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ADVICE - 6 week old sleeping (or not!) and crying

..... so George is 6 weeks old today, and I am after some advice from some of you far more experienced Mummies out there !!

We have had "issues" with George sleeping from Day One, and at 3 weeks he was diagnosed with Reflux, which has made him extremely clingy and unsettled. He is on medication for it now, and things have improved (he is not bringing all his bottles back now), but the clingyness has continued. Night times were not so much of an issue, but in the days he would only sleep on us, which meant I could get nothing done. This week, I got fed up of this, and have gradually managed to get him back into his moses basket in the day. I have to say that the only way I have managed to do this is by using his dummy A LOT, and I am still not convinced he is getting proper sleep in there.

So, first question is how much sleep should he be having during the day? He seems to want to sleep A LOT of the time, and I know he is genuinely tired as he yawns like mad, and rubs his eyes and ears.

We have no real soutine in the day at the moment, partly due to the sleep issues we have been having, and also because he seems to cry A LOT of the time. There are brief times in the day when he will happily kick about with me on the changing mat, but apart from that, when he is not asleep or with a bottle in his mouth, I swear he cries all of the time - I am sure I must be doing something wrong. I am worried I am not doing enough to occupy him in the day?

Our typical day will consist of the following:

5am - He wakes for a bottle, so feed and change him
6am - Try to put him down in his moses basket, but 9 times out of 10 he will cry and refuse to go back down. Normally I will hold him with me in bed, and if I am lucky, I can get him back into a deep enought sleep to settle him down, again, with the help of a dummy!
8am - We go downstairs and feed and change him - I will talk to him, and let him have a kick about on his changing mat - he has just started to smile back at me, and will quite happily lie and gurgle there for half an hour. By the time I have fed, changed, burped him, and let him have a kick about/some tummy time - it will usually be about an hour or so later.
9am - He will go down for a sleep as he is tired - and normally will go for 3 hours, until he wakes for another feed.
12pm - Feed and change him, let him have a kick about on his mat and I do some baby massage with him. If he is not looking like he is tired, I will either read to him or we will go for a walk around the house, he likes to look at the light through the window and bright, shiny objects. By the time I have done this, it could be an hour to an hour and a half later, so he will go back down for a sleep,
3pm - Feed and change him, let him have a kick about/some tummy time. If it's nice, we will then go out for a walk in the pram for an hour or so. Sometimes he will go to sleep in his pram, other times, he just cries the whole time! When we get back, he sleeps until his next feed at around 6pm
6pm - Feed and change him, let him have kick about - and we will put him in his bouncy chair or swing if he does not cry too much for a while, He will also normally have a cuddle with his Daddy around now as he hasn't seem him all day. I have to admit that quite often we will cuddle him all night until he has his bath, as he seems to sleep so much better when he sleeps on us
9pm - Feed and change him
10pm - Bath, change, bottle (top up after the last feed) and then bed.

He will then go every 3 hours (ish ) through the night, but will wake up again anywhere around 5ish, and the cycle continues.

I just worry that he is sleeping too much, and I am not doing enough to occupy him. At the same time, if I try and do too much with him, he really cries and I think it is because he is getting frustrated/tired and over stimulated. Any suggestions very welcome!!!

We are heavily relying on his dummy at the moment, particularly to get him to sleep in the day, and to stop him crying, as he seems to cry a lot, seemingly for no reason (he is fed, changed and burped etc).

At night, we have had a routine in place from when we got home from hospital. This is basically bath, bottle and then bed - and he seems to settle very well and go off to sleep. We start the routine at 10pm, and after that, he wakes for a bottle anywhere from betwen 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours, we are still feeding him on demand, so each night can be slightly different.

One problem we are having at the moment is that he is waking up after his last bottle at night, being changed and fed, and then refusing to settle. This can be anywhere between 4-6am, depending on when he wakes during the night. We thought it was because the room was too light as the sun came up in the morning, so we bought blackout curtains, but nothing has changed, We don't do anything differently for this last bottle, but he still won't go back to sleep - any suggestions (I am a little worried that he is getting too much sleep during the day - but I was always told that a baby his age will sleep when they need to, and not to wake a sleeping baby?)

HELP!!! Any suggestions welcome, as we seem to have a very unhappy little man at the moment, I just wish the crying would get less and I could enjoy my little man!

xxx

Replies

  • oh hun, newborns are hard work aren't they? Not sure I can help, but I didn't want to R&R. I'll share my 'story' with you.

    ds1 was born nov 07 and was a VERY sleepy baby. He slept most of the 1st month I even had to wake him for feeds. After that he was about 4/5 months old when he would stay awake for more than 1 hour at a time. He still loves his sleep now and would nap for hours during the day if I let him. He has slept through since 8 weeks old.

    Ds2 is 10m on sunday and he was SO different. He was wide awake from birth and rarely slept, he would either eat or cry. This went on until 16w when he suddenly started sleeping a bit better at night, his naps gradually changed and he now sleeps more during the day than he did as a newborn. I couldn't do anything with him and found him so stressful. (sorry not much help) He didn't have anything wrong with him...... He did enjoy being cuddled, so I found myself carrying him around a lot. Weaning also made A HUGE difference to him and once he was one 3 meals a day he settled. (I know that's a while off yet)

    Sorry not been much help, but you're dong a fab job and he will come through it. Oh just to sasy mine have been over 6m when I've started to wake them from naps.

    Good luck

    xxx
  • Aah your day sounds lovely! That all sounds just right to me and I'm sure your baby is as happy as he can be... sometimes it's nothing we're doing they're just having a funny time of things. I can't see where the crying is so bit difficult to work it out. I wouldn't bother with much stimulation, looking around the house is probably enough
  • You sound like you're doing a great job, and can't see anything wrong. 6 weeks is still so early - for me it wasn't until the 3/4 month mark that any hint of a pattern in sleep and feeding occurred. I agree with dollywotsit that he doesn't need more stimulation - looking at lights and being read to are both enough. Hope you get some more sleep soon and he starts not minding sleeping on his own in the day - my LO only napped properly in his cot from around 5 months.
    I'm sure others will have some constructive advice for you, but for now, try to relax and enjoy your tiny baby. x
  • Hiya - sounds just like my experince during the first couple of months...! It may be that he is suffering from Reflux pain still - it doesn't only involve being sick. My LO had reflux from birth but was only diagnosed at 3 months - couldn;t understand why she cried all day but I do now. He does seem to sleep quite a lot during the day but I honestly can't remember how much they need at that age. Sorry if not been much help but sympathise totally. S XX
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