My newborn is completely sleep deprived - Help!

[Tuty]

DS just turned 3 weeks old and the whole sleep situation is getting worse (he hasn't slept much in the past week). Last night he slept from 12AM to 4:30 and than from 6:40 to 8:40. Today he slept for 2 (non consecutive) hours the whole day and he ain't sleeping yet.. (10PM)

After every feeding (day or night) it takes about an hour to help him fall asleep, only for him to wake up a short while later. Yesterday pat/sh worked twice, today it stopped working. Since he's so sleep deprived we no longer try to put him to bed calm but awake but let him sleep on our laps and put him in bed about 10-20 minutes into deep sleep only for him to wake up 5 minutes later. I tried laying next to him but he just gets fussy and wouldn't fall asleep (maybe I should leave him on my laps just until he regains is missing sleeping time). I feel like the more sleep deprived he is the harder it gets to help him sleep, but I have no idea what to do.

He is constipated, didn't have a BM in the past 3 days (breastfed). But it doesn't seem to bother him all the time, not when he's on our laps anyways and we started laying him on his side as he doesn't seem comfortable on his back.

Could anyone share tips about helping a baby fall asleep and keeping him asleep or any other suggestions to help my poor baby.

Now I'm really learning to appreciate my angel daughter who until the age of 2 months would only eat and sleep with no help from us.

Thanks,
Tuty

[yaya]

OMG, I even find it hard to reply to these posts as I remember all too well how hard it all us HUGS
HAve you had LO checked out by the pead? Have you ruled out ear infection/reflux or some other medical situation? I say this as it can often lead to what you are describing.
If you have, then do WHATEVER to get >LO to sleep regardless of AP....DD is still so young and you can fix all the AO later. HAve you got a swining/vibrating chair/ baby bjorn carrier?

[yaya]

Forgot to ask: are you swaddling?

[Tuty]

Things have gotten slightly better, but far from being perfect..

My baby has developed his own schedule (and I can't do much about it):
WU: sometime between 9AM to 11AM
No matter what I do I can't get him to sleep much until 4/5PM. He is overtired. If I lay him in bed calm but awake with the paci and white noise, he'd usually fuss after 10 mins. On us either he wouldn't fall asleep or wake up as soon as we put him down. He doesn't like the car seat. I started taking him on walks in the stroller so that he can get some light sleep as long as I keep walking.

S:4/5PM - 9PM (I never wake him up anymore when he's finally sleeping)
EAE:9PM - 1AM (Can't get him to fall asleep any way I try).
S: 1AM-5AM (I started feeding him with EBM at night so that he goes back to sleep quickly)
S: 5:30AM/6:30 - 9:00/11:00. (falls asleep faster after bottle feeding).

I know it's an awful schedule, but I have no idea what else to do. I never wake him up anymore.

When he's awake on us he usually doesn't fall asleep nor fusses so I try to put him in bed, but a few minutes later he begins to fuss. Sometimes calming him in bed helps him fall asleep but not during the day.

Because of this lack of sleep on his side, I'm also getting some mixed signals from him, for example after an hour of morning feeding and not being able to fall asleep he's looking for the breast again and I'm not sure if he's trying to calm himself or hungry again, and I don't know if I should begin supplementing. Today I BF him from 9:00 to 10:00 and then at 10:30 gave him 5oz of EBM which he drank, but later spit out a lot.

Any tips on how to decrease these 6+ hours of wakefulness during the day?

BTW, he is swaddled.

[Tuty]

BTW, he's very alert and hardly falls asleep on the breast/bottle.

[Ajay]

Tuty,
I could have written your post about 6 weeks ago.

Euan would sleep great when it was dark outside, but could I get him to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time when it was light?  No chance at all.  DH and I used to joke that Euan didn't sleep during office hours!
It was one week at our new mother's group in the health centre that I got him weighed and found out that he had only put on 60g in one week (HV was looking for at least 125g) 
I was advised to top up each breast feed with some formula (about 60ml per feed) and try to express whilst he was sleeping to 1. increase my supply and 2. to have a stock of EBM to use as top ups also.  I also got a prescription for domperidone as HV was concerned about my supply and recommended we gave it a boost.

So far so good, he now sleeps like a champ (both day and night) and is putting on a stack of weight.
Is it possible he is still hungry?  Can you offer the other side (poss again)?  Have you had him weighed since he was born?  How is his weight gain?

HTH.

[yaya]

well some routine is better than none hey? Chin up, it WILL get better.
I would let yourself relax into this new routine for a few days and recuparate some energy then work on shifting that routine as he seems to have days and nights mixed up a tad (BTW there is a thread on 'how I fixed day-night switch' will try tto find it for you).

So what do you actually do when you 'try' to get him to sleep?
Have you read 'the happiest baby on the block'? It saved my life

[Tuty]

I read the happiest baby on the block with my first baby, now I viewed the DVD for refreshment..
I'm using the 5 S's but after about 10 minutes he gets uncomfortable. I learned that it's generally easier to calm him in his bassinet/carriage. Lately what works best is swaddle, white noise, sometimes the paci but usually rocking him in the carriage for a few minutes. Sometime he'd sleep for several hours and other times would wake up a few minutes after I stop rocking him. At night he's generally sleepier with the EBM.

Ayay, I don't think he's hungry, I suspect he might be suffering from acid reflux as he started spitting up noticable amounts quite a lot and whimpering during feedings.

[Jojo'smom]

My ds has reflux, and he slept in his bouncy set, swaddled, for the first three and a half months. It was the only position that he could sleep in. You might try it. Another thing that has helped naps is darkening the room (I put aluminum foil on the windows).

[yaya]

Do you have  a swing/vibrating chair? This was a life saviour for us....
If you suspect reflux spk to your pead and in the meantime read the reflux 101 on the colic reflux and crying board...here is the link

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=654.0