6 week old - Help needed!

[Sleepykaz]

DD2 was sleeping for 3-4 hour stretches at night (occasionally 5-7 hours) until a few days ago. She will now do an initial 2 hour stretch and then will wake happy and not hungry after each sleep cycle at about 45mins. With a bit of a cuddle she'll go back to sleep again for another 45mins.

She's 6 weeks old today and I'm aware there's a major developmental leap around now so I'm hoping this will resolve itself in a week or two. My only other thought is she has all her daytime naps in the sling because I have a 2 year old (have already posted about that!) so I'm wondering if she's getting too accustomed to the sling? I can't exactly wear her in the sling at night! She sleeps in a Sleepyhead which is supposed to mimic being held but this is obviously no substitute for my arms.

Also, when I'm toddler free I can get her to sleep out of the sling in her Sleepyhead where she would do a decent 2-3 hours, but we're getting the same 45min wake here too.

Any other ideas on what's going or tips to survive? Sleep deprivation is kicking in and my husband goes away for 5 days later this week so not sure how I'm going to manage a toddler and newborn on virtually no sleep

[anna*]

If she's happy do you need to do anything? If you just leave her will she not go back to sleep?

[Sleepykaz]

She doesn't wake up crying so I do leave her to see if she'll settle. After 10-15mins of snuffling and twitching she then starts crying which is when I pick her up and cuddle her back to sleep. I try to catch her before she wakes properly and place a firm hand on her chest but this has only worked once

[anna*]

Definitely no reflux or discomfort? It is unusual to me that she should be waking so frequently, even if there was a prop issue at play.

[Sleepykaz]

Good point! She is very windy as she gulps a lot of air when feeding (tongue ties been done twice) so it could be wind, but in the last couple of days I've been reading up on silent reflux and she does have a lot of the symptoms. She's having her 6 week check on Monday so was going to ask about it then. In the meantime I've got her sleepyhead propped up with a couple of towels just in case that is the problem

[Sleepykaz]

Ok so we've established that silent reflux is the problem. We switched her to an anti reflux milk on Sunday and there has been a huge improvement in her night time sleep, eg 3 hours then 2.5 hours then 1.5 hours. Not the 4-7 hour stretches we had before but much better than 45mins!

Still napping in the sling during the day which has made me think of another question - she tends to nap for about 3 hours in the sling and then is awake for about an hour, so is on a 4 hour EASY. Am I letting her sleep too long? Should I wake her after 1.5-2 hours? Would this help to establish that longer sleeps should be done at night?

[anna*]

I would be waking her up so that her feeds are 3 hrs apart. She may need just a touch more A time too, to sleep well at night: Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

[*Liz*]

I would try waking during the day as well - it sounds like she has a degree of day/night reversal now that the super sleepy phase has ended. 3hr naps often cause increased NWings, and a 4hrly EASY at this age will often mean night feeds for longer.

That said reflux babies often will only feed when they want to be fed - so try 2hr naps and a 3hrly EASY but if it doesn't work then feeding on demand is better.

Regarding propping the sleepyhead - I would suggest a wedge really. They are pretty cheap. The mattress in the sleepyhead is so thing that towels will likely just lift the head and not really provide either the slope you are after or a safe sleeping environment. Those bumpers round the edge really need a firm surface to keep them low and safe. My DS has reflux and is in a sleepyhead on a wedge and it works pretty well. At about 6/8 weeks he started waking constantly and slept most of the night on my chest gulping and gagging. Have you got medication for the reflux?

[Sleepykaz]

She's been given gaviscon for the reflux but it made her projectile vomit so we are staying on the anti reflux milk until her next appointment in a weeks time.

Will look into getting a wedge for the sleepyhead!

We've been having fun and games - as soon as I started thinking about capping her naps at 2 hours as suggested, the 40min nap monster arrived Her A time has increased to 75mins which I think is about right. If I remember right with her sister this is just a phase we need to ride out?

[Sleepykaz]

Oops posted too soon... Also, regardless of whether she has a good or bad nap day she always follows the same pattern each night:

- WU from last nap around 6pm
- BT 7:15/7:30
- Wakes up after 20-45mins, takes 20-30mins cuddling to resettle
- Asleep by 8:45-9
- 2 feeds at around 12/1 and 4/5
- Wakes 30-45mins after last feed, takes 20-30mins cuddling to resettle
- sleeps for a further 45mins

Is there anything I can do about the brief wakings after BT and the last night feed?

[anna*]

The nights sound pretty much right for her age tbh. At this age, many are cluster feeding in the evening before going down finally for the night, so you could try feeding her again at that first wake up. You never know, it MAY just push her next feed later so she might go to one NF (i wouldn't count on it though, but worth a try ). It could well just be some accumulated OT/OS from the day. The early morning she is probably 'trying' to EW and for what it's worth with my DD I did exactly the same as you but brought her into bed with me because at this stage sleep for you AND her is what is important. If you can cuddle or nurse her back to sleep at 5-6am, definitely do it.

[Sleepykaz]

As expected she woke 30mins after BT. Offered her milk but wasn't interested so it's not cluster feeding. And I won't get to see if she goes longer at night Ho hum!

[anna*]

Yeh probably just some accumulated OT/OS by the end of the day. She'll get past it.

[*Liz*]

I agree with Anna. It really is petty normal to get fussy evenings - my DD was dreadful for it - it started to settle down between 8-10 weeks.