6 week old fights / refuses 4th sleep (and often misses first sleep!)

[AbbG]

Hi,

My DS2 turns 6 weeks tomorrow. He's generally quite a cruiser little boy (kinda has to be with a 2.5 year ols brother who like to go to the part most days!).

He is capable of self settling, but at 6 weeks it's still a bit hit or miss... Sometimes he self settles, sometimes we pat him to sleep (after seeing if he will self settle), and from time to time he is rocked to sleep / sleeps in our arms (when he is massively over tired and really needs sleep!).

In the morning he wakes about 6.30 - when big brother wakes, and I'll put him down around 1 hour later for his sleep. this sleep is a funny one as he has had no sleep, 20 minutes and 40 minutes for this sleep in the past week - doesn't help that he often does a bit of a spew in bed and by the time we realise we've missed that window.

Generally he'll have 1-1.5 hours in his second sleep, and then 1-2 hours in the third sleep (and generally when it's 2 hours I wake him at this point for a feed (maybe I shouldn't do this, I worry about him having his big sleep during the day... It's definitely not about the feed as he's gaining weight really well).

Then we get to the fourth sleep. He hasn't had this sleep since Saturday (so has missed 5 days now). I generally put him down around 1 hour after waking (or when he gets extra sooky and/or yawny), try to pat him to sleep and he may close his eyes but they'll be open again within seconds, same if I rock him to sleep.

His wake times from nap 3 are below
Sunday 16.00
Monday 16.45
Tuesday 15.40 (rocked to sleep and held him 6-6.30 to ensure sleep)
Wednesday 16.45
Thursday 16.05

I tend to BF him at around 6.40pm (give or take) and put him down right after his feed and a good burping. From memory hubby patted him to sleep most of Sunday to weds (mostly so that he is asleep ASAP) tonight I rocked him to relax him and patted a little then he put himself off to sleep.

Since refusing this sleep he has moved to 2 wake ups per night (first one generally being from 1-2 am, second 3-4 hours later).... So I don't think this is impacting his night sleep!

Hubby is back to work next week so this awake time may be tricky with trying to bet DS 1 fed and into bed - and to me, this is too much awake time... Although weirdly this isn't impacting night sleep (at this stage, anyway!). Also, as hubby is back at work DS2 will need to come along for daycare drop offs - my plan is to do morning drop off after sleep 1, but pickup would be between nap 3 and trying for nap 4.

What do you think?
I guess I'll just keep putting him down and hoping for the best one of these nights - one thing I know from DS 1 is that baby sleep constantly changes, so hopefully this will sort itself out (before 4 months as I couldn't stand another massive 4 month sleep regression, DS1's regression nearly killed me - that was when I first found the BW forums!).

Pls let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks so much!

[Kellyjs]

Welcome back! 

Sounds like you know your stuff hun. And that you're doing really well. I wonder if that first A is just a tiny bit too short for him now and he could do with a little increase of 10mins? Wdyt? Xx

Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

[AbbG]

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

I've got the A times bookmarked and refer to regularly, they were awesome to refer to from when my son was 4 months (when I found these forums). Of course, at 6 weeks DS doesn't go right to sleep when I put him down, it generally takes 15-20 minutes for him to self settle, and after 20ish minutes if he is not asleep I will pat him to sleep (so he generally takes in the 1 hour 15 mins awake time).
Both morning and arvo sleeps seem like a whole other ball game... 50 minutes, 1 hour, 1 hour 15 etc... None really seem to work!

What I do know is that 2 sleeps simply isn't enough for a 6 week old!!

Thanks!

[Kellyjs]

It is a case of going with the flow a little when they're this young hun. I do know many swear by a sling with a second bubba so as to ensure a good nap or two. In either case, you're doing everything right. Do watch out for cues at this age and that's all I can recommend really. It's when they get a little bit older as you say, that we can tweak things a little bit and work on extending naps and ss etc xx

[lily_layne]

My DD missed a lot of naps and in hindsight, I should have done more APing instead of worrying about independent sleep. DS got nursed to sleep, rocked to sleep and had lots of stroller, swing and sling naps and it didn't hurt his ability to self settle when he got a few months older.