Getting baby to sleep at night

nackie · February 2016

My little one is 2.5 weeks and he sleeps like an angel during the day. He'll fall asleep right after nursing and sleep for 2-3 hours if I don't wake him.
At night it's a completely different story. He takes forever to fall asleep and will only do it while he's nursing. But he's so tired that either he gets super lazy about latching on or he thrashes around and tears at the nipple. Super painful. He'll eventually fall asleep in my arms but the minute I put him down he wakes up crying and I have to start all over.
We've tried the bassinet, the rock n play, lights on and off, every setting on the sound machine, supplementing with bottles and he just won't settle at night. I don't know how many more nights in a row I can stay up until sunrise, any advice on getting him to sleep?

nickicb7 · February 2016

It sounds like he has his nights and days mixed up. It's very normal for babies. Do you have a nighttime routine to help him know that it's night. Make sure during the day you have lots of lights on and are making lots of noise. Let him sleep in the living room, in your arms etc. But at night make it dark, swaddle baby or put him in a sleep sac. Follow a routine with a bath, story, lullaby etc. Help him to learn the difference. It may take awhile, but it's normal.

m6tonner · February 2016

We had a very similar issue, she would be passed out cold, but the minute she touched her sheets she would wake up screaming. We read that the cold of their bed can wake them up, so we put a heating pad in her crib while I'm feeding her at night. When we are done, we turn it off and take it out, and lay her down on the warm part. It's worked 3 nights in a row for us!

lolobellrn · February 2016

@nackiewe've had the same issues for the last 3-4 nights but prior to that she would sleep in the bassinet or rock n play for 1-2hrs at night. Now it's like she never falls into a deep sleep. She startles so easily! It's getting so hard to hold her all night and not be able to pee or grab a snack if I need something after feeding her!

Achae · February 2016

Similar to @m6tonner we have a space heater set up for feedings. We swaddle him and then lay him down and he stays passed out for hours! Hoping it's not just a fluke but it's working now

cali1710 · February 2016

We are in the same boat. She sleeps during the day (but not all day) and when night comes she wont sleep unless in my arms. Not much has worked for us yet.

mamajenna_cnm · February 2016

We heard a lot of negative things about the "eat, play, sleep" routine for the day time, however since it's getting close to me going back to work, I needed some sort of routine for out little guy to sleep at night. We've been doing the routine for a week now and he's been sleeping 4-6 hours at a time at night. It's really working well for us. It's something you may look into. It's also super important for baby to understand the difference between day and night. For instance, as soon as he wakes up for the morning we open up the blinds, turn on the tv, and bring him into the living room. And we have him eat and nap in different locations throughout the house during the day. At night time it's strictly in his nursery. Feed him, then rock him, swaddled tightly, and straight to bed. The first few days were hard to find our rhythm, and he was a little confused. But we got a nice routine going now and it's worked brilliantly. I'm going to attach the recommended schedule we've been using...obviously just follow your baby's needs...it won't be spot on. But it's just a simple guideline that can help you understand how it works. Eat, play, sleep is not for everyone...some people say it's ridiculous to have a schedule for a newborn...but it's has helped us out a lot! Once you get into a routine, baby will sleep in longer incriments. It's says in the "On Becoming Babywise" books, that if you continue to be persistent, baby should sleep through the night by 6 weeks. We are 6 weeks this coming week...and I'm super happy with 4-6 hour stretches at night!! The only thing is that I am exclusively breastfeeding, so I end up having to pump in the middle of the night. But it only takes like 10 mins. You can message me if you have any questions

hope this helps!!

shirebaby · February 2016

I would try the self settle method where you put baby to bed while awake and let them learn to put themselves to sleep. They will cry and protest but after 4 weeks of doing this method my baby goes to sleep without any problems and will rarely cry and if he does only does it for 4 mins or so before going to sleep.

Ljohn43 · February 2016

@tgrdance05thanks for that schedule, I'm going to try it. I have one question - when do you change diapers / burp at night? If I nurse him and then burp and change the diaper it wakes him up and then I have to hold and rock him back to sleep. If I change him before nursing, I can usually put him down but then I feel bad bc I know he's going to use the bathroom and be stuck in it for the next few hours. Any thoughts?

ashhsa · February 2016

I just wanted to add- trying loud white noise- I just have a playlist on Spotify I use- and it works wonderfully. It does need to be louder than you might expect though- it reminds them of the noisiness of the womb- they find it comforting.

nackie · February 2016

Thanks for the tips ladies. We're trying some of them tonight. Fingers crossed something works!

Becky012016 · February 2016

I've heard not letting LO sleep more than 2 hours in a row helps them figure out day vs night. We're just letting LO make his own schedule right now since he's still so young but I will definitely be wanting him on a schedule soonish.

ctmamaoftwo · February 2016

tgrdance05 said:

We heard a lot of negative things about the "eat, play, sleep" routine for the day time, however since it's getting close to me going back to work, I needed some sort of routine for out little guy to sleep at night. We've been doing the routine for a week now and he's been sleeping 4-6 hours at a time at night. It's really working well for us. It's something you may look into. It's also super important for baby to understand the difference between day and night. For instance, as soon as he wakes up for the morning we open up the blinds, turn on the tv, and bring him into the living room. And we have him eat and nap in different locations throughout the house during the day. At night time it's strictly in his nursery. Feed him, then rock him, swaddled tightly, and straight to bed. The first few days were hard to find our rhythm, and he was a little confused. But we got a nice routine going now and it's worked brilliantly. I'm going to attach the recommended schedule we've been using...obviously just follow your baby's needs...it won't be spot on. But it's just a simple guideline that can help you understand how it works. Eat, play, sleep is not for everyone...some people say it's ridiculous to have a schedule for a newborn...but it's has helped us out a lot! Once you get into a routine, baby will sleep in longer incriments. It's says in the "On Becoming Babywise" books, that if you continue to be persistent, baby should sleep through the night by 6 weeks. We are 6 weeks this coming week...and I'm super happy with 4-6 hour stretches at night!! The only thing is that I am exclusively breastfeeding, so I end up having to pump in the middle of the night. But it only takes like 10 mins. You can message me if you have any questions hope this helps!!

this is the "schedule"'we use for our little one too and it's been working very well for us! We are still trying to get our little ones weight up so we make sure to wake him up every 3 hours to eat or else I know we would be getting longer stretches at night as well.

ctmamaoftwo · February 2016

Ljohn43 said:

@tgrdance05thanks for that schedule, I'm going to try it. I have one question - when do you change diapers / burp at night? If I nurse him and then burp and change the diaper it wakes him up and then I have to hold and rock him back to sleep. If I change him before nursing, I can usually put him down but then I feel bad bc I know he's going to use the bathroom and be stuck in it for the next few hours. Any thoughts?

As long as he doesn't poop and you put diaper cream on him after his change he'll be fine. Diapers are designed to be able to hold more than one pee.

mamajenna_cnm · February 2016

I agree with @amberjinnett...sometimes I don't even change his diaper between feedings at night. I've noticed his diapers aren't as wet at night time. I burp right after he's fallen into a light sleep and let him fall into a deep sleep on my shoulder while burping (I rock to sleep, it's what works for us).

MamaHolland · February 2016

Swaddle & keep it as dark as you can at night

tyidin1 · February 2016

We put a heating pad on her bed tonight like 1hr before putting her down to warm the sheets....so far so good. Fingers crossed

nackie · February 2016

We trieda heat pack on his sheets and switched from a blanket swaddle to the swaddleMe sacks and so far that seems to be helping enormously. We also realized that the heating vents in our room don't seem to be working so we got a space heater until we can get that looked at. Now Mommy and Daddy are more comfortable too.

emdunn87 · February 2016

Anyone heard of moms on call? A friend recommended it to me. It's a book written by two pediatric nurses who worked night shift. Great tips on how to get your baby on a sleep schedule. I have been using the schedules since Monday and she has only been waking up once at 2:30 and then sleeping until 6. Last night she slept the from 9:30 to 6!! I will take any advice! She was sleeping fine during the day and up all night and this has helped a lot! They do recommend some gerber bottle to the point of being obnoxious but other than that the book worked for us

ByeByeSpotts · February 2016

My little one woke up at 230 and took until 430 to eat. Was still wide awake and my husband was passed out so I proper myself up in bed so I could sleep and she slept in my arms. I know it wasn't ideal but we both desperately needed sleep. Still feel horrible exhausted

katiedid0907 · February 2016

emdunn87 said:

Anyone heard of moms on call? A friend recommended it to me. It's a book written by two pediatric nurses who worked night shift. Great tips on how to get your baby on a sleep schedule. I have been using the schedules since Monday and she has only been waking up once at 2:30 and then sleeping until 6. Last night she slept the from 9:30 to 6!! I will take any advice! She was sleeping fine during the day and up all night and this has helped a lot! They do recommend some gerber bottle to the point of being obnoxious but other than that the book worked for us

Wow I'm really interested in learning more about his. So what is a typical schedule like for a 4-6 week old? Does it work well with breastfeeding?

anightintunisia · February 2016

I've started a routine with my daughter. I give her a bath and if she is cranky it's good because she works herself up. I try reading her a book/singing to her. I feed her if she's hungry and then she is usually out.

anightintunisia · February 2016

I've started a routine with my daughter. I give her a bath and if she is cranky it's good because she works herself up. I try reading her a book/singing to her. I feed her if she's hungry and then she is usually out.

daisycw85 · February 2016

sounds like lo days and nights are confused. A routine would help, we do eat , wake, sleep on a 2.5-3hr time frame. You start the time from when you first start feeding. And you wake your lo when it's been 2.5-3 hrs to feed regardless if lo is still sleeping. This will help establish the difference between night and day as at night you won't wake up to feed unless lo wakes you. Good luck!

emdunn87 · February 2016

Katiedid0907. The schedule is very similar to the ones you see posted above. One of the biggest things that helped us was not letting her sleep more than two hours at a time during the day. It was ridiculously hard to wake her up when we first started, but now she is getting used to it and we start with a diaper change and she wakes up. The book talks about breastfeeding but I can't say. I started out breastfeeding but I Am just not producing hardly any milk so we are mostly formula. The bedtime routine they suggest has helped us: bath, bottle, swaddle, put them in the crib with lights out and white noise. It was rough at first she had a meltdown every time we bathed her but now she loves it and it calms her down

m6tonner · February 2016

Today marks the beginning of operation: nap in your crib. As much as I totally love snuggling up with my little bean, yesterday was the kick off of operation: get my body back. Fortunately we have a gym in our basement and a video monitor. Here goes nothing, fingers crossed!

Rach8672 · February 2016

So I discovered something quite awesome last night .... My husband put LO to bed last night in the bassinet with her feet touching the bottom wall of it. She slept 7.5 hours straight and then another 3 !! Idk if it was a fluke but just thought I would share. I think that she liked being able to touch the walls of the bassinet with all 4 limbs . Whatever the cause , I'll take it !

Getting baby to sleep at night

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