March Sleep Thread

chef'swife · March 2017

Sleep-are you getting any? What does baby's sleep schedule look like right now? Are you having any issues getting Baby to sleep? Any other sleep related issues go here...

ColeBug89 · March 2017

I'm getting an ok amount of sleep. DD still wakes herself up every 3 hours to eat, but she will usually go right back to sleep after eating at night. There's only been a few times she has wanted to stay awake, and in those cases I took her out to her play mat and let her play until she was sleepy lol. She's been pretty amazing since I've been back to work *knocks on wood* and she seems to be sleeping well at day care, but we are only on day 2 lol.

chef'swife · March 2017

Overall, DS is a great sleeper, but yesterday and last night were rough. We have a routine of nursing every 2.5-3 hours and then sleeping in between with 2 long wake times( 2-3 hours each) with 1 in the late morning~11-1 and another from ~5-8. Yesterday, however, DS decided he didn't need any sleep. Harrison was awake most of the day with a few short cat naps. Harrison nursed off and on all evening and would not fall asleep afterwards. We tried swing and vibrating chair, walking around the house, swaddled, not swaddled. He was fussy, which is unusual for him. He usually only cries when he's hungry. It didn't seem to be an issue with him being gassy. Eventually, I took him to bed and nursed him with the lights out-it still took him over an hour to fall asleep. He was up much longer each time he nursed overnight (he usually nurses 15-20 minutes and then falls back to sleep). This mama got no sleep last night but thankfully DH took morning duty with both kids and let me get some rest this morning. Of course, today so far, he's a perfect sleeper again.

kswiger06 · March 2017

I'm not getting much sleep. I average 4 - 4.5 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, usually at night. If I do get to nap during the day, I manage to lose that time at night. Typically Austin wakes up every 2.5 - 3 hours to eat. He has 2 long bursts where he is awake for hours at a time. There's a time in the morning around 9 and again in the evening. The evening is terrible though. He fusses the whole time. He'll spend the first hour in an ok mood, just fussing for a change in position, but after that he spends a good 1.5+ hours crying and screaming no matter what we do. He'll want to eat, but only for a minute, then he wants his pacifier and will look sleepy, only to suddenly jump and start screaming again. Normally I can calm him down if he's against my chest and I can get him to lay his head down, but he usually fights it and holds his head back and just wails until he's purple and I'm losing hearing. After 3 - 4 hours he will magically settle down and go to sleep, but i fortunately its not until 12 or later... last night it was 2 a.m. All day long he sleeps beautifully, but there just isn't much time for me to nap, we have the other kids, and I need to try to get some house stuff done if I can. I'm hoping to try to shift his nightly awake time up so he'll let me get to sleep earlier since I have to be up by 7 to help the other kids get ready for school, and it takes about 45 minutes at night for me to get to lay back down after he wakes up to eat.

jab3-2 · March 2017

kswiger06 said:

I'm not getting much sleep. I average 4 - 4.5 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, usually at night. If I do get to nap during the day, I manage to lose that time at night. Typically Austin wakes up every 2.5 - 3 hours to eat. He has 2 long bursts where he is awake for hours at a time. There's a time in the morning around 9 and again in the evening. The evening is terrible though. He fusses the whole time. He'll spend the first hour in an ok mood, just fussing for a change in position, but after that he spends a good 1.5+ hours crying and screaming no matter what we do. He'll want to eat, but only for a minute, then he wants his pacifier and will look sleepy, only to suddenly jump and start screaming again. Normally I can calm him down if he's against my chest and I can get him to lay his head down, but he usually fights it and holds his head back and just wails until he's purple and I'm losing hearing. After 3 - 4 hours he will magically settle down and go to sleep, but i fortunately its not until 12 or later... last night it was 2 a.m. All day long he sleeps beautifully, but there just isn't much time for me to nap, we have the other kids, and I need to try to get some house stuff done if I can. I'm hoping to try to shift his nightly awake time up so he'll let me get to sleep earlier since I have to be up by 7 to help the other kids get ready for school, and it takes about 45 minutes at night for me to get to lay back down after he wakes up to eat.

This. Almost exactly this, except she "goes to bed" slightly earlier and I need to get up to get the older kids ready at 6. You're not alone @kswiger06!

chef'swife · March 2017

That's rough ladies. The only good part of Harrison's NICU stay is that he was on a pretty set schedule when he came home, since everything is so regimented there.

ColeBug89 · March 2017

@chef'swife Same here with DD. She's pretty much been on her same schedule since she's been born.

mrslittlemac · March 2017

@kswiger06 my LO has the fussy "witching hours" too, but the past few days have been a bit better. The first few weeks were rough, but now she's started having a 4.5 hour sleep right after the colicky hours, so I'll take it. I can usually get her down by about 10:30 and we're up for a nursing session and diaper change at 3. Then we go back to sleep until about 6, with several shorter naps throughout the day.

MLRocha · March 2017

I feel like my opinion on our sleep situation changes every couple of days. We've gone from Quinn sleeping happily in her crib to only being willing to sleep being held to our current situation, where she'll sleep in the pack n play in our room.

The amount of sleep has definitely increased but is still very inconsistent. At the longest, she's gone almost 7 hours! But, that's only happened once time. Generally, we're up to 4 to 5 hours in the first night shift and then either another long stretch or cluster feeding in the early morning hours.

It's kind of hard to judge how each night will go and it makes it kind of hard to plan out how much of a nap I need on any given day. But, I feel like we're slowly making progress towards better and longer sleep patterns.

Xstatic3333 · March 2017

I've been pretty lucky so far. I'm getting 3-5 hour stretches at night, and he goes back down easily after a feed. He has a lot of awake time during the day though, so little to no napping. He is, however, sleeping in his RNP, which I don't love. Our bassinet did not work well for us, but he has napped in his crib during the daytime each of the last two days. I want to try moving it into our room this weekend and see if we can make an early transition.

Do you guys change diapers first during MOTN feeds or nurse first? I've been changing first so I can put him right down if he drifts off at the boob, but half the time he just poops in it again anyway.

chef'swife · March 2017

@Xstatic3333 We change diaper first then nurse.

Gretchypoo · March 2017

@Xstatic3333 change then nurse.

How do you get a nb on a schedule? She is gaining well so I don't have to wake her to feed but she wakes every 1.5-3 hrs. We are cosleeping so that helps me rest and she just grazes at night and wakes me up to switch sides.

poofwok · March 2017

@Xstatic3333 nurse, change, nurse.

she always wakes up crying quite loudly and because I don't wanna wake DS up, I gotta calm her down by nursing her for a bit first!

kswiger06 · March 2017

@MrsLittleMac that sounds like heaven right now!! Your schedule sounds amazing, I know eventually we will get more sleep, but it's rough right now.

@Xstatic3333 I feed, burp and diaper change, feed again. If I try changing his diaper first, he wakes everyone up. And he eats the majority the first time, then just a little nibble the second time to drift back off to sleep.

MommaBean · March 2017

I've adopted nurse, charge, nurse to get him to eat both sides and hopefully sleep longer. I used to change then nurse but he'd fall soundly asleep after one side and want more an hour later...

birdiejo · March 2017

@gretchypoo newborn on a schedule is a myth I'm pretty sure.

Partyof6? · March 2017

Our nights are unpredictable too, but it seems like he's sleeping in longer stretches now. We are getting up twice usually. He is primarily sleeping only on me, which wasn't really our plan, but we are more of a roll with whatever works kind of family. We don't schedule our newborns, but they do usually fall into a pattern.

He has not pooped much at night, so we don't always change but I am trying to do feed, change, feed to get in a better routine.

jlellis603 · March 2017

I fully anticipate not getting any sleep tonight. Wyatt has been fussing for hours, which isntike him really. We can't seem to figure out why he's crying and he won't let us put him down for more than 5 mins, which is also not like him. I'm scared of bedtime right now....haha

kswiger06 · March 2017

@Partyof6? When you say he is sleeping on you, what kind of position are you in? Are you laying back on the bed, or reclined back in a chair? I've taken a few naps holding my little man in a reclined chair, but I'm nervous about laying flat on my back with him. I briefly fell asleep laying back burping him one night, (roughly 5 minutes) and it scared me since his head was up towards my shoulders and my boobs were holding his body up, like he was angled with his head lower than his body. I am just curious how you do it because sometimes he will sleep better if he's being held, but I want to sleep too lol

varimama · March 2017

What is sleep? Unfortunately when you are told at the hospital that your baby is the most cuddly one in the nursery it's not actually a compliment it means he doesn't sleep if he's not being held. So DH and I have been taking shifts of holding the baby.

Tonight seems to be the first night of what I think is cluster feeding. He screams if he's not at my boob but when he is he falls asleep while latched on and milk drains everywhere. If I try to move him he wakes up and roots or cries until I put him back on.

Partyof6? · March 2017

kswiger06 said:

@Partyof6? When you say he is sleeping on you, what kind of position are you in? Are you laying back on the bed, or reclined back in a chair? I've taken a few naps holding my little man in a reclined chair, but I'm nervous about laying flat on my back with him. I briefly fell asleep laying back burping him one night, (roughly 5 minutes) and it scared me since his head was up towards my shoulders and my boobs were holding his body up, like he was angled with his head lower than his body. I am just curious how you do it because sometimes he will sleep better if he's being held, but I want to sleep too lol

SITB but he likes to cuddle up in the middle of my chest with his legs kind of froggied. I have fallen asleep like that multiple nights just leaning back on the headboard. It is not the most comfortable, but it has worked.

sadiec92 · March 2017

LO is finally giving me longer stretches at night sometimes, which is a good thing, because I have the hardest time napping during the day, even if I had a hard time staying awake an hour earlier. Even if she weren't as fussy during the daytime as she has been lately, I still probably wouldn't be able to fall asleep for a daytime nap.

die_frau · March 2017

marriedhamstermom said:

What is sleep? Unfortunately when you are told at the hospital that your baby is the most cuddly one in the nursery it's not actually a compliment it means he doesn't sleep if he's not being held. So DH and I have been taking shifts of holding the baby.

Tonight seems to be the first night of what I think is cluster feeding. He screams if he's not at my boob but when he is he falls asleep while latched on and milk drains everywhere. If I try to move him he wakes up and roots or cries until I put him back on.

Have you tried a pacifier? Our midwife said we could introduce one when our LO is being fussy like this -- it's a HUGE help because I've found he's not actually hungry, he just wants the soothing. I haven't experienced nipple confusion by doing the pacifier (we also use it sparingly). I know some people don't like to introduce pacifiers early on, but if this keeps up it may be worth considering for your own sanity...

MommaBean · March 2017

I question whether nipple confusion is really a thing. We're all threatened with it re: pacifiers but has anyone actually experienced it??

poetryandoceans · March 2017

My BFing counsellor said she thought it was over hyped when it comes to pacifiers. Bottles, sure, but that has more to do with how much work it takes to get the milk out. For pacifiers, she said 'he's not getting milk out of that, trust me, he can tell the difference'

FerForShort · March 2017

I hestitate to type this out for fear of it going away, but we've ended up with a good sleeper. Granted she will be 8 weeks on Friday so she's a bit older than a lot of the babies here. She goes down around 8:30-9 at night in her crib and wakes up around 2-3 to eat and then is up for the day around 5:30. We have had one night where she made it from 9-5 and that was amazing. We still have nights where she gets up around midnight and then at 4ish.

During the day I normally get two good long naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon along with a handful of catnaps. Some days though it seems like she is up all day and other days it feels like she sleeps all day.

kswiger06 · March 2017

The pediatrician told us today that most babies start getting their nights on track and sleeping 4-5 up to 6 hour stretches around 2 months... I'm halfway there

varimama · March 2017

die frau said:

marriedhamstermom said:

What is sleep? Unfortunately when you are told at the hospital that your baby is the most cuddly one in the nursery it's not actually a compliment it means he doesn't sleep if he's not being held. So DH and I have been taking shifts of holding the baby.

Tonight seems to be the first night of what I think is cluster feeding. He screams if he's not at my boob but when he is he falls asleep while latched on and milk drains everywhere. If I try to move him he wakes up and roots or cries until I put him back on.

Have you tried a pacifier? Our midwife said we could introduce one when our LO is being fussy like this -- it's a HUGE help because I've found he's not actually hungry, he just wants the soothing. I haven't experienced nipple confusion by doing the pacifier (we also use it sparingly). I know some people don't like to introduce pacifiers early on, but if this keeps up it may be worth considering for your own sanity...

yea we did try a pacifier. It will help for a bit but he'll spit it out after a minute and scream again. Starting last night he's refused to take the pacifier as I think he's realized my boob is a way better pacifier bc it can also produce milk.

I personally feel like a pacifier doesn't really cause nipple confusion. I mean babies know if they are getting milk or not. With bottles I can see it bc before my milk came in Ridley preferred bottles bc my boobs were too much work for him.

AliJorgensen29 · March 2017

How I am currently feeling....Weston isn't doing well with a nipple shield, so he's not gaining enough weight. I finally got in with a lactation consultant and it went great. He ate 2 oz in 10 mins and we were able to eliminate the shield. I was told his cluster feeding was really from him not getting enough to eat. So, he should be nursing every 2-3 hours now instead of every hour! I'm glad I got in and we fixed the issue.

Ds1 and ds2 both had strep too, on top of the cluster feeding. Its been fun ever since we got home from the hospital

madamerwin · March 2017

Teddy seems to be figuring out his nights and days. Three nights ago, he slept for almost 5 hours straight (I had to wake him up to feed!), then another almost 3 hour stretch. The next night, he slept for 4.5 hours, then another 3 hour stretch. Last night he had one 4 hour stretch and a couple of 3 hour stretches. And he usually falls back asleep pretty easily after about 20-30 minutes on the boob. I've gotten at least 6 hours of sleep the last three nights, which feels luxurious.

I also feed, change, feed at night - he almost always poops while eating, so I feed him until he poops and starts to fall asleep, H changes him, then I feed him from the other side until he drifts off again. Then he goes into the RNP by the bed. (Also not a fan of him sleeping in the RNP, but he hates sleeping flat on his back, and I don't have the energy to deal with that right now. Hopefully we can transfer him to the pack and play soon.)

Before a few nights ago, he was only sleeping 2 hours at a time at night, tops. But then all of a sudden he started staying up during the day more and sleeping longer at night. So for those of you still struggling with night sleep, just know that it can change in a very short period!

varimama · March 2017

I got Ridley to sleep for 2 2 hr stretches last night. Unfortunately my back is killing me bc I slept on the floor sin his room. I current nurse in his bedroom and have an awesome setup there. He fell asleep after our midnight session and I tried to put him in the pack n play in our room and he woke up almost instantly screaming. So I got him calmed down and took him to his room and laid him in his crib so I could run to the bathroom and we wouldn't wake DH.

Well I got back from the bathroom and he was fast asleep so I got a sleeping bag and pillow and slept on the floor next to his crib. I decided to let DH sleep through his shift after his next feed and sure enough he went right to sleep in his crib and I took the floor again. Now I ache everywhere and need to figure out why he likes his crib so much more than the pack n play.

kswiger06 · March 2017

@marriedhamstermom that's good he slept in his crib, but a bummer he doesn't like the pack n play. Your poor back!! I have discovered a similar situation here. Austin will sleep in his cradle in our bedroom. But there has been a few nights now, that I decided to just sleep with him downstairs, (last night was one) so I pull his pack n play into the living room and I sleep on the couch. Last night, he woke up every 1.5 to 2 hours, but for us that is bad. He would fall asleep instantly when I picked him up, and immediately fuss when I laid him in there. Then stir easily and wake up more often. The quickest I got him to sleep and the longest was when I swaddled his arms down completely and he couldn't swing them all over the place. Maybe our babes just don't like the pack n play, but I started wondering if it was that my LO didn't like the thin padding. Like it was too hard for him. I hope your back quits hurting, and if you discover a secret to get him to sleep good in there, pass the info to me and I'll do the same if I sleep down here again and get it to work.

Gretchypoo · March 2017

@marriedhamstermom my lo likes her crib better than her pack n play too! So she takes her naps in there. Can you move the crib in your bedroom?

mrslittlemac · March 2017

Maggie also hates the pack and play for anything but diaper changes, lol. She's fine in her crib thankfully!

Spicyweiner · March 2017

You guys can buy mattresses for the PnP. The thin boards are probably uncomfortable for your LOs

catmommac · March 2017

Henry won't sleep in the pack n play in our room either! It's super frustrating. I've also thought it was because it was uncomfortable. I've considered a mattress for it, but am on the fence with it. Has anyone bought one?

kswiger06 · March 2017

Spicyweiner said:

You guys can buy mattresses for the PnP. The thin boards are probably uncomfortable for your LOs

Thanks for this information!! I didn't know we could buy a separate mattress

Gretchypoo · March 2017

Spicyweiner said

You guys can buy mattresses for the PnP. The thin boards are probably uncomfortable for your LOs

My LO used to be fine sleeping in her PnP-- not sure why she has suddenly decided she doesn't like it. But I've looked at the mattresses too.

varimama · March 2017

I thought the mattress for the pack n play was unsafe? That's what the pack n play manual says. Is that not true? I was going to buy one originally but then read that so i didn't.

Unfortunately the crib is too big to move into our room. I don't think we'd get it down the hall.

lfrank12 · March 2017

@marriedhamstermom Yes I've also read a different mattress is technically unsafe since it was not sold with the PnP and therefore doesn't go through the same safety standards.

Some people online suggested putting a heating pad on the PnP mattress for a few minutes before you put them down so it's warm for them and not such a shock. I also put a soft jersey PnP sheet over the mattress which is a nicer texture than the mattress itself.

Spicyweiner · March 2017

marriedhamstermom said:

I thought the mattress for the pack n play was unsafe? That's what the pack n play manual says. Is that not true? I was going to buy one originally but then read that so i didn't.

Unfortunately the crib is too big to move into our room. I don't think we'd get it down the hall.

If the maunual says not to, then I guess don't.
I never read it.
We used a mattress but my kid was already a toddler

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