6 week old wakes after 45 min for all sleep

[gmbsmom]

My LO is 6 wks old. We have used EASY since wk 1. He use to take 2 hour naps and sleep 5 hours at night before needing a feed until 2 wks ago. He now takes 45 min naps and only sleeps a few hours at a time at night. After a complete burn out my mom came to the rescue for a few days and we did come to the conclusion that he needed more food at night. He gets a tblsp of rice cereal and about 5-6 oz of breastmilk. He is doing better at night but still occassionally wakes after 1 hour and needs to be resettled. He also does this after I bf him at 3 or 4 am & sometimes does this every hour until awake time at 7am. This is completely exhausting & I barely have time to eat, get a shower, etc. Gavin is mostly a textbook baby and I just want that back & I'm not sure how to get there. I have to admit we had to losely follow EASY for a few days and some AP was done just to get some sleep. I now need to get him back on track. I had tried W2s with little success. I'm not really sure how to tell when to start timing for the 25 min mark though. I have also seen were some people have given an extra small feed right before winding down for a few weeks to get extra calories in, but does this teach them to associate bf with going to sleep? I have also seen a lactation consultant to make sure he was gaining wt appropriately. He has actually gained a few more oz than what is expected. He seems to require quite a bit of intake though. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Our day goes as follows:

E6:30-7am:wake and bf
A7:30
S8-10 45 min nap with 20-45 min to resettle if he will
E10
A10:30
S11-1 same pattern as previous nap
E 1
A1:30
S2-4 same nap pattern
E4pm
A4:30
S5-5:45
E6pm-1st cluster feed
A6:30 bedtime routine
S7-7:45
E7;45- 2nd cluster feed
S8-8:15 wakes after 45 min -1hr, resettle & wakes again after 45min and is then awake for DF
E10 or 10:30
S10:30-sometime between 2:30&4:30, but usually wakes & has to be resettled after 45min-1hr


 

[deckchariot]

There is a big growth spurt at 6 weeks, so he could be waking early because he's hungry.  How long have the 45 min naps been going on?  I would discourage you from mixing in the rice cereal with the bm - his digestive system is not developed enough to digest that, and it really will not help him sleep longer.   Please check out this helpful link:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=68751.0

At 6 weeks, he's really young to have the whole sleeping issue sorted out - my guess is that he initially slept so well just because he was a newborn and the whole birth experience is exhausting for them.  Now, he's becoming more aware of things, yet still doesn't have control of his body, so the jolting between sleep cycles wakes him up.  Is he swaddled?  Are you using pat/shh to help get him to sleep?  That can also help when he wakes during a nap.

Often 45 min indicates an undertired bub, but in your case, I don't think he is.  In fact, since his naps are so short, I'm guessing he actually gets overtired as the day goes on, and while he can fall asleep, he doesn't sleep well because he's too tired, so when his body jolts between sleep cycles, it wakes him up.  I would suggest shortening his A times if he has a short nap.  You may want to even shorten the first one of the day.  At 6 weeks, an hour is really the max of A time that I'd do, and often times, the first A time of the day is the shortest one.  Here's another helpful link:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=128419.0

hth
michelle

[~ Vik ~]

Hi there! Just wanted to pass on some *hugs* for you while you're going through this rough time. I'm not an expert (I'm sure one of the wonderful moderators will be along to help you shortly ) but a couple things jumped out at me in your post.
First, that your lo is only 6 weeks old and you're already giving him rice cereal? Have you discussed that with your doctor? Keep in mind that current recommendation is that breastmilk/formula be their only source of nutrition for the first 6 months. This is because babies have an "open" gut which allows mother's antibodies into the lo's bloodstreamwhen bfing. However, it also allows other proteins through as well, which can lead to allergies and intolerences. Also, rice cereal can cause gas in lo's of any age (I'm currently battling that with my ds!) which could be contributing to the wakings.
Also, looking at your easy, could your lo be overtired? When he has a short nap at the beginning do you adjust his a and s times that follow? OT can be a vicious cycle and that could be leading to his short naps and early evening wakings.
I don't know if any of that helped! I know you'll get great advice here though Good luck!!

[gmbsmom]

I am swaddling and using shh-pat. I do also adjust the next A time if I cant get him back to sleep when he wakes after 45 min. He still wakes after 45 min into his next nap. It seems that now matter what I do he still wakes. This has been going on for 2 weeks now.

[becky1969]

I totally agree with PP -- LO looks is probably way OT b/c A time is too long.  Looks like you're giving around 1h30?  Should be more like 1h15 or so at this age.  15 minutes is an ETERNITY when they are this young -- for perspective, you're giving him the A time of a 4 month old.  Way too much for bub! Also, when you do nap extention techniques, if LO doesn't fall asleep your A time started from the moment they first opened eyes.  So, if you did 45 min of nap extention you are now 45 minutes into A time! That only gives you 30 minutes to feed, diaper, and put LO down again! Plus, with short nap they can probably only handle an hour, so you've got 15 minutes to do all that! Not much time, and clearly part of what is causing all the problems.

Also cereals are often made from foods that can be allergenic, and LO is not old enough to digest them properly.  Even my 6 month old had tons of sleep disruptions when we tried rice and oat cereals.  I'd adjust routine and put the solids aside.  Guessing a mama or MIL told you to do that.    That's what they alllll used to do.  Heck, my MIL had my DH eating eggs at 6 weeks old.    And guess what? He was up all night crying! Gee, I wonder why! 

Anyway, from moment LO opens eyes is when A time starts so make sure THAT'S when you calculate A time, not after a feed or something -- from moment eyes open until they close should be no more than 1h15.  That should just barely give you time to get them up change nappy, fed, burped, and then wind down for sleep again.  You should feel like all you do is feed and put LO down for sleep at this age; and that pattern should last until close to 12 weeks.


1h15!

[gmbsmom]

Thanks for the reply Becky. Gavin only gets 1 hour of A time. He wakes between 6:30 and 7 and we adjust our day accordingly..if he gets up at 6:30 I try to have him asleep by 7:30. At what point do you just give in? He was awake for 3 hours straight last night! Which in turn led to a restless night. It took my husband 2 hours to put him to sleep and get him to stay asleep! I shh-patted for an hour this morning to only get 20 min of sleep. Also he frequently starts to fall asleep and then becomes wide awake and we have to start all over. When that occurs do you start timing for the 1st or 2nd time he began to fall asleep?

[gmbsmom]

I dont think I was clear in my last post. When I am asking about when to start timing I am refering to when to go in to do the W2. Also if it takes me 30 min to get him resettled during nap time but he goes back to sleep, do I only allow him 30 min of A time the next time? Currently when that occurs I only allow him a max of 45 min A time the next time. I dont think I could get him fed, changed and to sleep in any less time than that without cutting his feeding short.

[becky1969]

Oops!  misunderstood! 

[gmbsmom]

Hey Becky...I didnt really get an answer to a few of my questions. When do you start timing to go in to do the W2 and what if they come awake say at 10 min in and you have to resettle-at what point would u start timing then? Also would it benefit to give a small feed again for a week or so right before going to sleep to get more calories in during the day to help with night time wakes or would this make them associate bfing with going to sleep? Thank you!

[deckchariot]

When I did w2s, I started timing it from when she was asleep - I'd be shhh/patting til she was asleep, and then knew it would take about 20 min for her to get into deep sleep, so I'd wait 20 min, go in, tug on her swaddle or scooch her a bit in the bed.  W2s can be a bit tricky, so what I'd suggest is going in at maybe 15 min and just watching what happens as he wakes up - and what time he starts doing what - that can help you learn the signs of his waking and intervene before he wakes up totally.

If you cannot extend his nap (and I'd only try for 20-30 min), then I'd get him up, if he's hungry, feed him right away (if he's crying while you're extending the nap, he may very well be hungry earlier than 3 hrs), and only give 30 min of A time after the feed, max before you put him back down again.  If you can extend the nap, let him sleep - I wouldn't let him sleep past the 3 hr feed mark - at this age, he's still so very young and your milk supply is still being established.

In terms of a small feed before bed - isn't that what you're doing with your 2nd cluster feed?  I bf my dd before bedtime from birth til a year when she weaned that feed.  As long as you're putting him in the crib somewhat awake, it's fine.  If you find he always falls asleep during that feed, then after the feed, change his diaper, swaddle him, and do your regular wind down routine - that will wake him enough so that he doesn't associate the feeding with the sleeping - you just want some space between the two.  BFing is very relaxing for bubs, and bm actually has a hormone that makes them sleepy, so it's pretty common for bubs to fall asleep while bfing - so when my dd was really little, after feeding, I'd change her diaper, put her in her sleep sack (or swaddle), we'd pray, sing, and into bed (our regular wind down), and that would usually stir her enough to be awake when she went into bed.

Have you decided to continue or not with the rice cereal?

hth
michelle

[gmbsmom]

Thanks for the help Michelle! I tried W2s @ 30min, 27min, and 25min. So far I am 0 for 3 and he's winning.I might try 23 min when he goes down for the night @7:30 since this is also occuring at nighttime. I dont think I will cont w/the rice cereal afer reading the links u sent me. It was a suggestion from my mom who was told by her md to do that for all 4 of her kids. He only had it twice and it seems to make him have more gas, which is also a factor of some early wakings. I'll keep trying with the diff times and see what works for him. Thanks!

[deckchariot]

I had the same issue with w2s - I found I got it right about 50% of the time, but that was enough to help her learn to get over the transition hump, so hang in there!  I'm glad you've stopped with the cereal - it definitely will make him more gassy.  Have you been able to shorten his A times after short naps?  I think that will also help.  For us, between 6-8 weeks was the absolute worst in terms of sleeping, and then she got loads better after that, and is still a champion sleeper.  So there is hope.  You can make it!

[gmbsmom]

So I had to take my LO to the pediatrician yesterday & after a very thorough exam the md came to the conclusion that he has colic. We are trying some drops he prescribed at bedtime to help settle his tummy. Hopefully this will help. In the meantime we just have to ride it out for the next 2 1/2 months. I guess I will also have to keep tweaking the time on the w2s. It has not worked at all so far. Thanks for all the help!

[deckchariot]

{{{{{hugs}}}}} on the colic!  That's no fun.  I hope the drops work. 

[gmbsmom]

I have noticed that most times my LO is looking to suckle when partially awakening and if I'm in there watching and can get the paci in he goes back to sleep. Sometimes he gets a hand barely out enough to suck and and soothe himself. Is he too young to experiment with leaving one hand out of the swaddle? Also I was reading a thread on typical A times and when to increase. He is almost 7 weeks old now and it was saying that the next stage at 2 months that A time should be 1hr 15min-1hr 20 min. How do I know when to start increasing since the 45min naps have been going on for a few weeks? Also at what incriments should I increase them? currently his A time is from 40min-1hr. I am having no luck with w2s and i even tried being in his room at the 45 min mark and shh-patting before he could get completely awake & he still woke up completely! I am at my wits end between always waking 45 min after being put to sleep and colic. I am finding myself resorting to AP more and more often since he is still not capable of independent sleep and I feel like I'm losing my mind