SLEEPING HELP!!!

[julie_moran]

Hi, i have a 3 week old daughter when she first came home she fed and slept for 3 hours, then we had a night where she would only take an ounze and half and then sleep for 1.5 hours.  Then we tried the EASY routine and mainly through the day she has at least 15 mins wake time after every feed but when we came to do the Bath, Bottle, Bed routine we put her down tried to give the dream feed which she was having non of then woke and stayed wide awake until the early hours and for the last couple of nights has done this.  Is usually wide awake from 10 til midnight but then last night did the i'm only taking an ounze and half and only sleeping for 1.5 hours.

Am i doing something wrong or am i expecting too much?!?!?! :?

[julie_moran]

Hi me again, i'm new to this site and have just been reading other threads.

Like i stated above my baby is 3 weeks old today at the moment our "routine" as such is feed, play (15 mins)/change nappy, put her down to sleep then in the night when she wakes we feed her in silence and put her down unless we can smell her!

Are we giving her too much sleep!?!?

I'm getting really confused now!

[JennŠ]

At that age, mine did 1.5/2oz every 2 hours around the clock.  She would finish the bottle, and within minutes start to yawn.  Tiny tummies can't hold much and little people can't stay awake too long.  It can take a while to get the hang of th DF, keep trying for a bit.  Is it possible that the bath got her too stimulated?  That can easily be tweaked by trying it at a different time. It sounds like you are doing fine otherwise.  Remember to get some sleep yourselves!  A lot of the first 2 months are a blur to me now because of her sleep/eat cycle was so short.  Maybe a good thing? :lol:

[Aarismom]

Nope, you've got it right. Your lo is only 3 weeks old, so her day is working itself out slowly.

The first 6 weeks you mainly just go with the flow as much as possible...you may need to use props. The reason for this is that night sleep doesn't really start to work the kinks out until 6-8 weeks. And your day "schedule" is basicily lead by your lo, and is different day to day.

So until then, keep night and day distinct by keeping night feedings quiet, low light, not a lot of talk, as little stimulation as possible. Feed and return her immediately to bed. Do the opposite for day time, but keep activity low key, just use a really loose EASY routine. Use a lot of light; wake your lo after a nap by opening the blinds, letting natural light in.

At 6-8 weeks, you'll probably notice your lo is sleeping a little longer at night...maybe by an hour or 2 between feedings. This is when you can really start to set up a routine, keeping in mind that not every day is going to be totally predictable for a while, and understanding that sometimes you just have to go with the flow of things, even if it doesn't follow the EASY routine to the letter. You still have to go with your lo's cues, but you can really start sleep training (pat/shh), again keeping in mind that it's going to be a rocky start for a few days until it really sinks in. Over the next few weeks you can start to create a bedtime...my advice is to slowly move it back to between 6 and 8 pm over several weeks, but some lo's go to bed a little later. When your lo gets into a routine of waking at around a specific time every morning to start her day (sometime after 6 am), you can use that as your anchor throughout the day to determine when things happen, such as bedtime.

Personally I believe babies this age can never get too much sleep. As they get older you can start regulating how much day sleep they get a little, but a lot of moms stick with the old addage, "Never wake a sleeping baby", and it works well. Others wake them after they've taken 1.5-2 hour naps. You'll have to do what's right for your lo.

Hope this helps!! Keep in touch, let us know if you run into any more walls.

*HUGS*
Sonya =P