How to get baby to sleep longer at night!

kamirablue

My 10 wk old DD usually only goes 3 hrs in between feelings at night. She might go a longer stretch in the beginning but that's usually from 8pm on and that's too early for me to go to bed and enjoy the long stretch. Anyway, at this point I really need her to sleep longer. I am going back to work next week and I don't know what I will do if I have to keep getting up every 3 hrs. I mostly breastfeed but occasionally supplement. Any ideas or suggestions? I am trying to make sure she eats as much as possible at night but I can't force feed get if she doesn't want it lol.

usmcwife89

How much does she eat? My son is 11 weeks and eats 6oz. He sleeps through the night now and wakes at 6-7am for his morning feeding

usmcwife89

I keep him awake as much as I can throughout the day. Which then in turn he sleeps more at night

mebefitz87

We formula feed but he gets 6-8oz around 7:30ish and generally sleeps till 3am and eats 4-6oz before going back to sleep until 7am. Getting up once isn't so bad. He is 11 weeks and I have been working for the past two weeks full time . Some nights are better than others and sometimes he regresses with his sleep but overall you'll be surprised how well you can function at work with such little sleep. Good luck and hang in there!

kamirablue

I'm not sure how many oz she gets because I mainly breastfeed. She definitely isn't as hungry in the evenings as the rest of the day unfortunately. She eats regularly throughout the day tho, every 2-3 hrs. I am hoping for a once a night awakening.

amandanicboone

Are you swaddling? That's the biggest difference I find at night for my LO. I also play white noise. I change her diaper, swaddle her, turn on the music, give her her last feeding and lay her down. I breastfeed as well but usually pump and bottle feed for the last feeding (mostly so I pump until empty and go to sleep too). She sleeps through the night so I have to set my own alarm to pump again lol. Best of luck!

kamirablue

I do swaddle her when I lay her back in her crib. I leave one hand out because she sucks on her hand and that's when I know she's hungry. When I swaddled both in she got really fussy. We have a white noise machine and 99%of the time she falls asleep very easily. She just wakes up every couple of hours making lots of noise. I am trying to let the noises go longer to make sure she is actually hungry and not just being fussy. But once I hear her making sounds I can't go back to sleep usually. It's like I'm on call haha.

plushbi

Maybe try putting her to bed around 9:30. We put our baby to bed around that time and he sleeps until about 5.

jcarroll2015

Same here, 11 week old, we put him to sleep at 9:30 and he sleeps till about 4 & eats then back to sleep by 4:30, not up again until 7:30.

elokin2141

It sounds like you are doing everything right. I do have some advice about the noisey sleep though. My baby was a noisey sleeper at first, but that had since subsided. I think it was partly a phase in her undeveloped digestion and partly because I didn't fully burp her, causing her belly pain. Make sure you get some good burps after the night feedings.

Grapes13

So I pretty much had the same problem until I went back to work. I think being away from home with different stimuli (my sister in law watches my LO and she has other little kids) wore him out during the day more. He slept through the night for the first time, my first night back to work! But I'm not sure if that is what your baby need either! Of course he is very fidgety when he sleeps so he is still sleeping in his swing. I'm trying to wean him from it and I'm getting a lot less sleep now he keeps waking himself even swaddled!