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Babies: 0 - 3 Months
Sugarnear
member
New Mom Questions
Sugarnear
member
I need some sleep help, please!
LO naps for 2-3 hour sretches, 2x/day, in my arms. He takes quite a few ohter cat naps throughout the day, two, but those are his longest. He has already established a consistent pattern:
nap1 is from 11ish -2ish
nap2 is from 4-6ish
We've tried to put him in the swing to give us a break, but he'll wake up within 10-20 minutes. Will he "grow into" the swing? Please tell me there is hope.
Also, every night, he is wide awake from 3 to 5am. He'll go back to sleep til 6:30 or 7, but we cannot get him to sleep during those two hours. Is there any way to break that habit?
And, finally, he hates being swaddled with his arms down, so last night we tried a sleep sack. It didn't work. Thoughts on being swaddled with his arms up? Does it matter? How long did you swaddle your LO?
My ticker hasn't been updated-- LO is 18 days old.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: New Mom Questions
The swing: I dont know DD still hates hers and I only got her to sleep in it for a little while once a few days ago..
She does however sleep fine in her bouncy chair!
DD's usually up around 9pm or off and on till about 2am..The longest she naps at one time is 3 hours unless we're out and about at stores and such.
I stopped swaddling DD at 2 weeks.. She would always pull her hands up to her face anyway and I tried reswaddling her recently and she hated it. I usually keep her in sacks most of the time
DD didn't like her swing until she was a few months old. It was short lived though after MIL was watching her & put her in there one day & let her cry herself to sleep =(
As far as being up in the middle of the night, at one point DD had her days & nights mixed up & was up ALL NIGHT! We started taking her outside more during the day so that she could get the idea of night & day, it eventually worked itself out in a few weeks, but I feel your pain, those were some long nights for sure!
We never swaddled DD. She was swaddled in the hospital & for a few days after we got home, but she just didn't seem to like it. I think she was enjoying her new found freedom of not being smushed up in mama's belly. LOL!
GL! Hope it gets better for you soon. It may not seem like it when you're in the moment, but one day when he's STTN you'll look back & it will seem like it was so long ago.
ETA: DD used to nap in her boppy a lot! She'd be right next to me of course, but it freed my hands up to at least get some things done.
No one can say for sure if LO will "grow" into the swing. Some babies love them, some hate them.
At 18 days, LO doesn't have "habits" - they eat/sleep when they need to. You can't really "train" a newborn. They'll develop the correct sleeping/eating habits with time (and your assistance, when they are a little older).
Swaddling is also a personal preference. Our DD loves it, some babies hate it. You kind of just have to play around with it and see. We still swaddle at night, and our DD is 1 month.
Thanks ladies!
We have the Happiest Baby DVD and use all those techniques-- they are great! I can soothe him easily-- he's a good baby-- but during those two hours in the middle of the night, it seems like he poops or pees himself awake every 10 minutes (no joke; last night we went through 4 diapers in those two hours).
I can get him to sleep at other times during the day, but I just can't get him to enjoy the swing. Happiest Baby PROMISED me that he'd like the swing!
Seriously? If a DVD is "promising" anything about your newborn, throw it out. ;-)
My LO doesn't really like the swing yet either. She'll tolerate it for about 10 minutes, and that's about it!
When she doesn't want to go back to sleep in the middle of the night, I have a Soothe and Glow Seahorse, and I play the music on that. Even if she's wide awake, she will just lay in her bassinet and stare at it. I usually have to play it a few times through before she gets sleepy, but it does help!!
I was kidding
My LO still isn't fond of his swing (or his bouncer for that matter). Sometimes he likes it for short periods of time but that's about it.
I've been wondering the same thing about sleep habits. My LO is up from 11-2 lately. He likes to hang out with SO and that's when they normally bond.
I tried swaddling for the first 24 hours. He hated it. We've been happily swaddle free since then. You don't have to do it. You can try it without his arms in. Just do whatever seems to work the best.
PS: I actually really enjoyed the Happiest Baby on the Block. Just like everything else you should get the gist of it - not take it word for word. One of their huge things is swaddling and that just doesn't work for us. The other stuff certainly does though.
I think I looked on Amazon and it was around $20 so I didn't buy it. My local library had it so I checked it out there. It's only about 45 minutes long. I watched it while I was feeding LO.
I agree, you have to take in all the info and do what's best for you. Happiest Baby talks about using a pacifier for soothing (the "sucking" of the 5 S's) but DS hates pacifiers so we do without it. It hasn't been an issue because everything else works wonders!
Oh thank god! LOL!
Ditto this! We went from out LO being up all night with a few cat naps to sleeping at 4 hour stretches. Swaddling, sucking, swinging have all been lifesavers.
I want to say it was a good month before DD got her days and nights figured out. We don't have a swing and she hated her bouncer, so I'm no help there.
Once she fell asleep for naps, I was able to put her on her tummy in her co-sleeper and she'd stay asleep. We bedshared until 2 months old and then she was in her co-sleeper for another 2 months (no sleeps great in her crib for naps & night).
Unfortunately, there's not much to be done about newborn sleep, I don't think. Just keep reminding yourself that it will get better in a few months.
the swing: some babies like the swing and some don't. it's a little bit of trial and error to find what they like. some like a bouncy seat, some like their car seat, etc.
being wide awake between 3-5am: babies tend to confuse their nights and days early on. this is pretty hard to break when they're this little but maybe starting a nighttime routine will help. try a warm bath & jammies, reading a book/singing and a bottle before laying him down for the night. keep with the routine each night and he'll eventually learn to associate it with bedtime. also make sure to keep lights dim/off during feedings and talk in a hushed tone.
swaddling: our LO absolutely hated swaddling after pretty much the first week. we swaddled him from the waist down for about three weeks and now that it's warm we just dress him in a cotton sleep & play with no blanket and he sleeps fine. some babies just don't like to be restricted.