6 Week Old - Three Sleep Questions - Please Help

[Mom to M&M]

Hi there - new poster here. I have a few sleep related questions about my 6-week old Marisa.

1. She has a hard time with the pacifier. She wants to suck and will take it sometimes but can't seem to quite figure out how to keep it in there/what to do. You can tell she would prefer her fingers but can't find them except once in a while by luck. I've tried different pacifiers - any suggestions? When she does suck it does help calm her for naps.

2. She hates being swaddled. We can sometimes get away with it at night when she is very relaxed and sleepy and it's dark. But not always. And during the day it never seems to work. In general, she resists being swaddled and it gets her worked up and then hard to calm down. But she does flail during her naps (strangely not much at night) and it often wakes her. Anything besides swaddling that would help or any swaddling advice?

3. If she wakes up 30 minutes or so early from a nap and wont' fall back asleep but isn't ready/isn't time to eat yet - what should I do to keep her calm before her next bottle but not overstimulate her before her bottle and next awake time?

Thanks all!

[Kherzy]

My daughter is 7 1/2 weeks.  Since she was born she has tried to keep her hands in her mouth to suck.  But of course, she doesn't have that much control.  I only give her the paci after she has started trying to suck on her hand and can't keep it in.  She will cry and refuse to take the paci until she is ready.  To calm her I hold her in the crook of my arm and pat her in the middle of the back while loudly "shhh"ing her.  She will calm the crying and begin to try to suck her hand, at this point I give her the paci (sometimes it takes a minute for her to calm enough to take it)and then she calms the rest of the way.  If I offer it before she shows she needs to suck she refuses it.  If I don't offer it after she has tried to suck her hands she gets overworked.  I bought several different paci's before I found one she kind of liked and kept with it until she preferred it.  She hates the orthodontic type, the one she has is shaped similar to a balloon as it kind of turns into a big fat round ball toward the tip. It might be a nuk or gerber paci, can't remember.  It has a round base with 3 circles and the girl ones are purple with a pink handle.
I use the paci only to help calm for sleeping, unfortunately she now needs it to go to sleep.  I hope that once she can keep her hands in her mouth she will use that instead and can be weaned from the paci. 

About swaddling, I have found that she likes to be swaddled, just as long as her hands are near her mouth.  I keep her arms swaddled so they can't flail about and then when I put her to sleep (on her side) her hands are right there by her face and help keep the paci in until she is ready to spit it out.  She fights having her hands arms and hands swaddled in the blanket so I let them stay at the top where she wants them.

As far as naps go, I am still clueless.  My daughter has paci issues at naptime.  She will catnap and lose the paci 2-3 times before either falling asleep completely for about 3 hours, or waking up completely and not acting tired anymore.  I've let it slide because once she is down for the night after putting the paci back in 2-3 times she sleeps all night (for the most part at least).  To keep her calm I guess I would just give her a good snuggle or try the bouncer or swing for a few minutes, maybe sing to her or just gaze in her eyes.  My daughter doesn't usually cry if she's not hungry or tired, but she seems to always be one of those   If she was crying I'd probably reevaluate feeding times make sure I'm giving her enough formula at the right times.  I heard somewhere they go through a growth spurt at 6 weeks so maybe she needs a little extra to keep her happy.
Good luck to you.  Any advice you can offer me, especially about naptimes, would be greatly appreciated!
Kate

[Mom to M&M]

Hi Kate. Thanks for the info. As for naptimes, I've had luck with using either the Dreamscapes soother or the Fisher Price Flutterbyes soother - sometimes I use one for a day sometimes I alternate with naps depending which seems to hold her interest. If I'm lucky, and catch her early and calm enough, she will often watch/listen until she falls asleep. Some days are better than others - yesterday was rough. She also seems to have a worsening case of reflux - so we are going to see the doctor about that next week. For instance, she was just now calmly watching soother and probably dozing off but had decent spit up (1 1/4 hour after eating) which of course upset her.

Like yours, Marisa sleeps better at night - naps are hit or miss.

I'll have to try that with the swaddling - leaving her hands up near her mouth instead of all the way down.

[DJDG's mom]

Hi there!
My 5 1/2 month old had colic and the best way to calm him down was either holding him face down in the crook of my arm or put him in his chair and turn the hair dryer on. It may sound wierd but the hair dryer always worked and sometimes put him to sleep.
As for the spit up, my  LO always spit up tons, I would get so paranoid. But it turns out that he does not have reflux, he would just drink too fast so I would have to burp him every 5 minutes. Also, if your LO spits up a lot a few hours after eating it could be that her last feeding there was an air bubble so all her meal just sat on top of the air bubble until the bubble burst and up comes her last meal!
Anyways, disregard what I said if she was actually diagnosed as having reflux.
Good luck to you!