Lo 4 week old who does not awake periods of 5 hours!

[chantal_talia]

Hello,
My LO is 4 weeks old and ever since her 2nd week of life she just various periods of awake time which sometimes go as long as 5 hours in a row. During this time my husband and I will be able to get her to sleep for maybe little naps of 15-20 minutes but no longer. Before we were always trying to use the pat shh technique in her bed to put her down so as not to create bad sleep habits but out of fear that she may get overtired after hours we would resort to whatever would make her sleep. I have noticed that after these periods she does some periods of great sleep it just seems the key is to be able to break the cycle of her awakeness. Sometimes I manage to get her to do a 1.5 hour nap in my arms and then she starts sleeping okay again but this does not always work. I have tried car rides which did not work and yesterday even the scarf (baby carrier) was not working. This is by the way our second child so free time is not exactly easy to come by! I have eliminated any baby things in the house that might be overstimulating her and we have tried to keep her calm during her awake periods. She is feeding every three hours and wakes up about every three hours in the night to drink (even with the cluster feeds) and after feed and change (45 mins) she can take up to 45 minutes to put back down in the middle of the night.

All in all she is not a great sleeper all around but I realize she is still young. What worries me the most is these long periods of awakeness because as you can imagine she does not feed well when she is overtired!

All suggestions are very much welcome!

[stagemanager2]

What does your easy look like?  I know when my dd was like this a couple of months ago she was completely fussy and uncomfortable.  We found that it was gas.  A swing helped my sister with her little one as he was VEEERRRRRY hard to put down, but it will become a prop, but really at this age all you are looking for is a way to get them to sleep.

[aidenmc]

we've had some similar days with Samuel who is 7 weeks. for instance, we could not get him to stay asleep all morning the other day. However, when he finally went to sleep in early afternoon, he basically slept the rest of the day and into bedtime, only waking for feeds and back down within 1/2 hr to an hour. The only thing that is virtually guaranteed to get him to sleep is the Moby wrap while going for a walk and patting his bum - i cover his head with a light blanket to keep the sun and sights out. We use it for 1-2 naps a day right now, just for sanity's sake, but I am afraid it will become his only way to fall asleep. I don't know if it is just because they are still so young that they do this or because OT creeps in and it cannot be broken immediately. I also find with my lo that during these times things like stroller, carseat etc. do not work. He just loves looking around and becomes overstimulated I think (his eyes get really huge in the car as he looks out the window  ). 

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

(((Hugs))).  It can be so tough at this young age.  It's ok to use whatever works to get them to sleep at this age, because as you said it can be hard to get them to feed and to sleep more when they're so OT. 

I agree that a swing is a lifesaver.  Also, do you have any baby carriers?  My son loved to sleep in the wrap when he was tiny.  I would wear him and bounce on an exercise ball and that basically always worked!  Also, some babies love being pushed in the stroller.

Let us know how you get on.