How do you wake your baby?

ball.and.chain

Feels like kind of a dumb question, but there it is.  B is a good sleeper, but he tends to sleep for large blocks of time in the day and our pedi told us not to let him go more than 3-4 hours during the day so that he will sleep for longer periods at night.  Makes sense, but when he is sleepy, he is difficult to wake.  Even if we wake him, he promptly goes back to sleep.  We tried stripping him down to a diaper, since he doesn't like taking his clothes off, but when it's warm out it doesn't work.  We've tried toys, talking to him, and just generally annoying/poking him, but it's not really that effective.  Sometimes bfing works, but if he's too sleepy he just falls asleep while bfing.  I suppose one could have worse problems, but I'm confused.  Is there a trick to this?  TIA!

KH826

So this is likely not the answer that you are looking for, but.... In the first few weeks, Will slept a lot and we just let him. We decided that we would feed on demand and let him dictate the schedule early on, and for the most part that has worked out just fine for all of us. When we tried to schedule his day/night and plan his feeding, waking times, etc. he was much more fussy. When we let him sleep, eat, have interactive time when he wants to he is much more content. Now obviously this is not our plan forever, and I am a huge believer that kiddos need some structure in life, so we will slowly start to implement a schedule around some things (like a bedtime routine where we have music time and then read to him around the same tine every night), but for the first 2ish months we decided our plan would be to let him "drive the bus" so to speak, and that has been working. Some days he will sleep for a 3 hour stretch during the day. Other days he will be awake most the day and just take cat naps here and there. Some nights he gives us 5 hour stretches of sleep and other nights he is up every 2 hours. I am sure once I go back to work we will naturally become more scheduled because we will have to be, but for now he is generally happier when we just let him decide when he needs sleep, food, etc. So that totally doesn't answer your question (sorry if this is an annoying response! Haha), but it is my experience so far. My 2 cents would be don't wake him unless you have a concern, and let him sleep when he wants to this early on (and you try to also! I know way easier said than done, I stink at that myself!).

mwagner25

Haha... Yeah, the first day I was home from the hospital with Oliver he slept a 5 hour stretch during the day and we called the nurse line and they said we had to feed him every 2-3 hours. We completely undressed him, used cool washcloths, nothing worked. I was completely panicked. Eventually he woke up and ate. In hindsight it was pretty silly to even try and wake him. Those first few weeks are a crapshoot, maybe they sleep during the day, maybe at night. You are right there isn't much you can do, if they are tired they sleep. Eventually they will even out night vs day and develop a rhythm. We just kept lights on and talked in normal voices during the day and kept things quiet and dim at night. But there is no trick... You can try and keep him up more if possible.  But if he is just falling back asleep try and get a nap in yourself. There is plenty of time later to worry about napping/sleeping schedules.

ETA: Overstimulating a baby during the day will not make him STTN.  I don't know how many people said we needed to keep Oliver up more so he would sleep through the night.  So not true.  Just trust your instincts, let him sleep when he is tired, play when he is awake, and feed when hungry.  I think our babes are pretty zen still in those first few weeks.  We are the ones that try and complicate their little world by trying to adapt them to our schedules.  

AmandaG47

With the twins, they also had their days/nights confused and were up often at night, sleeping during the day. Our pedi also said to wake every 3 hours to eat during the day. It was very hard to wake them! We pretty much did what others said but were just very persistent. If they fell asleep once eating, we roused them to eat more... Sometimes a feeding lasted a LONG time! BUT we had two, and really stuck with it because we needed to survive and it worked! It took about a week but they started sleeping at night (5-6 hour stretches) and both moms were better rested and everyone was happier. I guess I don't have any magic insight, just wanted to give some encouragement

Edited to add: the idea is not to keep them up at all. It's really just getting in more feedings during the day. Both babes practically slept through the feedings but allowed them to get in enough to sleep comfortably at night. I am a firm believer that it is completely okay to make decisions that are best for every member of the family. Happy healthy parents are important too!

2brides

Carter was like this for the first 3w. He slept all.of.the.time.  He basically ate while 99% asleep. We'd snuggle, kiss, tickle, talk to him  - he'd eat for a few minutes and fall back asleep. Lather.Rinse.Repeat. He really started to wake more starting around their due date (born at 37w.) You won't have to wake him for long - he'll be able to go longer stretches between feeds.

ball.and.chain

Thanks everyone! Glad I'm not crazy. It's sort of amusing that I wrote this two days ago, though, since now we are having trouble getting him to sleep and I would give anything for the 3-4 stretches he was having, day OR night. I'm exhausted, sweaty, and smell like the projectile spit up bath I got this morning. Fun!

KH826

ball.and.chain said:

Thanks everyone! Glad I'm not crazy. It's sort of amusing that I wrote this two days ago, though, since now we are having trouble getting him to sleep and I would give anything for the 3-4 stretches he was having, day OR night. I'm exhausted, sweaty, and smell like the projectile spit up bath I got this morning. Fun!

It was projectile poop at my house this AM! Wanna trade?!?! ;-)

ball.and.chain

KH, depends on how much sleep you got. I would take projectile poop + sleep over spit up + no sleep!

2brides

he just hit his due date, right?

Honestly, it was like C knew his due date and really started to wake up more that very day.  Within a week, we were cursing wishing he'd wake up. :P

ball.and.chain

2brides said:

he just hit his due date, right?

Yesterday. Ugh.

Karlamo

ball.and.chain said:

Thanks everyone! Glad I'm not crazy. It's sort of amusing that I wrote this two days ago, though, since now we are having trouble getting him to sleep and I would give anything for the 3-4 stretches he was having, day OR night. I'm exhausted, sweaty, and smell like the projectile spit up bath I got this morning. Fun!

This made me smile. Not the no sleep part but that this is your new norm. @mamosey and I still look at each other after 5 months with spit up on our clothes, reeking of bm and think " how lucky are we. This is was what we waited so long for and wouldn't change it" well maybe the no sleep part!
Enjoy this newborn stage it goes by in a blink.