Help! Arsnic hour

**Manxie** · 19-09-2005 10:56

Hi

Can anyone please give me some tips to get my six week old settled at night. I give her a bath between 5.00-6.00 and a top up feed, this sends her off into a deep sleep which was lasting until I prodded her at 10pm for a feed. Should have enjoyed it while I could, she now still goes out to it but wakes 45mins to an hour later. I am then finding it impossible to get her back off, she usually finally gives up at 9.00-10.00p.m.

I tried leaving in cot patting rubbing etc. Taking out and of cot and rocking etc, she will nod off in my arms but as soon as i try and put her down shes wide awake again

We dont have a problem at any other time just this sleep

Any tips???

**Nickster** · 19-09-2005 13:22

Hi Manxie,
It sounds like you are doing everything right - absolutely perfectly to give her sleep cues - the bath, then feed etc always works well!
I went through a similar phase with Libby, and to be honest (sorry) there was nothing I could do! For that time she was awake, I would carry her around in a baby bjorn (although now I wish I had used a sling), and we would put her on the floor in the living room in her little rocker and DH and I would take turns rocking her with one foot while watching TV (volume very low/lights very low). Ideally, I would have liked just rock her with soothing music playing in the background, but I don't know if it would've made much difference in the end, and I figured, DH and I needed to have a bit of a life (hence the TV watching).
Do you breastfeed? Babies often like to cluster feed around early evening which accounts for the wakefulness, this works in two ways - it fills them up for the night and helps to increase your supply, which can be a little low at the end of the day.
Hang in there, everything seemed to calm down again by about 12 weeks, although she still woke 45min after going down for the night - but that is more to do with reaching the end of a phase of sleep and needing re-settling than feeding.

**Manxie** · 19-09-2005 13:42

Thanks Nicole I am breastfeeding I have been trying not to give her too much as she tends to make a pig of herself and chucks it all back up! Maybe I'll try giving her a few more snacks tonight!

Any other tips??????//

**BigW** · 19-09-2005 20:16

Hi Manxie,
Just read your post, so thought I'd jot you a quick note.... Keep up the good work, sounds like you're going great guns.
I found that when my ds was born he was feeding about every two hours day and night. This lasted for a few weeks, so by six weeks he would be up at about 3pm for a feed, then by 11 weeks, he was and still is sleeping thru to about 5.30am at least. (After tucking down at 7pm)
A few things have helped this. One is getting as much feed into him as possible during the day (Understandably you may not want to push this issue for another week or so with your little one being spewy) and the other is having some fats during the morning to help fill them up during the afternoon so at night they have more food to sustain them for longer. I found a cup of yoghurt and a milkshake has been ample to help this out
Keep persevering, you'll get there. I have a strict end of day routine which seems to help Izak understand what time of day it is, and there is never any argument about bedtime, he is an angel when it comes to the end of the day. However, your little person may be a night owl and not a morning person?
Keep on keeping on. Good luck and remember two key words here;
Persistency and Consistency
Take care

**mariafresnel** · 22-09-2005 09:25

Just wondering how things have progressed for you and your little baby since you last wrote ?

THinking of you
Maria

**Manxie** · 22-09-2005 11:07

Hi

Well I am still trying! She just dosent want to go to bed until 9.30-10pm, I still try and settle her but if it dosent work we have in with us in her rocker until she cant fight it any longer. I am wondering hat time other people bath their babies, it does really zonk her but then she is fullof beans again after abot 45mins.

I have found that really getting my head in next to her & giving lots of kisses on her face & head calms her nicely.

Was a bit shocked this morning to find that she must have been sick after her 4.30am feed, it was everywhere-why didnt she cry out?

Thanks for the advice - keep it comming

**mariafresnel** · 22-09-2005 14:08

Manxie,

Good to hear from you and your progress......poor bub, she vomited after her am feed, maybe it was during her sleep, so she continued to sleep, so it mustn't have upset her tummy too much to have woken her, nonetheless she did vomit, which isn't a nice thing at all for a bub.

I was thinking about you and the bath time....she's not actually getting dirty after dinner...so you could put the bath time anywhere in the afternoon, although ....what if you tried it all a bit earlier....so that by 6pm she has a feed, but she's been up for longer, had her bath as part of that....OR you bath her when she wakes up after the 45 mins? it's worth just trying a few things (although I know you wouldn't want to be bathing at 7pm)....but as she gets older, and depending on how messy she is with solids, baths will normally be after dinner/play/milk/sleep....it's worth trying to cahnge some of the times around to see what she'll do or how she'll respond to it....I'm thinking that the fact that she's hanging out that long is possibly because by that stage she's over tired, which by that time it's not easy for the bubs togo to sleep as they would normally....When we had similar challenges, we ended up experimenting, and only by doing so did we learn some things, and decide to tweak our 'routine'...

I'll stay tune to see how things progress for you..

Thinking of you
Maria

**rynosmum** · 22-09-2005 22:42

Hi Manxie,

I used to feed my llittle one at 5, bath him at 5:30ish, then give him a top up feed and to bed. When he was 6 weeks, I found that if I couldn't get him down by 7, he wouldn't settle until 10/11 no matter what I did.

My hubby decided to let him cry it out in his arms for about 15 minutes and then he would settle. Then we moved to the cot - he was clean, fed, clean nappy and safe but would cry on and off for up to half an hour, but then settle and go straight to sleep.

That worked for us - best thing we ever did. After about 3 days, he was in a routine. He is now 15 months old and we are still in the same dinner/bath/milky/bed routine. He never plays up at night and settles straight to sleep (sometimes plays in his cot for a few minutes first). Sometimes he even runs to his bed and points to it so we put him to bed. He sleeps from about 6:30 right thru to 6:30 and ad done since 5 months old.

The bedtime routine is the only routine we have - it has been fantastic !

Good luck ! Hope some of this helps !

**JessandKirra** · 23-09-2005 09:27

My daughter now 5.3 months was the same. Then one day she decided 6.30 was a good bed time and stayed asleep until 8.30 wake up, when I fed her again and put her staright back in. Now she is sleeping from 6.30 to 3 or 4 am, hopefully she will give up on that feed soon, I think its a time thing. You are dealing with it a lot better than I did.

I dont really have any advise, im sorry, but I figure keep doing what your doing, its all the right things to do. And the lovely ladies (and men if there is any) of the bub hub,will help you through as much as possible

.

Jess