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Author Topic: What do I do with a 2 week old?  (Read 1234 times)

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Offline Millie2

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What do I do with a 2 week old?
« on: November 30, 2006, 01:01:57 am »
My baby boy is two weeks old today and I just don't know what to do with him!  He is a very sleepy baby and would sleep ALL day if I let him.  But of course I don't as then he would be awake ALL night!  Instead I wake him three hourly when I'll feed him, change him and then try to keep him awake for a little while but usually I fail and he falls asleep again immediately!  Unfortunately the little rat wakes three hourly on the dot ALL night and stays awake for a good 1 to 1.5 hours before going to sleep again.  Its driving me nuts!!!  I have a toddler to care for during the day so its not easy to catch up on my sleep when he's asleep and I certainly can't change her behaviour so she wakes at night and sleeps all day too!  I've spent the last two weeks trying to get him to swap his day and night behaviours but its just not working.  He WILL not stay awake during the day.  How do I get this little monkey on to EASY when he won't stay awake?

He is so much the opposite of my daughter.  She NEVER slept day or night so we had the opposite problem but getting her onto EASY was much simpler once we taught her to put herself to sleep.  How do you teach them to stay awake?!
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Offline rebecaq

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Re: What do I do with a 2 week old?
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2006, 02:03:18 am »
Hi there and {{{HUGS}}} for going through a tough time.

Remember that ds is only 2 weeks old and is still thinking he is inside the womb, where they mostly slept during the day while you moved around and had a rocking effect on him and kicked and turned during the night while you slept and laid still.  Babies don't know that night is for sleeping and day isn't. Especially a baby this young.  It's our place as mommies to teach them that. Unfortunately a baby so young will sleep 20 hours out of th 24 and won't really "get" a routine.  They start doing that after 6 weeks of age. 

My ds also had night switched for day, and my what worked for us was to keep the lights off when he woke. We had a night light in the bathroom so I could see barely enough so as to not fall on my face. I would do everything very slowly, not make eye contact or speak out loud.  I wanted to send the message that we don't interact at night. During the day I wouldn't force him to be awake, newborns need their sleep too much. I would take advatage of diaper changes and feeds to keep him up even if it was for 5 mins longer.

I'm sure your "little rat" will make the switch, he just needs a little guidance.

Let me know how you get on

- Beca
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Offline *Mona*

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Re: What do I do with a 2 week old?
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2006, 08:36:56 am »
hi

I totally agree with Beca on this one. my dd spent almost her entire first month sleeping and not showing much of activity signs except for nursing and when she had her diaper change.

IMO- relax and enjoy! it won't last forever! ;D
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Offline Samuel's mum

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Re: What do I do with a 2 week old?
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2006, 08:57:56 am »
I agree.
If you are breastfeeding you might find this helpful:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64627.0
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Offline Layla

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Re: What do I do with a 2 week old?
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2006, 09:23:51 am »
Hi there and congratulations on your lo. Two weeks is still newborn phase and they only start distinguishing b/n day and night at around 6 weeks. Its still very early days and at 2 weeks, the most activity we had was a feed, nappy change and maybe 5-10 mins of playing (well me talking to her). She would pretty much show tired signs almost immediately after that. I breastfed and she fell asleep at the breast every single time. Its all normal newborn behaviour. Everything will fall into place with time. TBH, I didn't start bothering with EASY until she was after 3 months (and I am not saying you should do that  ;D) but I had a toddler to take care of and it was too much at the start for me.

Good luck
Layla
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Offline * Paula *

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Re: What do I do with a 2 week old?
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2006, 20:29:46 pm »
I definitely agree.

At this age, you cannot keep them up for very long and they are so tiny, and basically just eat and sleep.  I would definitely try to keep him awake for his feed and nappy change, and even if you have a quiet song together before putting him back to sleep - just to have a small amount of A time before he goes to sleep and also to put him down when he is awake.

We too did not make any eye contact or talk when it was a night feed and this taught him that it was time to sleep.  We also kept the room totally dark, and this did help a lot.

Hang in there, things will get better as your DS gets a little older.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

Paula x
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Offline Millie2

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Re: What do I do with a 2 week old?
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2006, 23:01:04 pm »
Thanks everyone for making me see sense!  I think I've been expecting too much of him and myself.  I didn't "find" EASY until my daughter was 4-6 weeks old and our lives changed so dramatically after we got into it that I had re-read two of the books about four times each during my pregnancy so I wanted to start immediately.  But it just didn't seem to work since he is such a sleepy little man and then I found myself getting frustrated that my efforts weren't paying off!  I think I'm just going to go with the flow for the next couple of weeks and then start again.  He'll be four weeks old and hopefully by the time he's six weeks things will be settled and we'll have ourselves a routine! 
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Offline *Mona*

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Re: What do I do with a 2 week old?
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2006, 08:46:34 am »
that's the best approach you can have- go with the flow for now and don't expect too much from both of you. take it easy and relax. I'm sure you'll notice when he's ready to start him on a routine :)

please keep us posted how things are for you :)
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