Help- Newborn sleeps all day and cries all night...

dougsbug

We have tried everything we know of to make her content and cozy at night, too. She will sleep in a pack n play and/or rocking cradle all day, no issues, in the living room with us. When we go to bed, and put her in same pnp/cradle she doesn't sleep. She screams.

Are newborns scared of the dark? We use soft lighting but it seems like nothing we do helps her sleep...during night hours. Swaddling tighter, pacifiers, pnp vibrations, pnp lullaby and white noises, feeding, changing, letting her cry out...we can't seem to make anything work and sleeping up in bed with us isn't a habit we want to develop.

any help?

mrs.kapow

Do you have any white noise or music playing louder? DD wouldn't sleep if it was dark or quiet.

But, really, a lot of newborns don't know day from night and the switch naturally happens around 4 wks from what I've seen with DD and on here.  

ETA: She won't develop any habits yet. DD slept on our chests for the first few weeks just so we could sleep, too. She now sleeps fine in her crib. 

dougsbug

Adding follow up Q- should I be keeping her awake during day? To make her more tired at night? It seems impossible- she is a newborn who is so sleepy all day, I wouldn't know how to keep her up but am willing to try! Thanks!

EricaElizabeth

we are also having night troubles; this is what we've been doing the last 2 nights:

we stopped swaddling and switched to the sleep sack, because he breaks the swaddle and we just lay the blanket over him in the daytime. Also we started using the sleep sheep...I have to have it loud for it to work. we also used to leave the bathroom light w the door cracked, plus our tv on which i think was too much light... complete darkness doesn't work- but having just the light from the tv does. He mostly has a hard time falling asleep around 10 pm. I can always tell he's tired but he fights it.

I now will change him, put him in his sleep sack, rock him while feeding him, burp him, if he isn't asleep yet, I'll turn on the dryer and stand next to it- he's out in just a few minutes...I turn the sheep on first so when we're back in the room it's already on. Last 2 nights it's taken till about 12 to get him to sleep, but he will then sleep until about 4-4:30. (which isn't so bad considering he usually sleeps 6-9/ 9:30 every night before this battle and he used to sleep 4 hour stretches in the day then only 2.5-3 hr stretches over night lol) I took diff. tips from people on here and so far our new method seems pretty good!

naturelle25

yep, that was the first 8 weeks of Owen's life....screaming ALL night long & sleeping all day. At 8 weeks, he became a different child & things got exponentially better! Hang in there!

funkyfrog

How old is he? 

joolz425

my baby is slowly switching nights and days now. one thing i've found to sooth her the most is putting her in the moby wrap skin to skin, she falls asleep within 5 minutes almost always. you'll come aross a lot of different philosophies on baby raising and most people seem to have strong opinions. i think you have to decide for yourself what is right for you guys. i personally lean more towards the attachment parenting side. i cosleep and she sleeps really well. may be something worth looking into.

hailey1312

It sounds like she's got her days and nights mixed up. What I read is that if they are mixed up you need to work on your day time schedule and the night time will work itself out. How often are you feeding her in the daytime? You need to work on getting her to stay awake for a full feeding every 3 hours. It might sounds kinda crazy but doing this will actually help her sleep better at night. If she falls asleep during feeding during the day, work to keep her awake, use a wet wash cloth on her feet, her hair, change her diaper, undress her, tickle her, but keep her awake to take a full feeding, not just snacking for 5 minutes. and feed her every 3 hours. Then let her wake up on her own to eat at night, but no longer than 4 hours. It should really help. I did this with my baby, and she is only getting up 2 times at night to eat now and sleeping the rest of the time.

camarotempress

I agree with the 2 previous posts.  Don't force LO to stay up, unfortunately they don't understand right now.  Don't let LO CIO or force a routine WAY to young for that.  You just have to figure out what works for the both of you to get some comfort and sleep.  If you're willing to weight your opitions try holding her at night till she falls asleeps and then move her to PNP or crib.  My friend has this https://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3739296&CAWELAID=405207590 and it works great.  I wish I would have known about it when DS was a NB.  We had a different problem, but this what I used https://www.ergobabycarriers.com/babycarriers/item/BC2EP/  I tried wraps and we'd burn up.  GL and stay calm!

ladybug8510

hailey1312:

It sounds like she's got her days and nights mixed up. What I read is that if they are mixed up you need to work on your day time schedule and the night time will work itself out. How often are you feeding her in the daytime? You need to work on getting her to stay awake for a full feeding every 3 hours. It might sounds kinda crazy but doing this will actually help her sleep better at night. If she falls asleep during feeding during the day, work to keep her awake, use a wet wash cloth on her feet, her hair, change her diaper, undress her, tickle her, but keep her awake to take a full feeding, not just snacking for 5 minutes. and feed her every 3 hours. Then let her wake up on her own to eat at night, but no longer than 4 hours. It should really help. I did this with my baby, and she is only getting up 2 times at night to eat now and sleeping the rest of the time.

This!

Wake her up to feed during the day, make sure there is sunlight in the room she is in, and then make it dark, with a night light at night.  Don't talk to her at night, but I guess if she is really upset I would try singing or gently talking to her, softer than how you talk during the day if that makes sense.  I don't think you will be able to keep her awake during the day, but just try to make daytime different from night.  It will take time, but she will get eventually.

hopingwaiting

Yup, sounds like our newborn.  It's getting better recently (he's exactly one month today).  Mainly he wanted to nurse every 2 hrs, so many of the tips/tricks didn't work for the frequency of waking.  For getting back to sleep faster after nursing (he would fall asleep nursing, then immediately wake up the instant I put him down to sleep), switching from the Pack N Play to the Rock N Play worked wonders.

gdemars

The shower and the bathroom fan, along with the lights off, saved our lives.  lol  Seriously.  We'd stand in the bathroom for hours and the minute we'd leave he's cry again.  Try it.  We still use it to soothe him to sleep sometimes.