feed,play,sleep is defintiely working (for today anyway). Thanks again.