Please help 9 day already in an to cycle :-(

[frankiesmum]

My baby girl is 9 days old and slept really well and continuously for the first 6 days, then hit day 7 and she has been a different baby. My worst nightmare, she is my 3rd baby my Dds is 4 and dd is 2, was so worried about having to spend al my time on her sleep and it's happening albeit a lot earlier than I thought it would. I'm not doing anything differently I don't understand it. At 7 days old she was awake from 9am til 4.30pm, yesterday not great and today she has been awake since 10.15am, maybe had a 10 minute nap here and there, what do I do I can't stop crying over it xxxxx

[Chicane]

Breathe deep. This happened to us too. I think it can be partly developmental - they wake up a bit and its a bit of a shock being in the world. Check all the obvious things - hunger, pain, over stimulation would be the first things to double check. You may not be doing anything differently but your baby will certainly be different from the first two so take that into consideration - she's a new being with a whole new set of characteristics. You are also having some pretty huge hormonal surges yourself and still recovering from birthing so no wonder you are feeling raw and worried and probably exhausted as you are a mum to 2 others with needs too.

Now is the time to ask for help from family and friends - you need someone to come over and take her off your hands (even if its just in the living room) for an hour so you can get some sleep and someone else to come and take the other kids out. Pick up the phone now. Right now, pick it up, dial and ask. You can't do this all on your own and the first rule of motherhood is "ask for help"

sending you much love and vibes to get the support you need. Your baby will get past this stage and it will all change. I can certainly promise you that.

xoxo

[Spandanna]

Hi frankiesmum,

First of all massive hugs. It's not easy having two children of 4 and 3 let alone throwing a newborn into the mix. I guess no3 has just made it through those sleepy early days and is starting to get a bit more aware of her world around her but at 9 days I say just do what you can to get her to sleep...have you tried a sling? I had an 18 month old and a reluxer for a no2 and she spent most of the first 4 months being walked around in the sling! Where does she sleep in the daytime? How are her nights? How are you feeding her? Do you have much help?

[frankiesmum]

Thank you so much for replying, you have both made me feel a littl more sane! My mum had dd today and took her for a nice day out. Dh and Ds both unwell so have stayed home together whilst I visited my nan. Dd2 didn't even go to sleep in car there or back which is a good 30 minutes one way. She sleeps in her Moses downstairs, is this best or not? She seems to like the noise from the other 2. Nights not too horrific, by time she settles for the night finally she will do a 4 hour stretch then a 3 hour but still very little sleep I think for her age. She seems very very windy and uncomfortable a lot, I am breastfeeding and she can happily go 3 hours between feeds, when she's had decent sleep otherwise she just wants the boob allday. When she has had enough sleep shes an absolute poppet xx

[frankiesmum]

Spandanna can you recommend a particular sling?x

[Papaya]

Adding in my congratulations on your LO Glad others were able to look after DD1 and DS today so you could get out to visit your Nan.

She sleeps in her Moses downstairs, is this best or not? She seems to like the noise from the other 2.

I think current SIDS recommendations are to have LO have their naps in the same room as you for the first few months, so this is great. And probably best if she gets used to a bit of noise from the other two! But I would definitely invest in a comfy sling if you can, it's a great way to comfort a LO, help them sleep and still get on with the other things you need to do.

Definitely agree with Chicane about getting as much help as you can! And don't worry about sleep training or anything like that for a few weeks yet. Plenty of time for that. For these first few weeks, just enjoy getting to know this new little person

She seems very very windy and uncomfortable a lot,

Poor wee thing. How is the feeding going? Could it be that she's getting quite a forceful letdown, particularly as your supply is still regulating? In the first few weeks I would sometimes hand express just a very little to take the edge off the letdown otherwise I found my LO had to gulp a lot at the start and would take in more air.

Loads of hugs, xx

[Spandanna]

Great that you've managed to have some time with just DD2. How have things been the last couple of days?

We started with a babybjorn one that was borrowed for first couple of weeks but then had the ERGO baby carrier recommended. You would need to get the newborn insert too but it is amazing. It's like they're bear-hugging you and then as they get older you can adjust it to hold the child sitting on your hip or in piggy back position on your back so pretty versatile. Highly recommend it. We had DD in moses downstairs until about 9/10 weeks for naps. sometimes in bouncy chair.

What worked for us was the radio set to white noise next to the moses or sometimes if she was clearly tired but fighting sleep we'd turn light off in bathroom, put extractor fan on for the white noise and put her in bouncer in there and although she would cry a little for 5-20 mins she would expend that last bit of energy then conk out for a couple of hours!!

[frankiesmum]

Things have gone from bad to worse. She will not sleep in day now for more than 10 minutes at a time, falls asleep so many times but wakes up straight away and doesn't go to bed untill 11pm, a very very trying time indeed, feel like giving up and letting her stay awake :-(
Xx

[Papaya]

Does she seem to be suffering from any discomfort when she wakes? Does she sleep better in an upright position?

xx