Posted by
Slammy
18 yrs ago
Hi there,
It's never too early to create good habits, so I'm just wondering what to do about my newborn sleeping habits.
Here's the situation so far, for my 12-day old baby (born Aug 2nd).
I feed her at 3-4 hourly intervals starting from 6am.
She sleeps A LOT in the mornings so that it can take up to one hour to wake her for a feed.
Late afternoon, night time, she's more alert. From 8pm until midnight, she seems to prefer snacking. I can't get her to feed more than 10-15 minutes, and then she's hungry again the next hour.
If I put her down at 10pm, she won't sleep and will be fussy - like I need to play with her, while feeding her snacks each hour until midnight.
She will then sleep from midnight until I wake her for a 6am feed. Actually, she wakes in the night but I ignore her fussing noises and then she falls asleep again.
So, I'm very happy that she'll sleep for a whole stretch from midnight to 6am... but I would like to be able to make her sleep from 9/10pm, and wake for a midnight feed and then sleep again.
Any suggestions? I'm not letting her sleep for long stretches during the day time... I just don't know how to adjust her body clock so she's more alert in the mornings and becoming sleepy at night.
Thank you!
Sam
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"I just don't know how to adjust her body clock so she's more alert in the mornings and becoming sleepy at nigh"
You're doing the right things. You're just expecting results a bit too fast. These things take days and weeks. Realistically, she probably won't have a regular schedule until at least another week or three.
"If I put her down at 10pm, she won't sleep and will be fussy - like I need to play with her, while feeding her snacks each hour until midnight."
You can still carry her around for her to sleep, or put her in a stroller. She is too young to take advantage of it at this point.
"Actually, she wakes in the night but I ignore her fussing noises and then she falls asleep again."
Good.
"I can't get her to feed more than 10-15 minutes, and then she's hungry again the next hour."
Some kids are like that. Lazy. ;) We moved from breast to bottle with #2 because of that. She was much more focused with the bottle.
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Thanks Axptguy38!
I have an appt with a midwife about pumping milk today, so I'm hoping that I can start to introduce some bottle feeds in a few weeks time.
Rgds,
Sam
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Your baby is only 12 days old, they don't have sleeping habits this early on. If on the breast should be feeding at least every 2 hours. Was your baby a c-section? Because that would explain the long stretches of sleepiness.
Just be sure of one thing, that your baby is putting on weight. 6 hours is a long stretch for a newborn to go for without a feed. I would not let baby go for any longer than 3-4 (absolute max) hours without a feed and would definitely persevere with waking her up.
What she needs right now is milk, sleep, wee, poo, milk, sleep, wee, poo. Those are the essentials. She isn't waking up to play at this age, because she does not know what playing is, but more likely wanting a feed. A very good book to purchase called "What to Expect, The First Year" is fantastic. It's non-judgemental and gives straight forward answers to every day questions. It talks about routines/schedules and feeding. Even with my second child, I still look at it every day.
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"Just be sure of one thing, that your baby is putting on weight."
Indeed.
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slammy, we used Gina Ford routine from day one and tho babies dont really fall into routine for 3-4 months - in the end they did exactly like in the book, yay!! anyway - some people hate GF technique - worked really really well for us - I suggest you read it and decide for yourself whether to use it - a lot of it is common sence but when we are new mother we dont really know anything, do we!?
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Let me say I don't know much second time round! I still feel like i'm the fumbling first time i was this time as well, except I'm more confident carrying and holding them (i did learn at least one thing!).
No two babies are the same, well not mine anyway. At the end of the day, we do what works best for baby and then us. But i can't stress more about the weightgain, that is the perfect sign of a healthy baby. i hope all went well with the midwife.
ldsllvn, what is Gina Ford routine?
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neenib, there is a book "Contented baby" by gina ford - she does not have her own kids, but she is a midwife and worked with thousands of kids sleep training them etc etc. He routine is just common sence really - feeding hours, sleeping hours etc etc. some of it is too rigid but you just take it and adapt it to what works for you but at least someone tells you this is what you do - as we had no clue whatsoever!!
Anyway - as i mentioned, she starts routine from day 1 and we did that from day 1 as well but of course babies at that age do whatever they like rather than whatever oyou try to get them to do. So you just stick to the routine as much as you can and then it all just falls into place - i.e. her routine is aimed at kids sleeping 7pm -7am eventually - and ours do just that - hard work of course, but it always is hard work - whether you use a routine or not....
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cd
18 yrs ago
If your 12 day old is sleeping 6 hours a night without waking up, then consider yourself really lucky, to expect any more is unrealistic. Most babies seem to be cranky and un settled in the evenings, usually especially bad at around 3 months when colic seems to kick in for a few weeks.. My eldest never used to sleep before 1 am in the first few weeks, then wake at 6, but then we'd both go back to sleep till 9am. If you have no reason to get up then just stay in bed longer in the morning. Agree with Cara, make the most of this time it goes so fast, and go with the flow.
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Hi all!
Thanks for your messages!
Went to the midwife yesterday and she gave me this excellent article about how some babies are fussy in the evenings and will feed a lot before going to sleep.
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/fussy-evening.html
I had a natural delivery, not c-section, and baby is putting on loads of weight - 42 grams a day since leaving hospital (the midwife said 20-30 is average and then reassured me that babies can't get fat on breastmilk when I was concerned that 42 grams was too much!).
She was very fussy last night and wouldn't go to sleep until 2am.
Regarding the books: someone gave me Gina Ford "The New Contented Little Baby Book". Apparently the schedule is quite rigid and may not suit some people.
So another similar but more flexible option is Tracy Hogg's "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer". I found this book had lots of commonsense stuff such as not letting baby sleep for 6 hours all day long - then they will not sleep at night! Wake them every few hours for a feed. Teach them to fall asleep on their own etc.
I'm also reading the "What to Expect in the first year".
I think the next thing I'm looking forward to doing is introducing expressed milk for bottle feeds and letting someone else do some feeds!
Yes, definately agree with Cara - newborns will only be this tiny and vulnerable for a short period of time before they turn into teenagers who don't want to talk to us anymore - so we must relish every moment!
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Try doing some breast compression when the baby just wants to snack. It will get another let down happening and so more milk into baby will mean a longer space between. Google Dr Jack Newman and breast compression for info and a video.
You might also enjoy attending a La Leche League Meeting in HK and meeting lots more mothers and babies. They also have a huge lending library of books about bf and parenting for you to borrow.
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Hi Ruth,
Thanks for the tip... I'll give that a try also. The baby is now three weeks old and still loves staying up late at night. If I'm lucky, she'll sleep around 10:30pm, but then wake for a midnight and then a 4am feed. But usually after her 7 or 8 pm bath, she's wide awake and won't snooze until after midnight. I tried following Gina Ford's routine but just ended up really tired myself!
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