Author Topic: HELP US PLEASE-won't fall asleep until 6am! night = day  (Read 1486 times)

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Offline GaliaF

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HELP US PLEASE-won't fall asleep until 6am! night = day
« on: September 12, 2005, 14:51:38 pm »
please help us,
my little david is now 6 wks old and 6 out of 7 nights will not fall asleep for the night until 4-6am, after about 10 hours of fussying/eating/overtired, then gets on easy from 6am until the evening when he has his bath. here's our schedule:
evening
18:00   18:30   fed   15min
18:30   21:00   slept   2.5hrs
21:00   21:30   fed   15min
21:30   23:00   bath, then fussy   
23:00   23:15   fed   10min
23:15   1:00   fussy   
1:00   1:15   fed   10
1:15   2:45   fussy   
2:45   3:00   fed   15
3:00   4:00   fussy   
4:00   7:20   slept   3.5hrs
7:20   8:00   fed   15

 Day         
7:20   8:00   fed   15min
8:00   10:20   slept   3hrs
10:20   11:00   fed   12min
11:00   13:15   slept   2.2hrs
13:15   13:45   fed   11min
13:45   14:45   slept   2hrs
14:45   16:00   walk/sleep   &awake
16:00   16:30   awake   pacifier
16:30   17:00   fed   L17
17:00   17:30   awake   
17:30   18:25   put to sleep- after zoning   pacifier&water music
18:25   19:25   light sleep/fussy   1 - overtired?

this is his schedule give our take two hours, but aside from night = day and vice versa, he may even be an angel baby, who knows?  we try gripe water at night also.  we calm him in our arms and sh/pat him to be, he wakes, we re-try, about 30 times until he is ready for his next feed.  he does this until he can't take anymore (3-5 cycles of 2 hrs) and then falls asleep on teh next feed, at around 4-6 am, then sleeps the day through.
please please help, i read her first book and nothing about changing night shifts to day shifts.
ah!
best,
galia

Offline Katet

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HELP US PLEASE-won't fall asleep until 6am! night = day
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2005, 00:27:26 am »
Galia
Does david sleep in your room? if so is it possible for him to sleep in another room, we found both our boys to be very noisy sleepers in the early days & Liam certainly slept better when moved out of our room.
He used to fuss from 2am & I actually realised, when I moved him to another room, that he fussed less & slept more... he was about 6wo at the time!

Secondly the only way I know to help you switch the night & day is to feed 2.5 hourly in the day & not let your lo sleep more than 1.5 hour at any day nap... when he starts toget drowsy during a feed, stop feeding let him wake up & then feed again... repeat, give no stimulation in the night... do you feed in a quiet room or is the TV on... I could feed my first in front of the TV, my second no way

Also if he is just fussing & not crying, I would be inclined to leave him to see if he can self settle... it may be his way of telling you "hey mum you are giving me too much stimulation when you try to help me... leave me alone"
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline GaliaF

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HELP US PLEASE-won't fall asleep until 6am! night = day
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2005, 16:49:05 pm »
ok, so this is where we are:
david is now in his own room which (i am assuming) he took to well, since his pattern hasn't changed.
the bad news is, his pattern hasn't changed!
he is still awake from 7pm-ish (after his evening nap) until 3-6am, depending how "lucky" we are.
he is alert and calm until about 2am, when he gets tired and then it takes him anywhere from 1-4 hours to get to sleep.
during those hours, we pat him to be calm/sleep in our arms, put him in his bassinet, and then he wakes 10-15 min later.  he repeats this utnil he is so tired he can't fight anymore, then sleeps from let's say 5am until 2pm , waking a few times to eat in the middle.
he is 8 weeks now and i don't know how much more i can take, it gets so depressing at night!
please advise.

Offline Katet

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HELP US PLEASE-won't fall asleep until 6am! night = day
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2005, 23:19:59 pm »
It sounds like he really has got his night day confused.
Looks like he is feeding every 3 hours which is about right.
So this is how I think you might be able to switch it around, but it will proabably take a couple of weeks & I think it could be quite exhausting... although sounds like it is already!

these times are approximate +/- 1/2 hour is fine

7am wake & feed... keep up until at least 8am... give bath, tummy time, anything that can keep him awake. If he starts to fall asleep feeding stop feeding, stimulate him & start trying to feed again. The key is to keep him awake the whole hour if not a little more...
8am - sleep  - start to wake him up at 9.45 if not already awake
even though he has not slept at night, he needs wake time in the day if he is ever to sleep properly at night, if you give in anf let him sleep longer than 1.5 hours in the day time, you will basically be encouraging the awake time at night

10am feed repeat as in 7am
11am as per 8am
1pm as per 7am
2pm as per 8am
4pm as per 7am
5pm as per 8am
7pm as per 7am
8pm as per 8am

Then for night time, try to keep him in his room don't talk except in whispers, no lights & keep him in bed as much as possible.  I'd also try to not feed him if you can between say 10/11pm & 4am/5am, so he also starts to learn that feeding doesn't hapeen at night.

I won't say this will be easy, it won't it will be very hard work, so maybe don't start right at 7am, but the 10am feed for the first few days. You are probably going to have to work hard at keeping him awake & there may be quite a lot of crying.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05