How are you getting your 2 week old to sleep? LONG, FRUSTRATED MOMMA
IlliniQT
member
So my LO has developed quite the frustrating sleep pattern. He sleeps like a champ every other night (or so) and then on the off nights he seems to be up ALL night. I nursed him at 10pm and put him down, he cried, DH took him and he stayed up til 11:00, fell asleep for 45 minutes, fussed for 15 minutes and then went to the "ugly place" as we call it. So I nursed him, and put him back down at 1:30am. He was sound asleep when I put him down and now he is a fussy disaster area. I burped him, changed him, and all he wants to do is be held.
The pediatrician said we should be working on putting him down drowsy not asleep and then give him 5 minutes to soothe himself before going in to check on him. But he long outlasts the 5 minute rule.
I am becoming one sleepy momma...2 nights ago this went on til 5:00 am and then he slept til 10am. I am doing everyhting in the book as far as quiet and dark at night and bright and loud during the day. Most frustrating is he is often awake ALL day (or sleeps an hour here or there) so there is no resting when he rests. I can only get a bit of sleep in throughout the day.
Do you ever feel like you just don't know what else to do? That is where I am at right now...I am going on about 45 minutes of sleep all day, it's 2 am, and he is nowhere near dreamland...DH of course has to work in the morning so he is sound asleep.
I know a contributing factor is I am EBF'ing so there is no way to "take a feeding off" to get some sleep. And Lactation Consultant says it's ok to pump now, but no bottles until he's 4 weeks. It's going to be a long 2 weeks. Any suggestions anyone has would be great.
P.S. He is also ANTI-swaddle. He likes to have his hands up near his face, and we had to take the pacifier away because everytime it fell out of his mouth it just woke him up :c( We're a disaster.
Re: How are you getting your 2 week old to sleep? LONG, FRUSTRATED MOMMA
Honestly, this sounds pretty normal for a 2 week old. It is rough. It does get better though. For me it was around 5 weeks that I felt like things started to mellow out.
I started pumping and bottle feeding pretty early, around 2 weeks. My LO had no nipple confusion. I mostly nursed but my husband would do at least 1 bottle/day to give me a 4-5 hour stretch of sleep.
Good luck, just hang in there and know that it DOES get better.
Aw, sleep deprivation stinks! Did you try getting a soothing sounds machine? Or invest in a Snug-a-Bunny swing that keeps running on an A/C adapter [to get a break during the day]?
... (Also, IMO, ditch the pacifier in the crib unless you want to get stuck on paci patrol ... it may mean more sleep for you in the long run).
I think we may try the sound machine...has this worked for you? Any recommendations?
The swing doesn't seem to comfort him at night...poor guy!
I didn't say cry...I said fuss...the moment he goes from fussing to crying I go get him.
I have a Sleep Sheep ... but of course, I ended up with the one baby that seems annoyed by soothing sounds, and prefers silence! Anyway, a lot of people swear by them and I received it at my shower. If I were you though, I'd go on Amazon and see if I can find a soothing sound machine that's on ALL NIGHT LONG, given how your LO sounds. If he tends to wake herself up multiple times, it might be better for the sounds to be on continuously ... that way, the same sleep cues which are there (when you put him down groggy), will still be there when he wakes up. He might be able to settle herself better.
I know it's rough, but at 2 weeks, your LO is all screwed up with days, nights, etc. It'll get better though and he'll work the kinks out in his own time! GL!!
Try a swing and go ahead and pump and give the kid a bottle of breast milk. I was doing this in the hospital per LC. All three of my little ones had no trouble going back and forth. It is great that some nights my husband can take a shift so I can get some sleep. Trust me you LO knows when you are stressed and feeds off of that.
Also do you LO cry after everyfeeding or just at night. If it is after everyfeeding if could be reflux. Just something for you to think about.
GOOD LUCK
I think we are on your same schedule. Some of the things that I have tried that seem to work are:
Letting her fall asleep on me partially swaddled after feeding. She hates having her arms swaddled. That way the swaddle is warm so when we put her down in the moses basket and their isn't an extreme temperature change that causes her to wake up.
We have occasionally used a bottle with 2 oz of my pumped bm at night that includes her Vit D drops. This has worked occasionall because she was full at 10 p.m. to start out the night feeding schedule. The nipple on the bottle is one from the hospital that is for bf babies. Smaller hole so they have to suck harder and she hasn't had any issues with switching back to the breast. We haven't used a bottle the past 2 nights and I have just put the dropper of Vit D drops solo into her mouth and that's not going over so well ( ie. hysterical crying and spitting up) so I am going to switch back to the bottle method.
Last night I started getting her night time ready at 7:30 p.m. and she was only up twice during the night for a feeding/diaper change after the 10:30 pm feeding. This I deem a miracle..
I feel like there is no perfect routine but maybe it's a combination of things that seem to work the best. Hopefully some of this helps you if you aren't doing any of this already.
Hope you get some rest!
Only at night and not every feeding..
When do you pump so he gets enough the next time you nurse?
Prefacing a snarky comment with "Not trying to be snarky" doesn't undo the rudeness. A FTM looking for help doesn't need to be talked down to. I am trying to find things to make LO and me sleep better...not looking for judgement...
I agree with all of this. I though my son hated swaddling,too, but at 3 weeks we started again for night sleeps and he likes it. I swaddle him, give him a pacifier,lay down with him until he's asleep then transfer him to the PnP without the paci.
Alos, your I think your doctor's advice abuot sleepy/awake is premature. I rocked/soothed my daughter to sleep for the first few months and she was a champion sleeper by 9 weeks. We did the sleepy/awake sleep training at about 5 months.
Not really sure what was rude or judgemental about what she posted - she is right. You have a newborn. Newborns don't sleep like adults. It will get better! It's all trial & error right now. Good luck
I know this seems a bit obvious, but I figured Id mention it because you are sleep deprived...and we all know how much of a toll that takes on our ability to think!! Im mean that gently, Im not judging one bit. Im right there with you!
Anywho, you stated DS doesnt like to be swaddled with his arms in and swaddling from the waist down doesnt work. Have you tried only swaddling one arm? My eldest hated being swaddled with both arms, but was rather happy as long as he had one arm free.
Hang in there. The first month is the pits.