My boys are up all night..suggestions, PLEASE.

chrissc34

My boys are 7 weeks old and have their days and nights switched.  They sleep a lot during the day, and its impossible to wake them up without them dozing right off again.  Ive tried everything.  Our Pedi, says nothing I can do right now?!?!

My nights are filled with feedings.  Im so tired and my brain feels like mush.  What can I do???   How do you ladies do it?? 

E&RMommy

The first 2 months are the hardest. Hang in there.  I have no advice.  We did not sleep train that early.  We just lived with the utter exhaustion.

google123

yea, I'm not sure if you can sleep train at 7w.  For some reason, newborns are like that.  I was so exhausted, I remember just wishing I could get more than 2 hours of sleep.  I have no suggestions, but we did start making a bedtime routine at that age.  We did a bath and bottle, everynight at 7p.m.  (even though at that age they still wake every 3hrs), but we still started it, and we continue it to this day.  Babies now get so tired at 7p.m., it's hard to keep them awake, and now they sleep until 5-6am.  We did do CIO at 4m, but for only 1 (wake-time) at a time.  We first got rid of the 3-4 am feed, then moved on to the 1-2am feed.  etc.

floridakat

That's about when we started the EASY routine (Eat/Activity/Sleep/You). Granted, their activity period is very short at that age, but it started teaching them that they didn't go right to sleep after feeding. Overnight, we kept feedings very quiet, dark and didn't talk or interact a lot so they knew it was just eat and go back to bed. GL! It will get easier!

atlb

I second the EASY routine and establishing a specific bedtime routine. For activities after meal time, I would do tummy time, sing a song, read a book, go for a walk, or play with a really loud toy to keep their attention. Anything to keep them awake. At night time, we have always had a special book and song that I ONLY do at bedtime. Also, their room is a dark, warm cave. I have black-out curtains, a white noise machine, and a heater. It takes a little bit of time, but eventually they will get it. I started the routine right away, and my girls were sleeping 12 hour stretches by 8 weeks.

emma12210

I agree w/ EASY... make them stay up, even if they are crying, after their bottles... start w/ 10-15 minutes and do a little more each day. Ours were the same way... they would SCREAM when we tried to keep them up, but we did it for our sanity! Undress them and put a cold washcloth on their chest... whatever it takes

Also, make lots of noise during the day, keep all the lights on, etc, then keep it dark at night, don't talk to them during feedings, etc.

GL!

HazelEyes730

When I asked ped about this with DD. she said to feed every 2 hours on the dot. Or 3 hours if you prefer. Regardless of what was finished, when she finished. Basically getting most of her feeding done during the day, so she wouldn't wake up as much at night. She obviously still woke up, but it stretched out from 4 hours to 6 hours to sleeping through the night. I'm sure with 2 it's even tougher, but this worked for us and we'll be doing it again. We also did EASY. Loved it! Good luck.

 

crystaleyes39

honestly up until very recently (and my girls are about 3 months now) they were getting up a few times a night.  My only good advice to you is to be as loud as you can during the day...vacume, have the tv on, talk loud, etc....and then at night everythign off except the sound machine and swaddle them up really good. Also I've read that giving a little more at the last bed time feeding helps them sleep a longer stretch. So far it's working for us..but this has only been since around 2 1/2 months.  Good Luck!