Help..he wont sleep at night.

canthardlywait426

My LO is 1w2d and seems to have his days and nights confused! He is a wonderful sleeping baby during the day but when 11pm hits he is up and screaming. I know it's not smart to try to keep him awake during the day to male him sleep at night as they NEED the sleep. We've tried stimulating him after feedings (small doses of tummy time, etc) so that he's more tired at night but it Doesn't work. We swaddle, we sway, we shush, we try everything and nothing works. He's up and crying from about 11pm-4/5am. DH is returning to work on Monday and he isn't going to get ANY rest if this keeps up. Does anyone have any suggestions for what might help?

J+MS

Make sure you aren't making any eye contact or doing anything entertaining at night. He will eventually learn that nights are boring and for sleeping.

Is he crying the whole time at night? Something else may be going on...

KoalaBear103

We made sure that when R napped during the day the room was fairly bright and at night obviuosly it was darker.  It took him a while to get things down but nnow he sleeps for 7 hours at night (ok its in the bed with us but still...)

GL!  The first week or 2 can be kind of tough when it comes to sleep

danjou21

We had the same problem (and still do).  The things that helped us initially were the RnP and swaddling. 

caprocornia

I'll echo what the others have said.  Bedtime has always been quiet and dark.  We just have the Twilight Turtle nightlight that we put on for feedings, and it goes off when we're done.  We stay in DD's room and just rock in the glider.  During the day, she naps in our family room with all the lights on, tv on, people talking, etc.  I refused to have her in a silent dark room for naps.  We get one 6ish hour stretch at night, then go to back to the 3-4 hour stretches, but she goes right back down after she eats at night without a problem.  GL!  He'll figure it out.

canthardlywait426

J+MS:

Make sure you aren't making any eye contact or doing anything entertaining at night. He will eventually learn that nights are boring and for sleeping.

Is he crying the whole time at night? Something else may be going on...

No, he doesn't cry the whole time, but he'll cry for a good 20 minutes and then I am able to sooth him but he wont sleep. When he DOES fall asleep and I put him in his bassinet it takes about 30 seconds for him to realize where he is and start screaming again. We play this game all night. During the day, total angel.

danjou21

Also try white noise.  We just turned on the bathroom fan at first!

GavsMomAlready+Newbie

Did you read "The Happiest Baby on the Block"? It's a life saver.

The "Shhh" noise and the swaddling techniques have saved us when we had your problem.

Good luck! 

Chrelaine

Our little one did the same thing. We finally gave up on the bassinet and she sleeps in her bouncy seat.

canthardlywait426

Chrelaine:

Our little one did the same thing. We finally gave up on the bassinet and she sleeps in her bouncy seat.

The bouncy seat gets the same reaction. He doesn't even like to be held laying down in bed. It's so strange- he requires one specific spot on the couch with me laying down and holding him in a specific position. I don't know what it is about that spot but I always get him to sleep in that one spot. I can't spend my life cuddling him on a loveseat. You know? Haha. I've gotten the recommendation for "happiest baby on the block" a couple times and I think it's time to try that out. Thanks for the help ladies!

JenyNxDx

canthardlywait426:

No, he doesn't cry the whole time, but he'll cry for a good 20 minutes and then I am able to sooth him but he wont sleep. When he DOES fall asleep and I put him in his bassinet it takes about 30 seconds for him to realize where he is and start screaming again. We play this game all night. During the day, total angel.

I'm not any help because our LO is 3w2d and is having the exact same issues still.

We avoid being "entertaining" at night, keep the lights low, avoid eye contact, etc and that kid just does not want to sleep. He HATES to be swaddles and cries hysterically if we try (he doesn't like to have his arms stuck to his body).

From midnight until 7am he goes back and forth between being 100% awake and then just cranky. Once we've gotten him to sleep we try to lay him down in his PnP, but he never stays down for more than 20 minutes. Occasionally he'll sleep for one 2 or 3 hour stretch, but only in bed with us. It doesn't help that he's noisy (grunting and all that), so even when he's sleeping, I have a really difficult time tuning him out enough to sleep myself.

During the day he's wonderful and can sleep for four hours straight. Life just isn't fair sometimes.

moonfaerie

Your LO is still very young. It takes time for babies to adjust to life in the outside world. Eventually he will adjust. You may have to spend some nights with him opn the sofa. My DD1 was that way for several weeks, but by two months she was sleeping very well waking for one feeding per night, and by 3 months she consistently STTN. Just be patient.

Water_Wedding

I realized I should have read The Happiest Baby on the Block about three days ago. I don't have the time or energy for reading and wanted to SEE the techniques so I got the DVD. It's made everything so much better. I thought swaddle and whisking was obvious but it's a little more specific than what you're told. Besides the most magical piece is how to turn DH and jiggle. It stops the crying immediately. He feeds and sleeps better because he doesn't ge into a frenzy.