really needy baby at night, need advice!

rpalen29 · June 2013

My DD is only 3 days old. She's such a sweet, mild mannered baby during the day, I BF her every 2-3 hours for 20-30 mins at a time, and it normally puts her to sleep. At night, shes a totally different baby. I've been trying to feed her as much as possible around the time we go to bed (about 45 mins), so we can get a few hours of sleep before she wakes. This isn't the case for her. I'll put her down, and 15 minutes later shes screaming her head off. I've been up all night with her since she was born, and when shes in that needy mood, she normally doesn't want to leave my breast for a good 1.5-2 hours. I've tried pacifier and swaddling, just putting her at my skin, but again, it only works for 15 mins until shes up again. Is this expected for a newborn? Would a swing or vibrating bouncer help at all?

advice and suggestions are appreciated

madde1km · June 2013

day 2 and day 4 ("starvation day") were like this for me, both of which the doctors said was normal. I fed for 5 1/2 hours straight on the night of day 2, and the night of day 4 he was eating more often than he wasn't. I ran into the issue that he was getting really gassy from feeding too much! He wasn't actually hungry, so I stopped feeding him to soothe him, considering it made it worse. All you can do is try to hold her or lay her down in every position imaginable. Laying him on his stomach (while supervised) seems to work for me as long as I don't care about sleep. He'll keep crying for about 5 minutes, but stops shortly after. I know its really really, really, super hard and stressful and horrible and miserable, but it is temporary. After day 4, we've been doing better and better (with a few issues every now and then, of course). p.s. my son hates being put in any contraption when he's mad/sad/uncomfortable, so if you want to try it, don't purchase anything too expensive

snowgirl427 · June 2013

LO falls asleep when nursing. I can't put him down unless he's been sleeping at least a half hour. Then he seems to be sleeping deep enough that I can out him down.

LaxMOM44 · June 2013

Ya I'm at 9days pp and she is still a night terror. She does two good stretches from 4pm to 7pm and then 8 to 11 but after midnight she turns into a screaming feeding cranky mess. If you figure out something that works let me know!!! All I keep hoping is that as she gets older it will get better.

rpalen29 · June 2013

snowgirl427:
LO falls asleep when nursing. I can't put him down unless he's been sleeping at least a half hour. Then he seems to be sleeping deep enough that I can out him down.

i'll try that. Normally when shes in a mood like that, i'll wait until shes asleep for 15 mins... maybe I should try longer before putting her to bed. Thanks for the advice ladies!

Lolalipsy · June 2013

I would let her nurse for as long as she wants through the night. It gets better and I wouldn't recommend using a pacifier because you could miss the signs that's she's hungry. It's hard in the beginning but you just have to let her take the lead.

Beachy730 · June 2013

Do you have a daily/nightly routine you do? My baby is only 9 days old but he already knows a night time routine. We usually stay up until 11 or 12, whatever time is would be due to eat that night (he eats every 3-4 hours during the day). I get in bed and nurse him for 15-20 minutes. Then I get up and change his diaper and swaddle him, and give him a formula bottle. He falls asleep either during that bottle or soon after, and then I put him down in the pack n play. Right now he is sleeping for 3-4 hour stretches, so when gets up around 3-4am I do the same thing and then he sleeps for another 3-4 hours.

Schell2013 · June 2013

My LO loves her mommaroo swing, puts her to sleep really fast! Also can you BF laying on your side? That's what I do when my LO is fuSsy and then at least I can sleep a little while she feeds and if she falls asleep and detaches I don't even both moving her I just let her sleep beside me. Not ideal and I always used to say my baby will NEVER sleep with me, when your exhausted, you will take sleep no matter how you need to get it, or make it work.

MrsRKJ · June 2013

I don't have any advice on the feeding part, but we just got our LO a rock n play last night, and he LOVES it! He was crying every time we put him in the co-sleeper, pack n play, swing, you name it. Put him in the rock n play, rocked it a few times, and it worked like magic.

mrsthomas3311 · June 2013

Agreeing with beachy, around 8 or so he is wide awake we will start to "prep" for bed time. Give a bath or just cleaning him up, then do a feeding, change and swaddle him then around 11 or 12 it's time for him to eat again so I will change him and rock him while nursing and read him a story and he usually falls asleep. DS just turned a month old and is just now going down for naps in his swing and last night successfully put him in his pnp. For the past 4 weeks he wouldn't sleep anywhere besides our arms or in bed with us.

Shoegal36 · June 2013

I could have written this post word for word myself...I have no advice, but you're not alone and we will get through it!

jedimindtrick · June 2013

You are only 3 days PP so LO is still trying to bring your milk in. It should get better. My little guy is a night owl too and would rather be awake at night. But it is slowly getting better. I think. It's tough but hang in there. They'll get a nighttime routine at some point.

really needy baby at night, need advice!

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