Will not go back to sleep at night - 4 week old

[silvija]

Hi everyone,
My lo doesn't seem to get the difference between night and day - she wakes up for a feed around 1-2am...then stays awake and will not go back to sleep. It's taking ages for her to finally fall back asleep - tonight over two hours and counting.
I'm trying to follow a loose Easy - eat/awake for about an hour (breastfed) and then a nap for about 1.5 hours (if I'm lucky), but trying to keep her awake for the feed/a time is hard, sometimes it works sometimes not.
This is what her day looked like yesterday:
E 8am - 830
A 830 - 9
S took forever to settle, finally asleep 945
Woke up at 1030
E 1030 - 11
A 11 - 1130
S 12
Woke at 2
E 230-3
A none (must be pooped)
S 3-5
I woke her at 5
E 5-540
A none (fell right back to sleep, so I ate dinner)
S 540-615
Woke her at 615, fought to keep her awake
Bath 7
E 730-8
Fell sleep right away
S 8-10
Dream feed 10-1020 (kept falling asleep)
Woke at 115
E 115-140, poop, diaper change, awake until 3 am

This happens on a daily basis, and it's driving me crazy

Any tips on how I could fix this staying awake in the middle of the night would be greatly appreciated!

[Haribo2012]

Hi, those long nights are so tough...hugs.
Is your LO getting plenty of natural daylight, lots of fresh air or walking with the pram for naps helped quite a bit establishing daytime?
How is she in the night, is she alert and content or crying and unsettled?

It will get better honestly, those first few months are just tough x

[silvija]

Daylight is not an issue, I keep it bright in whatever room she's in during the day (including naps), and I have a loud two year old making sure she knows it's daytime!
We go for daily walks - for over an hour to occupy my toddler - but she falls asleep in the stroller, so I time it with nap time so that she's not getting extra sleep during the day.
Last night wasn't as bad - she was up a couple of times in obvious discomfort. Those nights aren't my issue. It's the other ones, where she's wide awake and content to just be - those I need to fix.
Do I just keep on working on keeping her awake during the day?? It's so tough when she doesn't sleep well at night!

[nevinsmama]

You must be exhausted! It WILL get better. For naps, can you lock out most, if not all, the light set up some LOUD white noise (a fan or 2 turned to the wall, download white noise APP or something) ? Is she swaddled? If she is not crying in the night during these NWs I would try to just let her be and hope she will go back off but I know it is maddening and exhausting! Are you sleeping in the room with her? If not, can you adjust things ( sensitivity of monitor or doors open or shut) so you only hear her when she NEEDS you so you can get a bit more rest? Hang in there!

[*Ali*]

Yes I think she has her days and nights confused. Looks like she is wanting to start her night at noon more or less and doesn't want any A time after that until 1am-ish when she wants to start her day. She's probably getting OT as some of her morning A times were quite long even after a short 45min nap.

I'd work on keeping her awake for A times during the day and keeping things very low key at night. As pp says if she is happy to lay in the cot cooing at night is leave her be.

[silvija]

So I've managed to move the "long awake time" she was having from 1-3am back to 11pm-1am, then she has woke up at 5 to eat and then slept again until 9am. I'll keep working on her awake times...but she's so sleepy it's almost impossible at times to keep her up. I've even resorted to a bath mid day to try to wake her...which works for 10 mins and then back asleep.
I think I'm just doomed to never sleep again!

[nevinsmama]

Keep persisting, this shift could take time. I know it is all a bit much with so little sleep, but you will get there. Did you try any environmental changes in her room? It will be OK!

[silvija]

She will not fall asleep in her crib, ever. She just cried and cries. I've tried darkening the room, doesn't help.ive tried swaddling her. Hates it. So it ends up with her falling asleep in my arms, then me waiting 20 mins and then placing her in the crib. Sometimes she stays asleep, sometimes not. Then repeat the process. The problems arise (I think) because she sleeps so poorly in the mornings (because she keeps waking when I put her in the crib) that she just gets exhausted and then wants to sleep all afternoon, and it's so hard to wake her for any decent length of time to count as an A time.
This is so frustrating.
My first wouldn't sleep either, for months, until I heard about easy, and it worked like a charm.
I was really hoping it would help with my second, but she doesn't seem to agree with me

[silvija]

Oh and for the record, she's a crier. Tons of gas. Causes lots of issues. But it does not seem to be an issue when she's finally down for the night.
It's a major issue while trying to go down, either for naps or bedtime.

[nevinsmama]

OK, have you, by any chance had her checked out? Maybe there are other issues at play here and then she is just crashing for the night?

[Haribo2012]

Agree with maryn a visit to docs might be good to rule out any discomfort.