Is nighttime sleep NOT improving for anyone?

BPer · August 2014

I may have just been spoiled by my daughter who slept 3-4 hours at a time from the start, but DS is consistently 2.5 hours between when he falls asleep and wakes up to eat. We had ONE night where he slept 4.5 hours, but otherwise it looks like his sleep is actually getting worse.
So with him sleeping 2.5 hours at a time, I'm only getting 2 hours of sleep at a time which won't fly once ML is over.
I plan to start 12 hours by 12 weeks here soon, but I figured I'd start seeing some improvement without it. No such luck.
Commiserate with me. Tell me your kid is a shitty sleeper too.

teamgreen14 · August 2014

No improvement here either. 2.5 hour chunks all night IF we're lucky.

dobbyisfree · August 2014

Mine literally only sleeps when he's held. I can hold him 20-30 minutes into a nap, where I can pick up his arm and it flops limply, make sure hes still got a good clean diaper and a nice swaddle, and gently lay him in crib/swing/pnp and within 45 seconds hes crying so hard he vomits. I have NO idea how to fix it.

jamboree jess · August 2014

I thought that sleep was getting better (he had been sleeping one 4 hour stretch a night) but last night he was up every 1.5-2 hours. Hoping it was just an off day. But he didn't start sleeping that stretch until he was a month old, so maybe it will improve soon for you!

honeybee434 · August 2014

Not the same thing, but LO's schedule is wearing on me big time. I can't get her to go to sleep earlier than about 2am for the night and I have no idea how to fix it. I'll try to keep her awake at different times in hopes that we can bump it up any earlier, but it just doesn't work. So, for me to get enough sleep in between her two nightime feedings I end up in bed until noon every day and I hate it. If I ever have to wake up earlier it means I'm running on 5 hours of sleep. I'm starting to get worried how that's going to transfer over when I go back to work, too, since that would mean 3 1/2 hours of sleep before my work alarm has to go off for the new morning routine.

Last night she fell asleep at 2:30, then was up at 6:30, 9am and finally noon when i felt like I could get out bed on about 7 1/2 hours of sleep.

SuperTinkerham · August 2014

Yup. 3 hours of sleep is amazing. Last night I fell asleep feeding him in my lap in a chair for 2+ hours. He will not sleep in his bassinet.

Nichole8787 · August 2014

Every 2 hours like clock work. It sucks.

littlemissmarla · August 2014

I get 4hr stretches during the day but 2.5houra during the night. I'm a zombie at this point.

Carly198330 · August 2014

At 5 weeks old little miss does not go over 2 hours night or day. One very tired mummy here!! X

hab83 · August 2014

amlonica said:
Mine literally only sleeps when he's held. I can hold him 20-30 minutes into a nap, where I can pick up his arm and it flops limply, make sure hes still got a good clean diaper and a nice swaddle, and gently lay him in crib/swing/pnp and within 45 seconds hes crying so hard he vomits. I have NO idea how to fix it.

Same here. I miss real sleep. I've been hanging out with him on the couch. It's not ideal but it's better than him not sleeping at all and keeping DD up. I have tried white noise, music, shush-pat, putting him down drowsy, putting him down asleep, etc etc.

Ekg688 · August 2014

SOMETIMES I'll get a 4-5 hour stretch from 9:30 (ish) - 1:30/2:30. Generally it's after cluster feeding though.
Typically she's been doing 2.50-3 hour stretches at night. We're EBF now, but may supplement at night once ML is over. I'm hoping I can survive on the BF eating/sleeping schedule @ night bc I'd like to keep EBF.

marsalisails · August 2014

I'm fucked when I go back to work, and DH has no idea how fucked he is once I start traveling. He didn't know how good he had it when I stayed home with DS.

email2ash · August 2014

2-3 hours here too but he does know it's bedtime between 10-11pm and 7-8am which is good.

TexasGirl81 · August 2014

Add me to the shitty committee too! DS is up, wide awake for many hours in the night every night.

BPer · August 2014

Soon we'll be seeing all the STTN posts and getting ragey. Ben was diagnosed with reflux today, so hopefully getting that sorted out will be a step in the right direction.

Hoshikitsune · August 2014

Mine takes 20-30 minute cat naps around the clock and once in a blue moon sleeps for an hour at a time. The only time she sleeps hard is on me and I can't sleep on my back. I think I have averaged 6 hours of sleep since Sunday.

ChrisB · August 2014

littlemissmarla said:

I get 4hr stretches during the day but 2.5houra during the night. I'm a zombie at this point.

This is us exactly! I actually put him down for a nap this afternoon while he was still awake and he fell asleep. Good luck trying to do that at night!

iris427 · August 2014

You were spoiled. My 6 week old is still waking every 2 hours at night and I don't expect it to change anytime soon.

IrishTraveler · August 2014

Lurker here. I have a little night owl. It isn't that she can't sleep for more than four hours at a time because it's happened a couple of times. She just refuses to go back to sleep, and it's usually between 2-4 AM. It sucks. Interrupted sleep is awful. DS wasn't like this. I knew we had it too good the first time around. Payback sucks.

Knbh · August 2014

At least I know I'm not alone. My DS is 5 weeks old and he will barely sleep unless I'm holding him. It's absolutely exhausting. He averages about 1 hr a night block until he's up again for at least another hour. I'm always so tired that I feel like I'm drunk. Especially since he fights sleep during the day

.

ghostof5letters · August 2014

Ours isn't bad, but it hasn't changed or improved in the past 3-4 weeks.

clk723 · August 2014

Ours got remarkably better when I moved DS to his own room a few days ago. He's now sleeping 8:30-12:30 a quick rock to sooth him and then up to eat at 2 and then again at 6

Love227 · August 2014

2 hour stretches here too. It was 3 at one point but I don't know what happened. Feeding him every 2 hours is exhausting. He's also a light sleeper so if I'm not holding him, any sound or movement I make will wake him and it's back to nursing. I've been holding him at night just so I can get some sleep. It's very uncomfortable and my back is always sore. I'm sorry for all of us but it's refreshing to see I'm not alone.

livkight · August 2014

Junie's routine hasn't really changed since we brought her home. She slept about 3 hours at a stretch from the get-go, and she still does. Hoping to have some progress soon!

abundancenow · August 2014

My poor girl has the worst gas during the night and is awake moaning and farting, I hate it. Holding her helps some, but I feel so guilty that she's uncomfortable or in pain. It's worse between 4-6am. She does sleep usually from 10pm-2 am peacefully, but I'm usually passing out putting her to sleep at 10. We've been switching things up, but I formula and breast feed, so it's hard to pin point the problem. We are trying different formulas, bottles, nipples and cutting out stuff like dairy and gassy foods for me. 8-}

argonne · August 2014

abundancenow said:

My poor girl has the worst gas during the night and is awake moaning and farting, I hate it. Holding her helps some, but I feel so guilty that she's uncomfortable or in pain. It's worse between 4-6am. She does sleep usually from 10pm-2 am peacefully, but I'm usually passing out putting her to sleep at 10. We've been switching things up, but I formula and breast feed, so it's hard to pin point the problem. We are trying different formulas, bottles, nipples and cutting out stuff like dairy and gassy foods for me. 8-}

This. I get a great 4-5 hour stretch from 9-1ish, then it seems like she's up every 1.5 hours grunting and groaning with gas. Sometimes I'll leave her be and she'll resettle without waking up too much, but sometimes it turns into a full on screamfest. Sometimes she surprises me and sleeps from 1ish to 5ish, so I know she can go good stretches.

1982Babies · August 2014

I was getting some 3-4 hour stretches, followed by a 2 hour stretch, but lately it's back to 2 to 2.5 hours sleep, up for an hour or two, then another 2 to 2.5 hour. I guess that's better than some, but at 10 weeks (today), I had hoped her to be sleeping a bit better.

Shelleybell · August 2014

argonne said:

abundancenow said:

My poor girl has the worst gas during the night and is awake moaning and farting, I hate it. Holding her helps some, but I feel so guilty that she's uncomfortable or in pain. It's worse between 4-6am. She does sleep usually from 10pm-2 am peacefully, but I'm usually passing out putting her to sleep at 10. We've been switching things up, but I formula and breast feed, so it's hard to pin point the problem. We are trying different formulas, bottles, nipples and cutting out stuff like dairy and gassy foods for me. 8-}

This. I get a great 4-5 hour stretch from 9-1ish, then it seems like she's up every 1.5 hours grunting and groaning with gas. Sometimes I'll leave her be and she'll resettle without waking up too much, but sometimes it turns into a full on screamfest. Sometimes she surprises me and sleeps from 1ish to 5ish, so I know she can go good stretches.

this is our life exactly except now she has been staying awake from 2-5.

earichar23 · August 2014

honeybee434 said:
Not the same thing, but LO's schedule is wearing on me big time. I can't get her to go to sleep earlier than about 2am for the night and I have no idea how to fix it. I'll try to keep her awake at different times in hopes that we can bump it up any earlier, but it just doesn't work. So, for me to get enough sleep in between her two nightime feedings I end up in bed until noon every day and I hate it. If I ever have to wake up earlier it means I'm running on 5 hours of sleep. I'm starting to get worried how that's going to transfer over when I go back to work, too, since that would mean 3 1/2 hours of sleep before my work alarm has to go off for the new morning routine.

Last night she fell asleep at 2:30, then was up at 6:30, 9am and finally noon when i felt like I could get out bed on about 7 1/2 hours of sleep.

Ug, this was us exactly until about a week ago. LO has finally pushed it back to 1st sleep around 11-30-12 and I'm so thankful! Still only getting 2.5-3.5 hours at a stretch but if I can get 2 of those plus a nap in I can manage and if I can get 3 in I feel glorious!

Carly198330 · August 2014

My little lady is nearly 6 weeks and is waking up every 2-3 hours night and day. But although willow is up a lot she is very easily settled. We don't often have a lot of crying (other than bath time) and I can have her feed, changed and settled back into her cot within about 30 mins.

TricksyPixie · August 2014

Umm.. Mine sleeps pretty well. She likes snuggling after feeds and when she is getting drowsy, but she quickly falls asleep. I started putting her in crib for naps and she can sleep 2-3 hours a nap, and recently, she has been sleeping 5-6 hours at night. She sleeps bassinet at night and also gets the SwaddleMe blanket. I try to establish several things that signal "bedtime," including lullabies and bedtime stories. She seems to catch on well. But she is easy in a lot of senses.. I'm sorry you ladies have such sorry sleepers.. I hope it gets better..

Monicalynnsd · August 2014

For the moms with gassy babies, have you tried infant gas relief drops? This seems to help my little one sleep longer at night. She is 3 weeks today and it's getting better...I wake her up every 2 hrs during the day to feed her, then she usually falls asleep from 9 to almost 1:00, then after that it is every 1-2 hours. Feedings last 40 minutes, then sometimes there is a diaper change and 20 minutes of shushing her back to sleep, my fiancé sleeps through all of this and I'm so jealous that he gets a few extra hours of sleep per night. My little one loves sleeping next to me, last night I layed her next to my side and she put herself to sleep there without any fussing, it was amazing, but it's hard because once she cuddles in I can't move or I'll wake her!

Ecomom17 · August 2014

Mostly getting one 3-hr stretch then 1.5-2 hr stretches the rest of the night. But I've been able to get more comfortable side-lying nursing this time, so we both barely rouse for feedings and fall right back to sleep, which has made it SO much better. In other words, baby spends most of the night nestled next to me, head on my arm, so if you're not into co-sleeping that doesn't work so well. But no, the sleep hasn't really improved yet. He has done a 4-hr stretch here and there, maybe for a total of 3 or 4 times. I'm dying for that to become a regular thing!

My mama's boy doesn't like to be put down, either; it's relatively infrequently that I can get him to sleep in his swing or PnP, but it's happening more and more, so we're getting there. We might even get him to sleep in the co-sleeper one of these days! His favorite way to sleep is in froggy position on my chest, which is pretty sweet until I actually want to sleep. I've discovered that if I want to get anything done around the house the easiest thing to do is just put him in the carrier because that pretty much puts him to sleep or at least keeps him calm.

As we're heading into LO's 8th week here I'm really hoping he'll start sleeping longer stretches. If he isn't a better sleeper than his older brother I don't know what I'm going to do!

For the FTMs, this is all totally normal. It totally sucks to not get good sleep, but it's far more typical for newborns to wake frequently than to sleep for long blocks. So don't feel like your baby isn't doing well. In fact, there are good reasons for them to wake frequently, one being that they are less likely to suffocate/stop breathing.

This article might help find a more positive perspective on these sleepless babes!

https://breastfeedchicago.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/5-cool-things-no-one-ever-told-you-about-nighttime-breastfeeding/

ETA: Despite the length of sleep stretches not really improving, this LO only nurses for 5-15 min. in general in the middle of the night as compared to DS1's 1.5 hr nursing sessions, so it's WAY easier this time around in that respect. With DS1 I'd get maybe 20 min. between feedings since he'd feed for 1.5 hrs then need a diaper change then pretty much be ready for another feeding within the next hour.

teamgreen14 · September 2014

So I used to be bummed that I only got 3-4 hour stretches but the last couple weeks LO has transitioned to 2 hour stretches. All. Night. Long. And a lot of the time he refuses to go back into his crib so we end up cosleeping.

hoping this is a growth spurt because mama's tired!

ChrisB · September 2014

I posted in this thread back in August.

Update: We started swaddling Spencer a few weeks ago and he is sleeping like a champ!! Last night he slept in his swing from 7:30-10:00pm. We changed his diaper, swaddled him and gave him his bedtime bottle and put him in his crib around 11:00. He slept through the night and woke up at 8:30 this morning. It has been like this every night since we started swaddling him again. He hated being swaddled when he first came home so we gave up on it. I was desperate for some sleep and decided to try it again.

Maybe those who have LO's that hated being swaddled...try it again! We are so happy we did!!

teamgreen14 · September 2014

Really @ChrisB? How old is your LO? Mine is 3 months old now and I thought it was a little too late to try that. When do people stop swaddling?

ChrisB · September 2014

@teamgreen14 - Spencer is 2 months, 3 weeks. We started swaddling him again about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Not sure when people stop swaddling, but we plan on doing it until he is about 10 or 11 years old..haha. I think I've seen swaddles at BRU for up to 20 pounds.

teamgreen14 · September 2014

@Lori_n_Lior‌ what is the 4 month regression?

Huahine · October 2014

teamgreen14 said:
@Lori_n_Lior‌ what is the 4 month regression?

Your worst nightmare - except you would have to sleep long enough to actually dream to have nightmares. Around the 4 month mark a lot of babies will suddenly become poor sleepers - waking every few hours again like the newborn stage. My first was such a terrible sleeper in general that we didn't notice any difference, but my old bmb was full of tales of woe.

Soon2BMrsN · October 2014

@teamgreen14‌ : it's typically safe to swaddle until baby rolls over. I'm dreading the end of swaddling because DD has basically always sttn and she's swaddled.

littlemissmarla · October 2014

@teamgreen14 We just started swaddling again a couple weeks ago and it has helped give us a good 5-6 hour stretch the first half of the night. DD wakes at around 3 to eat and then has no interest in putting it back on. I'll take what I can get!

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