6 week old baby won't sleep

relizabethp · February 2016

My 6 week old baby won't sleep at all. During the day she takes NO naps or 15-30 min naps. At night she sleeps one 4 hr stretch beginning around 8 and then is up every 2 hrs. I'm seriously concerned for her well being and I'm at my wits end. I swaddle, I wear her, I have a swing , a bouncy , I hold her, I soothe her , I try a paci, I take her in cry rides, I've left her alone , I've held her....what should I do ????

Gingermom15 · February 2016

Is she fussy or crying during this time? How long has this been going on?

relizabethp · February 2016

No she is calm , at least a week . I even took her to the doctor where I was told that she was "one of the healthiest baby they have seen " .

Gingermom15 · February 2016

If she isn't sleeping in more than 15-20 minute stretch during the day then maybe she is over stimulated, therefore overtired and not sleeping well at night. The world is new and very fascinating right now. Try sitting in a dim room while feeding her and see if she will wind down enough to fall asleep. If it's continuous behavior definitely call her ped and see what they have to say. If she is crying while she is awake then ask her ped about that. If she's formula fed she might need changed or if she's breastfed she could have an allergy or intolerance to something you've eaten or something in the milk.

jenEP · February 2016

Her night sleep sounds completely normal for this age. My baby sleeps in 2-3 hr stretches during the night still. Weeks 5 and 6 are notorious for babies not wanting to sleep during the day. I would recommend the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby. I think what you are experiencing, while frustrating, is completely normal. Hang in there!

relizabethp · February 2016

I have tried all of those things . She is BF the Drs assured us she has no food allergies .

jenEP · February 2016

are you concerned about her daytime sleep, nighttime sleep, or both? Many babies at this age only want to catnap in the day and it's still common for them to feed every 2-4 hours at night. Around 7 to 8 weeks, they should start sleeping a bit better. Especially if she's not super fussy or upset, it sounds like you are doing everything right.

angelicac06 · February 2016

The sleeping sounds normal. My LO at 6 weeks was sleeping one 4-5 stretch then 1-2 hours there after until 8 am. Now sleep 6-7 but I hear all the times it takes some babies a lot longer to get there.

As far as day time naps my LO needs assistance with them and I didn't realize this until a couple weeks ago! After he'd nurse he'd cat napped on my boob or the boppy pillow however wake himself up after only 10-15 mins. But I began realizing when he got a little older that he would try and close his eyes but just couldn't sleep so he's cry. I then helped him by taking him into a different, quieter room in a glider and put some lullabies while rubbing his back until he fell asleep. He was a much happier baby after. To this day his naps aren't longer than 1 hour but I make sure for every 2 hours that hes awake to attempt a nap. So if your LO is getting those 15-30 frequently you're fine!

cblanco1 · February 2016

You could try the Gerber soothe drops (not cheap, but effective in our case). My baby is 5wks and wasn't crying but she wasn't sleeping well because she would wake herself up to wiggle around trying to pass gas. The drops helped reduce the gas she was feeling.

Also, she's been sleeping about 6-7 hrs straight through the night since we started using them. I also do a bedtime routine of feeding for about 45 mins, new diaper, noise machine and turning all lights except a dim nightlight.

Hope your LO gets some sleep soon

Taylovesbrad · February 2016

Yup I experienced that during that time period. Really tough. What about going for walks? Have you tried eat play sleep? I also started a bed time routine which helped. There is a thread on that and what many people have done

thatgirlree24 · February 2016

Sounds normal. My LO is 8 wks today & probably takes one 3hr nap a day and wakes up as often as you mentioned at night.

taysun · February 2016

DD is almost 8 weeks and we get a 4-5 hour stretch at night and then it's 1-2 hour stretches after that. She also requires assistance to fall asleep during the day otherwise she won't sleep more than 10-15 minute stretches so I start prompting a nap every 1-2 hours of awake time. Any longer spent awake and things go south very fast.
Getting her to sleep is a huge puzzle every time, it's always different what combination of walking/rocking/shushing/singing/patting will work.
It has started to get easier though.

dmendo01 · February 2016

My babe is 5 weeks tomorrow and only cat naps during the day as well. 15-30 mins. She does better if we wear her we may get an hour. But I feel you. Sometimes it seems like nothing works. As long as she's not fussy try not to drive yourself nuts, as I am..haha

preggoandglowing · February 2016

This was my baby two weeks ago. She did two 1-2 hours stretches at night then a couple of 10-15 minutes naps during the day. Then one day it's like it all caught up to her. She slept most of the day and had longer stretches at night. As pp, I also realized I needed to make her take naps. The first couple of days it would take almost an hour to get her down but she's slowly catching on. And I read somewhere that contrary to adults, babies needs more sleep during the day to sleep better at night.

relizabethp · February 2016

Thanks everyone. I ended up getting the happiest baby on the block and I am now putting her to sleep as suggested in the book. Yesterday she slept the entire day, but woke up every two hours at night. Today I am trying to do two or three hours stretches of wake time with naps in between . So far we have had a successful morning . I hope this is the start of an actual sleep schedule .

dmendo01 · February 2016

@rachelzank so what exactly are you doing that works? i have that book too but I haven't gotten to the good stuff yet! DD is apparently very strange. I get cat naps during the day but like last night she fell asleep at 8:30 slept until midnight and nursed and went back to sleep until 6 and then nursed and slept til 10:15! Since then she took a 10-15 min cat nap at 11:30am and then another at 15 mins at 2:30pm and then maybe 30 mins at 4:15pm. So I am currently trying to get her down for bed and it's 7:45pm. So she sleeps great at night so far *knock on wood* but she fights like crazy to stay awake during the day and I have seriously tried everything! It is THE MOST frustrating thing she does. So I keep reading that the better daytime sleep the better night time sleep but that's not necessarily the case with her. I can't complain too much since she sleeps at night but I feel like I fight her to take naps!

relizabethp · February 2016

@dmendo01 Im not going to lie I skipped to the chapters that talked about calming and getting your baby to sleep after I read the introduction, so far the most helpful advise has been the swaddle. My baby has resisted having her arms swaddled sine the moment of birth so when I swaddled her I let her arms be free, the book emphasized a tight swaddle with babies hands tucked in so I have started doing that and it keeps her from startling herself awake which is giving her longer naps . Also I have started playing her noise machine when I put her down and not just when she is fussy. The book also talks about "jiggling" her head to soothe baby, which I'm not comfortable with at all (it's a step below shaking IMO ) BUT if I tap the bottom of her booty it kinda has the same affect , so when she is really starting to fuss I do that and it does calm her almost instantly .

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